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Written by rosalind renshaw

A ‘slum’ landlord is set to be the first in the country to be banned, via the conditions on an ASBO, from letting his homes out to vulnerable tenants – namely people on benefits.

David McCabe, 57, a landlord for 30 years, has been fined £28,000 for 28 counts of breaching housing regulations and failing to clean up two of his properties.

Plymouth Magistrates Court heard that he had rented out rotting homes and bedsits full of rubbish to vulnerable people. There were inadequate fire alarms and back gardens were full of clutter. He supplies only the most basic furniture and sometimes not even beds. His tenants were people on benefits, including those with alcohol problems.  

Plymouth City Council is launching a pioneering legal application for an Anti-Social Behaviour Order to stop him renting rooms to anyone on housing benefit. The application is due to be heard next month. If it is granted, McCabe will be the second landlord to be given an ASBO: in January 2011, Catherine Boyle, a landlord in Camden, was given an ASBO which stops her from entering her tenant's homes without their permission.

Speaking in court in the latest case, council lawyer Helen Morris said the two houses owned by McCabe were “in a state of Dickensian squalor”.

She said: “They did not meet modern housing standards. These are vulnerable tenants on very limited means.

“The council tried to work with him for many years and he is brought before court as a last resort.”

McCabe denied two allegations of failing to comply with improvement notices from the city council ordering him to carry out work at the homes and 26 other charges. He accused council officers of enlarging photographs of damage and dirt to make them seem worse, and blamed some of the problems on tenants doing their own makeshift repairs or deliberately causing damage.

But magistrates found him guilty on all 28 counts and he was fined £1,000 for each. He must also pay £4,500 towards the council’s costs. The council is to apply for the ASBO next month.

For photographs and a full report from the Daily Mail, follow the link:

https://tinyurl.com/c5d7kr9

Comments

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    I guess the landlord must have spent a lot of his time collecting 'clutter' and dumping it over the fence into the back gardens -not to mention threatening his tenants with eviction if they ever tried to clean the kitchens and bathrooms. And his tenants must have alcohol problems because he's driven them to drink by only providing them with 'Basic' furniture! bastard!
    Still, on the bright side- the council have done pretty nicely out of it, and he can now start letting to those who are not 'vulnerable' and on 'very limited means' and who might actually pay him rent rather than spending their housing benefit on booze. Every cloud...
    ( oh, and in my experience, the lack of certain items of furniture such as beds is often explained by the presence of ' clutter in the back garden' as being the remains of the aforementioned .This practice of destruction and relocation- but only as far as the garden- seems unique to the 'vulnerable' tenant, as does the habit of destroying plug sockets and fire alarms. Ive had properties left in this state and worse by tenants who have finally left owing months of arrears and it is heart breaking and costs thousands to put right. The only reason I wasn't ASBO'd was because the council put the tenants in there in the first place and they were VERY particular about the property when they took it on- fortunately documenting the state of repair/condition of everything at the start of the tenancy. They conceded that I could keep the deposits but then tried to claim back 'overpayment of housing benefit' even though one of the tenants had not paid me any rent for months! Never again..)

    • 14 December 2012 09:59 AM
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