A landlord who failed to licence his properties has been ordered to pay back over £8,000 in rent.
Dexter Blackstock, a former professional footballer, has been told he has to refund £8,592.98 in housing benefit that he was paid for two unlicensed properties.
Blackstock was previously convicted of nine offences of failing to licence properties under Nottingham council's Selective Licensing scheme and failing to licence two properties under the Additional Licensing scheme, plus one other offence under the Mandatory Licensing scheme. He was fined £24,000, £1,100 costs and a victim surcharge of £170 by the court in October 2019.
Following the prosecution, Nottingham council applied for a Rent Repayment Order for two properties where Housing Benefits had been paid during the period the properties were unlicensed. The First-tier Property Chamber (Residential Property) has now made a decision to make a Rent Repayment Order of £8,592.98.
A Rent Repayment Orders is where a tenant or local authority can ask a landlord for up to 12 months of Rent, Housing Benefit, or Universal Credit to be repaid after a landlord has been convicted of the offence of operating a licensed property without a licence.
Councillor Linda Woodings of Nottingham council says: “This has been a long and complex case for our Safer Housing team, from investigations to prosecution and finishing with this great result on the Rent Repayment Order.
“Housing Benefit is paid out from the council to support residents in paying their rent. Following this conviction, we had to recuperate the money that Mr Blackstock was not entitled to. This could have all been avoided if Mr Blackstock licensed his properties or engaged and worked with us. However, when this doesn’t happen we will always take the strongest action possible to help improve the standards of rented properties.”
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Footballers seem too thick to follow rules. How do they cope with the offside rule?
I think its unfortunate he was done under all 3 Schemes that I have been banging on about if they don't get you with one they get you with the other. Its a total abuse of power to coax a LL to take Tenants on Benefit then turn around and Claw the Rent back (Paul warned us about that) in affect free housing by Private LL. Council breach of Contract they were paying out the money for the Property so the know about the Property that they were paying for why didn't they inspect it and tell the LL it wasn't suitable and not take it, so they Rent Property not fit for purpose and then look for their money back, disgraceful behavior.
Where is Paul these days?
Landlords must know by now to keep to well clear of Alfred Place and avoid it at all costs, it might be a bit like Deposit Schemes its is always going to be slanted towards the Tenant, 3 behind the desk, a lay person, a Legal person and the one that matters in the middle very often an ex-Council employee.
The Council would now like LL's to help house the Homeless that I have the greatest sympathy for but how can this be done after doing their best to destroy us, push us under a Bus then look for our help.
Realistically the courts have a massive massive backlog and it’s going to take even longer than normal due to social distancing and restrictions.
The eviction ban has been extended again and again ever since the first time it was extended. The word on the street is that it’s going to be extended right up to May the 4th when it will be called breathing space. This will be an indefinite eviction ban for those who qualify.
for those LLs who do actually get to the front of the backlog, the courts are looking for anything to throw it out of court and you have to go to the back of the line. Even if everything was correct in the application.
the real elephant in the room is the problem is what will happen to all these tenants who are losing their jobs/incomes and mental health and can’t pay rent anymore?
where will they all go?
there are plenty of empty properties around but the asking prices are too high for universal credit? Rents will have to fall down to meet this new normal
the other thing is councils are telling telling tenants to stay in the homes until actually evicted by bailiffs and there is a backlog waiting list here too
then the fact is that if it gets to bailiff turning up at the door all the tenant has to do is say they are shielding due to symptoms and the eviction is called off and you are back to square one
they are not allowed to go anywhere near a suspected Covid case and no way allowed to evict them......
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