A council has gone on record saying it’s trying to stop a rogue landlord from letting out any property anywhere, ever again.
In November 2019 Latif Rehman, of Brierley Hill in the Midlands, was fined a total of £151,070 by Wolverhampton Magistrates Court for three breaches of an Emergency Prohibition Order served in relation to a house of multiple occupation.
Rehman went on to appeal the conviction and maintained his not guilty plea, but the conviction was recently upheld by Dudley Magistrates.
Rehman’s original fine was reduced to £10,000 for each offence and he was ordered to pay £2,250 in costs and £170 victim surcharge, a total £32,420. A collection order was served.
Dudley council officers originally inspected the three storey, property following a complaint from one of the tenants in February 2019.
Officers found numerous hazards related to fire and electrical safety as well as risk of entry by intruders and deemed it posed an imminent risk to the safety of its tenants.
A re-inspection in April the same year found that insufficient works had been carried out to rectify the problems. Fire doors still failed to comply with regulations, access to the property was not properly controlled and damp was still present in one of the properties.
Councillor Laura Taylor, Dudley cabinet member for housing and community services, says: “The evidence against Rehman clearly demonstrates he failed in his duty as a landlord and his lack of action put people at risk.
“Our action doesn’t stop here. Now the conviction has been upheld we will be applying for an order to prevent him from being a landlord anywhere again.”
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What happens when a company director is banned ? he makes a family member a director and carries on, a rogue landlord will do just the same.
Great idea but as Andrew says it won't work in practice.
Why don't they suggest a similar scheme for rogue tenants, although this would fail for the same reasons.
Yet another example of how out of touch our overpaid underworked public sector employees are with the real world!
Rouge Councils is another issue. Most not fit for purpose and really poor value for money for those who suffer the spiralling costs they just impose on council tax payers. I don’t believe in so called rouge landlords getting away with poor standards but some of these poor performing individuals in local authorities need to look in the mirror.
Fully agree. Maybe they need to review the recent ITV reports. Croydon Council stock was appalling - if that had been a private landlord, they would have ended up in court for sure
Rogue
This is exactly how things are done...
Tenant all powerful free legal Service. Tenant complains about LL’s. Council and the might of the Establishment Jumps into action immediately. Who have LL free to help or defend him, sorry no defence allowed by Law pay straight away before it doubles or quadruples. What this lady in Dudley Council has done is tantamount to confiscation, this is abuse of her position and not impartial perhaps she should resign or be sacked as she intends to continue in this vain, if we are not equal before the Law where does that leave the justice system. A Property in Dudley could be bought for this huge fine. I seen a modern 4 bed Detached for £300k.
Because councils are so efficient and competent .. hang on
I have taken Dudley council to court. Never have u seen such a bunch of time wasters in all your life. Even the court mediator was left fuming after his encounter with them. Roll on small claims court. All I say is fix your potholes before you come looking at my houses.
What I struggle to understand is if the property is so bad why do the tenants stay there? There is no shortage of property in Dudley I operate hmos in the Dudley area and and I usually always have vacancies.
I agree there is so much wrong with the system the councils over police the good landlords. I spent months arguing the technicalities of licensing with Dudley . The so-called rogue landlords are often not that bad when you examine the details of the faults they can often be no more then failing to comply with a recommendation on the EICR or a fire door that does not close properly both of which have little value on a risk cost basis and often most of the faults are down to tenant misuse. Unfortunately many old style landlords do not realise near enough does not comply with the new regime we have to work under, the works have to be to the councils satisfaction. Usually the council's are more than fair and give the landlord months to fix the problems they identify but it appears in this case is only given 2 months hardly reasonable.
I very much doubt that Dudley Council would get someone out to repair a council house within two months off a reported fault is probably take over a year
Jim haliburton HMO daddy
Exactly if a property is that bad why don't tenants move on ? because generally they are the kind of tenants that no other landlord would rent to.
I don't know about Dudley Council, but Norwich Council take months, even years in some cases to remedy faults in their housing stock.
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