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He Can’t Get No Satisfaction - Stones promoter must repay tenants

A one-time promoter of The Rolling Stones was so busy on the road that he forgot to get an HMO licence - and has now been obliged to repay tenants some £11,700 in rent.

Robert Hallet, who has worked with other A-list musicians including Justin Bieber, told a First Tier Property Tribunal that he was initially unaware of the need for a licence in 2019, and had not been informed of the need by his managing agent. 

Specifically, the Tribunal was told that Hallet was not a professional landlord, had a busy international career as a music promoter travelling extensively without using a permanent base, and in any case had for 15 years employed the NorthWest6 agency in Kilburn, London, to look after the property in question.

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Hallet told the Tribunal that he worked with well-known bands and was, in his own words, “a global touring expert.” 

In 2019, when the absence of a licence came to light, he had been on the road for two and a half months straight with 22 stage shows, and did not return to the UK until September of that year. He was unaware that the property had been “turned into an HMO” having previously let the premises to non-sharers.

But three of his tenants contacted Brent council in March 2020 about their landlord’s alleged failure to repair a shower and also reported that the house was unlicensed.

 

 

Hallet says he applied for a licence as soon as he was made aware of its need but the Tribunal this month found that his relationship with the managing agency was patchy and that Hallet himself had assumed day to day management of the property at the time the property was unlicensed.

It made a Rent Repayment Order totalling £11,712 with £300 costs.

You can see details of the whole case here.

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

  • George Dawes

    I suppose his tenants asked him to gimme shelter

  • John  Adams

    I don't see why rent should be repaid to the tenants because he didn't have an HMO licence, a fine to the Council but they weren't evicted or suffered because of it. Yes he failed to fix the shower but £11k? Totally disproportionate.

  • icon

    Completely agree with John Adams. There is nowhere else in law that I can think of where the punishment is so disproportionate. A fine to the Council and a segment of the rent paid back to the tenant.
    I guess the aim of all this is to get the tenants to Police the Landlords. Yet when a Landlord has a problem with a tenant......

  • icon

    I’m very confused as I thought that if three people had one tenancy agreement between them it didn’t need an HMO license. If there was a uniform system across the country we might, as landlords, get it right. surely whoever is housing minister at this particular moment could create a uniform system across the country? Poor guy.

    PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    @Elisabeth,
    A licensable HMO is usually 2 or more households comprising 5 or more people, BUT, a number of Councils have implemented Additional Licensing, that can bring down the number requiring a license.
    Additional License is where the requirements of a HMO License are made more stringent, say 3 persons from 2 or more households, where Selective Licensing will usually apply to Any rented property within a given catchment area designated by the Council.

     
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