Huge fine for landlord behind squalid HMO occupying ex-hotel

The landlord of a former hotel with no working kitchen, unusable toilets, blocked drains, and rats, has been ordered to pay over £175,000 by the courts.

Three companies and Adam Ali, who was identified as both owner and operator, were all connected with the former Anchor Hotel in Westcliff-on-Sea, as part of a council investigation, and guilty pleas were entered for offences under the Housing Act 2004.

Neighbours reported anti-social behaviour, drug use, poor living conditions and rats to both Southend-on-Sea council and Essex Police, in April 2021.

The council’s subsequent investigation in June 2021 found that the property had become an unlicenced HMO with 18 persons paying rent to live in 11 of the 15 bedrooms and sharing the kitchen, toilets and bathrooms.

At a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court the judge fined the three companies and Ali a total of £152,900, with £21,872 costs and £680 victim surcharge. 

The judge said the fine was “both a deterrent for naive and incompetent landlords as well as a deterrent to company directors”.

And a council spokesperson says: “It is unbelievable that in this day and age, these people were able to operate in such a heartless way, exploiting residents and providing such squalid living conditions.”

Tenants paid a total of more than £5,800 rent per month to Coastal Living Southend Ltd, however investigations showed the property was seriously dilapidated, with no working kitchen, unusable toilets, interrupted gas supply, blocked drains and restricted fire escapes.

It was in such a bad state, an emergency prohibition order was served which closed the property immediately, and the council placed all 18 tenants in emergency accommodation.

As well as not having the necessary licence for an HMO, the other offences under the Housing Act, included failing to keep the kitchen, bathrooms, toilets and circulation areas in a clean, safe and well maintained condition; failing to maintain the fire alarm system and extinguishers; failing to keep the escape routes free from obstruction; blocked drains; rubbish accumulation; water leaks; missing guarding to a balcony and the side boundary; and no satisfactory certification of the gas and electrical installations.

The hotel remains unoccupied and is up for sale.

The council’s investigation took some time as the people involved created a complex web of different limited companies and names involved. Eventually it was established that Adam Ali of Trulea Estates Ltd trading as Coastal Living Southend Ltd, operated the premises under a short-term agreement with M F Gregory Ltd.

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