A landlord who left his tenants homeless after breaking into their house at night with a hammer has been prosecuted by the local council.
Inderjit Singh Ghuman smashed a front window, threatened his victim and, when the tenant escaped, threw his belongings out of a window.
Following investigations by Wolverhampton council and Trading Standards teams, he was prosecuted for unlawful eviction and aggressive commercial practices.
Ghuman admitted two charges under The Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and four charges under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
He also pleaded guilty to one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm brought by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Ghuman was sentenced to two months for each of the charges brought by the council, these are to run concurrently. He was also sentenced to six months for the assault charge, bringing the total sentence to eight months.
This was ordered to be suspended for 12 months.
He was also required to pay £4,700 in compensation to his victims and carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.
Ghuman, of Wolverhampton, started harassing his two tenants in October 2021 by unlawfully gaining access to the property they shared and changing the locks.
On this occasion, he arrived at the house with two men who behaved in an aggressive and abusive manner towards one tenant, pushing him out of the property and damaging his vehicle. The tenant reported the incident to police.
Ghuman had failed to follow the correct legal process in repossessing property and was warned it was a criminal offence to illegally evict someone.
He was told by the council that an injunction and power of arrest may be obtained from court.
Further problems followed including Ghuman claiming that he had sold the house and telling his tenants that he was going to remove their possessions. They later discovered that a number of their personal items had gone missing.
The council subsequently obtained an interim injunction against Ghuman for his behaviour. However, during the night of 4 November, 2021, he used a hammer to break into the tenants’ property and made threats before being arrested.
One victim needed hospital treatment after jumping out of the window to escape, cutting the back of his left heel, toes of his right foot and his hands to add to an injury sustained on his shin when Ghuman tripped with the hammer.
Ghuman’s two tenants were later found a permanent place to live.
A council spokesperson says: “This is a truly terrifying case where innocent members of the public were harassed, threatened and injured by someone they trusted to give them a home.
“Ghuman clearly did not take his responsibility as a landlord seriously and instead of dealing with the situation in a legal and responsible way, decided to take matters into his own hands in this violent way.
“The thought of a man armed with a hammer breaking through a window on a dark November night is horrifying and my sympathies and good wishes go out to his victims.
“It is absolutely right that the council brought this prosecution, and I am pleased to see Ghuman has been punished for his actions.”
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Well it all sounds bad. I’d like to hear the landlord’s side of why he wanted them out and why he couldn’t do it illegally. No mention of this.
What will we all do after Rental Reform???
Agreed Nick. I don’t believe for a second you would go to such extremes with decent paying people. Maybe if the law worked fairly and with decent speed for both sides any motivation by thug like landlords would be reduced or stopped.
From what has been written, the other side of the story looks irrelevant on this one. There can be no mitigating factors to justify breaking into a property and threatening the occupant with a hammer.
There can
also be no mitigating circumstances to deliberately remain in someone else's property without paying rent when offered the opportunity to leave without arrears being pursued.
It's theft and thieves also deserve to be jailed.
I bet the tenant wasn't paying. Constantly reported repairs and blocked access thwarting the issue of a S21. Had to do S8 with the endless BS disrepair counter claims. Not to mention the endless wait to get to court! I hear on these forums they can present new previously unreported claims of disrepair in a court. All evidence for a court case is due a couple of weeks before a hearing but the judges STILL allow it!!! Then there is a wait for the bailiffs. IF you can get one. They're not working because of a lack of PPE!
This country is a joke for hard working people.
Echis R
Really?? What has the tenant done? Lots of anti-social behavior? Violence? Drugs. There is always another sided. It may not be justified. But at present we have no side.
Echis,
You must be on a different planet, the little Sh1t who refused to move out of my property after not paying for 9 months then said if you get to baliffs to throw me out I will barricade myself in armed with pepper spray.... Council and the Police did absolutely nothing and I mean nothing. Now with no rent and needing to replace kitchen and all carpets throughout. Approx 12k in total costs.
Two sides to every story you sandal wearing liberal...
probably been waiting years for the hopless court service to set a hearing date and just snapped. Afraid this will become much more common
Agreed.
The new law puts more tenants at risk.
This should serve as a warning to everyone.
2 sides to every story, this kind of eviction will be getting to be common practice going forward, well done mr grove
There is nothing like one side of a story to whip up a bit more hatred towards landlords.
God we're all such violent vile scum :-( ( Apparently )
of course tenants are never violent scum. I.ve come across a few
Read the article in the express and star, and it is the same article except there is a bit missing where the labour councillor is patting his housing team on the back for a cracking job.
Other side of the story please.
Yes- I agree Nick. Sounds terrible- but let’s hear more background and landlords side first.
Very light on detail. The sentence seems to be very lenient unless there was significant provocation.
Violence should never be the answer. The correct solution would be a timely eviction hearing in the local court followed by a bailiff visit on the earliest permitted day. Was that option available to the landlord or had he been subjected to months of non payment or destruction of his property?
I am surprised, too, Jo, that the sentence was suspended in view of the actual bodily harm conviction.
I've been looking at Section 39 (3) (a) of the Criminal Justice Act 1967 - would seem to prohibit a suspended sentence?
Yes it sounds terrible and I don’t condone the landlords actions.
However we only have one half side of the story and the Council sticking their chest out yet again but never takes Tenant to Court on the landlords behalf, easy for Council they are never the victim or have any costs.
The landlord must have been driven to a pitch and no viable legal remedy available even though the Council thinks that’s the route to follow unless you have been in this situation as a landlord you won’t understand. Expect more of this following this case and the support the Tenants got, moved to a permanent home and £4’700. spending money, anyone would think they had been hit with the hammer it seems it was use to break into his own property and you can’t cause criminal damage to you own property. There again the Council are wrongly calling it the Tenants Property but they are temporary Residents, GOVE’s law is not passed yet so much injustice.
The answer is for tenants to pay their way in life and and to stop thinking that the world owes them a living. If rent has to go up and lets face it everything else is going up, why is it that it is Landlords are the only ones who are getting crucified for having to put their prices up?
Precisely, I had a tenant who thought the world, including me, owned her a living; they verbally and almost physically abused me when the bailiff came, but they are tenants: what they do does not mean anything. We, landlords, are bad people, and we deserve it!
Naturally Bristol council will be pursuing the same action against the vicious thugs who went to seven letting agents and intimidated tortured and abused the innocent victims who were unfortunate enough to be cornered and terrorised by these evil thugs
I feel for poor landlord!
Dirty rats sitting in your property paying no rent and nothing you can do because they are told they can. The court system is a joke on purpose. A cheap price 4k to get them out. Mine owed 12k and still the court case never came. I know the frustration. Government now own your place and can do what they like with it.
Always two sides of a story, I had a sitting tenant who was paying 16pounds yes sixteen, a moths rent for a six-bedroom house in London, they smashed to pieces the 100-year-old stained front door window, then changed the lock and then reported us to the council that we had changed the lock and they had to smash the window to get in, Obioslly the council liking up to the tenant took their word for it.
And obviously, they had to smash the very large stained glass and not the small side window.
Did they have enough sense to smash it from the outside?
Robert! Please give the tenants some credit sometimes. Greedy landlord bashing a tenant. Again. Tut tut.
....... And so it begins....
I wanted to do this many times over the last 18 months myself. I just want to give the tenant notice and get my property back. She was only on the LHA allowance… grew mould, sought compensation, broke things. A nightmare. A single mother… also Nigerian. 4 kids. Don’t know how many fathers.
I found the process of serving a S21 so frustrating. I’m not interested in reform.
I considering (fantasied) about setting fire or driving a truck into my property to get it condemned so she would have to go. I won’t consider Rental Reform.
I had that as well last year beautiful stained glass in the front door over 100 years old Edwardian, imagine all the years until my Tenant broke it, he reported attempted break in but it transpired he broke it in temper having a fight with girl friend.
Another property broken glass window they wanted to claim break in and missing items on my Insurance but my Insurance wouldn’t cover it anyway.
The punch line coming up it was a double glazed window but only outside glass broken, god give me strength.
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