A rogue landlord who made hundreds of thousands of pounds from two family homes that had been illegally converted into self-contained flats has been fined and ordered to repay the profit following action by Haringey Council.
Tasking Izzet of Southgate owned two properties in Hewitt Road and Burgoyne Road (N4) that had been illegally split into four and five self-contained flats, but planning enforcement notices ordering that the properties be converted back to single dwellings were ignored.
Haringey Council first prosecuted Izzet in 2010 when he failed to comply with an enforcement notice. A further prosecution in 2011 resulted in a second conviction.
Despite this, subsequent planning inspection visits found no changes to the properties and Izzet was prosecuted and convicted for a third time in January 2013.
Izzet attempted to appeal his conviction at Wood Green Crown Court in March, arguing he had done all he could to comply with the enforcement notices, but the judge dismissed his version of events as “wholly lacking in specific detail.”
Following this conviction, Haringey Council asked for the case to be referred for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to strip Izzet of the financial gain from his unlawful flat conversions.
At a final confiscation hearing at Wood Green Crown Court last month, Izzet was found to have benefited £312,315 and was ordered to repay this within six months or face up to three years in prison. In addition, he was fined £6,000 for each offence and ordered to pay court costs of £6,900.
Haringey Council will take a share of the confiscation order, which will be ploughed back into further enforcement activities of the council.
Haringey Council’s cabinet member for planning and enforcement, Cllr Joseph Ejiofor, said: “Mr Izzet was given plenty of opportunity abide by the rules, but ignored repeated enforcement notices while continuing to profit from illegally converted properties. I hope this prosecution sends out a firm message to all landlords in the borough that they are responsible for ensuring the properties they own adhere to the correct planning rules and regulations.”
One of the properties has now been re-converted into a single house in line with the enforcement notice.
Checks will be made to ensure that the other property is also no longer in breach of the enforcement notice.
Comments
The proceeds of Crime must also apply to the Council in relation to Council Tax collection from "illegally" converted flats.
http://www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/brent_council_cashed_in_on_illegally_converted_flats_in_willesden_1_1669372
I believe I'm right in saying that converting a property to self contained flats is not illegal, it's a civil planning issue; you can apply for retrospective planning permission.
However I believe that failure to comply with an enforcement notice is a crime, and it's at that point that you become a criminal, and hence fall within the remit of the Proceeds of Crime act.
Note that reading about similar cases that have happened to other landlords, makes me think that the £312,315 figure is probably *revenue* (gross rent), not profit (rent minus expenses and interest), which is much worse.
I too have to disagree with Jamie. I work with these types of landlords and they do indeed think they can do what they like then bleat about it when they find out they can't.
The clue as to whether he is a criminal or not is in 'illegally converted'.
It's good that Haringay cracked down on such an arrogant individual.
Totally disagree Jamie. This landlord was a law unto himself, displayed sheer arrogance in ignoring all efforts by the council - I am very happy that the council took such a stand on this as it prevents the wipespread destruction of decent family homes and the creation of doss-house bedsit lands all over our towns and cities.
As long as the councils are allowed to control and bully anyone wanting to convert properties in the course of their business and then profit from this, then the planning and other council departments will continue to pedantically and dishonestly control all aspects of development. To describe this as a crime is such an utter nonsense beyond all sense of proportion. Ridiculous in the extreme "proceeds of crime" what utter rubbish. We are in a communist state where your every movement is monitored checked and controlled to the extreme and any discussion, freedom of speech or attempt to disagree with most aspects of day to day control by the state is crushed in a politically correct game of name calling and demonising. This guy was trying to make money against the frustrations of dealing with planning departments who are an utter nightmare country wide. The judge has lost all sense of proportion and sense and is a tool of the controlling state. This massive over reaction is pathetic in the extreme