The Mayor of London and London Assembly have recently
published a list of private sector housing landlords and agents convicted of
crimes related to the management of properties they own and rent, and their
failure to comply with legislation aimed at protecting tenants' rights (see here).
This website has often been critical of Newham Council about
the way it behaves over a number of matters locally. But in this instance, it
emerges with considerable credit in being at the forefront of prosecuting rogue
landlords.
Using the Mayor of London's database, we give details of 17 Forest
Gate properties, whose owners/agents have been prosecuted 45 times for offences
related to the management of those properties over the last year, bringing a
total yield of a little under £135,000.
Newham has, in total, achieved 128 successful prosecutions
against rogue landlords and their agents over the last twelve months - almost a
third of the total of only 296 achieved London-wide. The council is to be
congratulated for its vigilance. The great pity is that other councils are not
as pro-active, in defence of private sector tenants and that the fines
available to the courts are not stiffer.
The reality for many rogue landlords, however, is that the
fines they receive are little more than minor financial inconveniences to
their business and amount, often, to little more than a month's rent from the
properties that they benefit from mismanaging. There is little real incentive-
via large fines and company suspensions - for bad landlords to change their anti-social
practices.
Below, we list the Forest Gate properties at the centre of
the criminal offences committed by the landlords/agents and give details of the successful prosecutions
and those convicted of the offences.
Some patterns emerge in this analysis and details are given at the end
of the blog.
The properties are listed in alphabetical order of street
names.
124 Capel Road
An interesting property! Its owners/controllers/agents
received a total of five fines on 17 March 2017 in relation to its management.
A company called Rentify, of Long Lane, London EC1 was fined £1,500 for failing
to obtain a Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence, as required by Newham
Council, and was fined a further £250 for each of two offences for failing to
provide the council with documentation related to the property, as required.
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| 124 Capel Road |
A second firm of estate agents, Life Work Study, London was
also fined £1,000 for failing to apply for an HMO licence. That company's sole
director, Omar Patel was fined £750 on that day for the same offence.
Life Work Study throws an interesting light on a complex web
of local property ownership/management arrangements, which are considered
towards the end of this article. It was previously (2013-2015) known as YLR
(Whitechapel), see below for similar sounding named companies, and trades out
of the offices of another estate agent appearing in this article, Filton's, at
190 High Street Stratford.
Any would-be tenant considering using Filton's is
advised to search its Facebook presence. Its services are rated by 10 people -
seven of them giving the firm only one star out of five.
51 Clova Road
Mohammed Jawad Hussain of West Ham Lane Stratford was
convicted of three offences in relation to this property on 24 January 2017.
They were: failure to carry out improvements, as instructed by the council
(fined £2,000); failure to provide documentation in relation to the property
when requested to do so by the council (fined £1,000) and failure to comply
with licence conditions, to ensure that the property is in a safe and good
condition (fined £1,000).
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| 51 Clova Road |
51b Clova Road
The same landlord was also convicted of three similar
offences relating to this property, on the ground floor and at the rear of number
51. The fines were £1,800, £1,000 and
£1,000, respectively.
4 Dunbar Road
A company called YLR Ltd of High Street Stratford ( see Life
Work Study - above) was fined £1,500 on 17 March 2017 for failure to apply for
an HMO licence for this property.
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| 4 Dunbar Road |
Barclay Estates, letting agents of 86 Upton Lane (see photo)
was fined on two accounts of offences of failing to provide Newham Council with
details relating to this property, as required by law, on the same day. They were fined £500 for each
offence.
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| Barclay Estates, Katherine Road |
Fiaz Mahud Khan also of Upton Lane was also fined £500 on
each of two counts of failing to provide Newham Council details of the
property, as required, on the same day.
SM Property, 468
Katherine Road
This estate agent was fined £4,000 on 13 September 2017 for
a failure to display its letting fees appropriately, within its premises, in a separate piece of consumer protection legislation.
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| SM Property, Katherine Road |
36 Osborne Road
YLR Ltd (see 4 Dunbar Road, above) , but this time operating
via Filton's of 190 High Street Stratford, was fined £1,500 for failure to
apply for an HMO licence relation to this property on 17 March 2017.
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| 36 Osborne Road |
Filton's is an estate agent, which is currently advertising
20 properties on its website - the vast majority in Newham. The company clearly has a cavalier attitude
to its business and social responsibilities. To quote its website:
We are an estate and property management group run by some of the most disruptive minds in the industry ... We .. play hard, without the bureaucracy (ed: like abiding by Housing legislation, apparently). ... We don't do uppity suits and fake smiles. That's why we're turning the industry upside down ... And we're pushing boundaries for clients with new revenue streams, managed short lets and award winning marketing .
 |
| Filton's of High Street, Stratford - cavalier |
117 Osborne Road
YLR Ltd, operating via Filton's of 190 High Street Stratford,
was given two fines in relation to this property on 17 March 2017, one of
£1,500 for failure to apply for an HMO licence, and one of £800 for failure to
ensure that the property is in a safe and good condition (for company details,
see 4 Dunbar Road, above).
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| 117 Osborne Road |
168 Osborne Road
This innocuous looking property on the Woodgrange estate has
a complex ownership/management arrangement,
whose principals were subject to four, separate, prosecutions last year.
Azher Iqbal of near-by Windsor Road was fined £3,250 on 11 May 2017 for a
failure to comply with a property licence, to ensure that the property is kept
in a safe and good condition. He was also fined £1,100 on the same day for a
failure to apply for a licence to run the property as an HMO.
 |
| 168 Osborne Road |
A company called City Lord Ltd, of 25 Burdett Road, Tower
Hamlets was fined £1,000 for a failure to register the property as an HMO on
the same day, and Sidra Butt, also of Burdett Road, was fined £500 that day on
an identical charge.
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| City Lord Real Estate, Burdett Road |
McCreadie Hotel,
357-363, Romford Road
This large, four triple-fronted house, hotel is used as bed and breakfast
accommodation for homeless families by boroughs outside of Newham; for a while,
certainly Tower Hamlets was a major customer. It is in a poor state of repair
and the landlords have clearly done well over the years from the public
purse.
 |
| McCreadie Hotel, Romford Road |
It is a sign of how profitable this business has been that
they have chosen not to cash in and sell the property for the £5m plus it could
get on the current property market from a developer wishing to turn it into 20+
flats.
The hotel currently looks very run down and under-used,
perhaps change is on the cards, accelerated by the prosecutions, below?
Osman Ahmed Dakri of
Holcombe Road, Ilford was fined £14,500 on 2 August 2017 on two charges, for a
failure to comply with the rules for large private rented properties, which
ensure the property is in a safe and good condition.
A company, which looks as if he controls, bearing the name,
A Dakri Ltd of Romford Road (the hotel's address), was fined £38,000 for
similar offences, on the same day.
5 Sandringham Road
Abdul Malik of Shrubland Road, E8 received two fines
relating to this property on 2 March 2017, one of £1,000 for failing to apply
for an HMO licence and one of £2,000 for failing to comply with licensing
conditions.
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| 5 Sandringham Road |
32 Sandringham Road
Faizul Hoque of Osborne Road, Forest Gate, was fined £210 on
3 August 2017 for failing to comply with licence conditions in ensuring that
this property was in a safe and good condition.
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| 32 Sandringham Road |
269 Sprowston Mews
Tariq Khan of Halley Road Manor Park was fined £500 on 3 November
2017, for failing to take action to control pests, after instructed to do so by
the council, on the first floor flat of this property.
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| 269 Sprowston Mews |
9 Sprowston Road
An interesting property, to say the least. Six different people and bodies have been found
guilty of criminal offences about its letting status. See at the end of this article for some
analysis.
Firstly, Barclay Estates of 86 Upton Lane (see 4 Dunbar
Road, above) was fined £3,000 on 17 March 2017 for a failure to apply for an HMO
licence. Faiz Mahmud Khan, also of Upton Lane was fined a similar amount on the
same day for the same offence, as was Maqhood Khan, also of Upton Lane. They were
both also fined £500 on the same day for failing to provide details about the
property to Newham Council, when asked to do so.
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| 9 Sprowston Road |
Shahid Khan of London Road E13 was fined £3,000 for failing
to apply for an HMO licence on 17 March 2017, and Life Work Study of 190 High
Street Stratford (see 124 Capel Road, above) was fined £1,000 for the same
offence on the same day. Making a total
of £13,500 fines on the day, although probably only representing 4/5 months
rent for the property.
22 Sprowston Road
Rameschander Patel of Ashburton Avenue, Ilford was fined a
total of £25,000 for three offences in relation to this property on 5 January
2017. They were: a failure to comply with licence conditions to keep it safe
and in good condition (£9,000), failure to comply with HMO regulations
(£14,000) and a failure to provide Newham Council with documentation relating
to the property, when requested to do so (£2,000).
 |
| 22 Sprowston Road |
23 Tenbury Close
Ahmedl Khan of 84 Romford Road was fined £1,050 on 3 August
2017 for failing to comply with a property licence condition, that this
property was in a safe and good condition.
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| Tenbury Close |
98b Upton Park Road
Mechella Fiona Jones, also of Upton Park Road was fined
£1,500 on 22 June 2017 for a failure to comply with licensing conditions that
ensure the property is in a safe and good condition.
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| 98b Upton Park Road |
43b Woodgrange Road
This property is one of the flats behind the now defunct NUR
takeaway on Woodgrange Road. Its owner
Mohamed Sadfar of Cecil Road, E13 was fined £5,000 on 2 March 2017 for his
failure to carry out improvements on the property, as instructed to do so, by
the council.
 |
| 43b Woodgrange Road |
Inter-relationships
Some of the same companies and individuals appear on a
number of occasions in the listings above, showing how a tight knit, close web
of associations plays a significant part in the criminal activity listed above.
So, for example, Faiz Mahmud Khan, of Upton Lane has been
fined for two offences in relation to 4 Dunbar Road and one in relation to 9
Sprowston Road. Other organisations also fined for offences in relation to
these two properties include Barclay Estates (three offences) and Lifework
Study (one offence), with an additional offence in relation to 124 Capel Road - see above for details.
YLR Ltd has also been successfully prosecuted for offences
concerning 4 Dunbar Road - and in addition has convictions in connection with
117 Osborne (two) and 36 Osborne (one). YLR, itself, operates from the premises
of Filton's in Stratford, which prides itself on its cavalier operating style
and has been fined £5,000 for failure to comply with regulations relating to
estate agency.
As we said at the start of this piece, Newham Council is to
be commended for the way in which it has proactively prosecuted the rogue
landlords and agents featured in this article. It has had to fight hard to
obtain the right to defend private sector tenants via this legislation. The government
wishes to reduce the powers of local authorities such as Newham, in this
regard.
For the sake of the many thousands of private sector tenants
in Newham and elsewhere, these powers need extending and strengthening, not weakening
to the benefit of rogue landlords and agents, who are able to exploit their
position at a time of chronic shortages in the housing market.
Additional properties, as of May 2018
In a further search on the database, mentioned above, the landlords of two additional Forest Gate properties have been found guilty of criminal charges in relation to their management of those properties. The details are:
561 Romford Road (ground floor flat)
Kris Obariase of Walthamstow was, in October 2017, found guilty of failing to ensure that this property is in a safe and good condition and fined £3,000 for the offence. He was fined an additional £1,500 for being obstructive to Newham Council when it was investigating the case.
42 Skelton Road
Miah Khan of London E1 was fined £1,540 on 3 August 2017 for failing to ensure that this property is safe.
