Letting agency handed huge fine and and owner ordered to do community service for falling foul of HMO rules – London Wallet

For the harassment and eviction offences, the director was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge.

The agency was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay more than £9,000 in costs to the council.

For failing to licence the properties, the director was personally fined £19,150, and the agency was ordered to pay an additional £5,750.

In sentencing, the judge told the director: “You were in a position of power, you held the keys to the roof over their heads, they were vulnerable and didn’t know their rights.

“Officers from the local authority were perfectly entitled to enter the property to ensure the occupants’ welfare, something you as a landlord should also have been doing.”

The properties are now being managed directly by their owners. Tenants have been compensated with the equivalent of two months’ rent.

Cllr Lee Hunt, cabinet member for community safety, said: “The council will continue to prosecute rogue landlords and agents, who break HMO rules, to protect tenants and neighbours alike. Homes that aren’t correctly licensed or overcrowded will be found out, and we will use the full force of the law.”