Council Urges Ban On Housing Benefit Being Paid To Rogue Landlords

A London council that banned a rogue landlord and then directly paid him more than £500,000 in housing benefit has called on the government to legislate to prevent local authorities from making similar payments in the future. Brent made repeated payments of taxpayers’ money to Bernard McGowan, who has a £30m property empire and failed the council’s “fit and proper” test in 2015. The decision against McGowan, who was convicted six times under the Housing Act between 2014 and 2017, meant the landlord was barred from directly renting out houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) across Brent, or any sort of home in eight of the borough’s wards where landlords specifically require a licence. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/21/council-ban-housing-benefit-rogue-landlords-brent-bernard-mcgowan