Rogue Landlord Told To Pay Back £739,000 Over Illegal Housing

A rogue landlord who operated illegal rooming houses in London has been told to pay back £739,000 in illicit earnings or face jail, in one of the biggest confiscation orders of its kind, the council that investigated the case has said. Planning enforcement officers at Brent council discovered up to 15 people living in some of the homes including, in one property, a family of four in one room, a family of three in another and three single men in another. The council said the housing, owned by Mohammed Mehdi Ali and his father, was some of the worst its officers had seen. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/28/brent-rogue-landlord-pay-back-illegal-london-housing

High Court To Hear Crowdfunded Challenge To 'Begging Fines'

A landmark high court case will determine whether fines for begging, loitering and leaving bedding in doorways unfairly targets homeless people, after a fundraising campaign for legal costs reached its target. Lawyers for Sarah Ward, who lives in Poole, will outline their challenge on Monday to a public space protection order (PSPO) in the town centre which prohibits obstructing doorways, sitting with a receptacle “for the purpose of begging” and other behaviour associated with homelessness. People found to have violated the order are liable to a £100 spot fine, which can rise to £1,000 if left unpaid, and receive a summary conviction. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/04/high-court-to-hear-crowdfunded-challenge-to-begging-fines

Airbnb Host Fined £100,000 For Letting Council Flat

An Airbnb host who rented out his central London council flat to tourists has been fined £100,000 and evicted. Council tenant Toby Harman, 37, created the fake identity "Lara" on Airbnb to rent out his studio apartment. The flat, in Victoria, had been advertised since 2013 and received more than 300 reviews, Westminster City Council said. Anti-fraud software had found Harman's first name in reviews and connected the listing to him. Harman's bank statements showed he had been receiving payments from Airbnb for a number of years. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49149983

Rising Number Of Councils Issuing Fines For Rough Sleeping

The number of councils that have obtained the power to issue £100 fines for rough sleeping, begging and “loitering” in England and Wales has increased. Local authorities have been accused of trying to “airbrush their streets” and “ban homelessness” after analysis by the Guardian found at least 60 councils with public spaces protection orders (PSPOs), up from 54 last year. Those who violate the orders are liable to a £100 fine which, if left unpaid, can result in a summary conviction and a £1,000 penalty. Councils using the orders have insisted that PSPOs are not targeted at the homeless but are instead used to crack down on antisocial behaviour. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/07/rising-number-of-councils-issuing-fines-for-rough-sleeping

Rough Sleepers Could Face £100 Fines

Rough sleepers who refuse to move from doorways could be fined £100 in a proposed crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Manchester city centre. The city's council said plans for a new Public Space Protection Order unveiled earlier would make the city safer. However, opposition leader John Leech described the proposal as "social cleansing" and vowed to oppose it. The council said it would only issue fines where there was a "wilful refusal to co-operate". It said the order would not target rough sleepers or any "particular groups of people", but rather anyone who displayed anti-social behaviour including "aggressive begging" and drinking alcohol in public. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-47210839

Rogue Landlord Faces Jail If He Doesn't Pay £1.5m Fine

A rogue landlord who illegally carved up family homes to create cramped bedsits and charged tenants hundreds of pounds a month is facing prison unless he pays a £1.5m penalty for breaking planning laws. Vispasp Sarkari, 56, from Harrow, has been ordered to pay back the money earned over several years from dozens of tenants after he was found guilty of flouting planning rules by converting properties into smaller bedsits without permission and ignoring enforcement notices. He subdivided suburban homes into what council officials described as “substandard box-room bedsits” in which whole families would live, paying hundreds of pounds per month in rent, often coming from the public purse through housing benefit. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/05/rogue-landlord-in-harrow-faces-jail-if-he-doesnt-pay-15m-fine

Rogue Landlords: 90% Of Local Authorities Fail To Issue Fines

Almost 90% of local authorities failed to use new powers to fine rogue landlords last year, in the latest finding to suggest tenants are being failed by a lax enforcement regime. It follows a Guardian and ITV News investigation in October, which revealed a string of weaknesses in the legislation governing the private rented market and which also raised questions about the rigour with which certain councils pursued any offenders. Only 11% of local authorities issued a civil penalty notice against a landlord or letting agent during 2017-18, according to data provided by 293 English councils responding to freedom of information requests made by the Residential Landlords Association. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/29/rogue-landlords-most-local-authorities-in-england-fail-to-issue-fines

Councils Given New Powers To Fine HMO Rogue Landlords

Under measures laid before parliament, local authorities will be allowed to set new standards for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and fine rogue landlords up to £30,000 if they fail to comply. Town halls will be able to set minimum bedroom size standards and impose limits on how many people can live in each bedroom of a licensed HMO. Landlords will also need to provide adequate waste storage facilities in line with council rules. The new measures will come into force from October and will apply to all landlords seeking new HMO licenses. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pReeXYujIRYJ:https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/councils-given-new-powers-to-fine-hmo-rogue-landlords-55337+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&safe=vss

Windsor Council Drops Plans To Fine Rough Sleepers After Outcry

Windsor council has withdrawn plans to fine rough sleepers £100 as part of a new “homelessness support strategy” after a public outcry against the measures. The council’s leader, Simon Dudley, has requested that the proposals be withdrawn after feedback from the public and councillors. Dudley’s assertion that rough sleepers should be cleared from the town centre for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sparked the controversy last month. The borough also said future strategies on homelessness would not try to address rough sleeping and anti-social behaviour at the same time, describing them as separate objectives. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/14/windsor-council-drops-plans-to-fine-rough-sleepers-after-outcry

Windsor Council To Impose Fines On Rough Sleepers

Windsor council has been accused of punishing people for being homeless after plans emerged to fine rough sleepers £100 as part of a new “homelessness support strategy”. The Council will impose public space protection orders (PSPOs) banning aggressive or proactive begging, requests for money, leaving bedding and belongings in a public area and urination or defecation in town centres in the area, including Windsor, Maidenhead, Ascot and Eton. Breaches would lead to a £100 fixed penalty notice, which would be cut to £50 for early payment, but offenders could face a summary conviction and a £1,000 fine if they fail to pay. Read more on the Observer website.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/11/windsor-council-to-impose-fines-on-rough-sleepers

Agents Breaking Letting Fees Ban ‘Should Receive Robust Fines’

In response to the government’s consultation on banning letting agents’ fees to tenants, CIEH has strongly welcomed a complete ban on all letting agents fees. The organisation says it would remove some of the barriers tenants face in moving out of a poor quality home, while ensuring standards can improve in the private rented sector. CIEH represents environmental health professionals, the workforce that carries out inspections in the private rented sector, and has recommended fines of up to £30,000 for larger property managing agents would be in line with the civil penalty for committing a banning order offence. Read more on 24housing.

Landlords Fined After Roll-Out Of New Right To Rent Checks

Dozens of landlords have been fined under a crackdown on illegal immigration. Financial penalties totalling £37,000 were handed out in the first eight months after the Right to Rent scheme was rolled out across England, figures obtained by the Press Association reveal. The fines were issued to 62 landlords between the start of February and end of September last year - a rate of around one every four days. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph.

Landlords Punished Under Right To Rent Rules

A total of 91 landlords have been issued with civil penalties since the Government’s controversial right to rent scheme was rolled out a year ago. According to the Government landlords have been fined a total of almost £30,000, with 667 enquiries made to the Home Office’s landlords checking services specifically regarding tenants without the right to rent. Brought in under the Immigration Act 2014 right to rent was introduced in February last year as part of Government reforms to build a ‘fairer and more effective’ immigration system. It requires landlords and agents to check the immigration status of prospective occupiers before they allow them to move in. Read more on the RLA website.

Right To Rent Sees 31 Deported

A total of 31 people have been deported as a result of the Government’s right to rent scheme – with 75 landlords fined. 7,806 calls were made to the Home Office’s helpline for landlords between July 1st 2015 and June 30th last year. The Home Office confirmed that 654 people were involved in investigations or named on documents relating to right to rent penalties. The figures were revealed in response to series of Parliamentary Questions submitted by Baroness Lister of Burtersett after representations from the RLA. Read more on the RLA website.

Rough Sleepers Threatened With Fines

Rough sleepers in an affluent suburb have been threatened with £100 fines. Rushcliffe Borough Council said rough sleepers had been "causing a nuisance" in West Bridgford, a suburb of Nottingham nicknamed Bread and Lard Island because of its large houses. Local MPs criticised the measures, with one saying they "punish victims of the housing crisis". Rushcliffe Borough Council said the fixed penalty notices would be used as a "last resort" .If people fail to pay the initial £100 fixed penalty notices they may be prosecuted, with the maximum fine being £1,000. Councils in  other areas, such as Hackney in London, have backtracked on similar plans following campaigns. Read more on the BBC website.

Half Of Landlords Unprepared For ‘Right To Rent’

A new survey of 5,000 landlords by online agent Urban.co.uk has found that half of UK landlords are not prepared for new 'right to rent' legislation, which comes into force on 1 February 2016. 20% of those questioned believed that they had until April 2017 to get ready for the changes and 3% believed they had until 2018. The legislation will be in place nationally next month and require all landlords and agents in England to check a tenant’s immigration status (‘right to rent’) in the UK. Landlords failing to do so could find themselves with a potential fine of £3,000. Among the other findings in the report are that only 10% of landlords provide the correct information to their tenants at the start of a lease; most landlords (90% of those surveyed) were unable to identify the characteristics of a House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO); and 16% were failing to provide a valid contact address on tenancy agreements, risking a substantial fine. Read more on the What House? website.

Scheme Forcing Landlords to Check Tenants' Immigration Status 'Has Failed'

A scheme to fine landlords for renting homes to illegal immigrants has caught just seven people since it was launched in the Black Country. The government chose Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall, as well as neighbouring Birmingham, to pilot tougher rules on the right to rent, threatening them with £3,000 fines if they do not maintain strict checks. But since it was launched last December only seven people have been prosecuted and fined an average of £800 each. The Home Office said it was 'currently the subject of an evaluation which will be published in due course'. But a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed the current figures across the whole of the Black Country and Birmingham. Read more on the Express and Star website.

Rogue Landlords and Letting Agents to Get Stiffer Fines in Rental Market Shakeup

Rogue landlords and letting agents face higher fines, being potentially blacklisted from the property industry and being forced to repay rent taken since the start of a tenancy under proposals outlined by the government. One aspect of the plans – the eviction of immigrants living illegally in Britain – attracted the most headlines, but other proposals suggest that the government is considering a transformation of the private rental market. The CLG has said that the existing level of fines against rogue landlords are failing to have an impact and are just written off as a business expense.  Download the Consultation from the CLG website.

Benefit Cheats Face Higher Fines and Losing Their Homes

Welfare cheats will be forced to sell their homes and pay higher fines to reimburse taxpayers for the money they have wrongly claimed, under plans to tackle benefit fraud. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners who fail to declare their full earnings from private pension schemes will also be targeted as fraud investigators trawl through HM Revenue & Customs records. The plans form part of a major campaign from ministers this week to publicise reforms to the welfare system, which the Conservatives regard as among their most popular, vote-winning policies. Ministers will highlight the scale of savings to taxpayers, announce a tougher stance on fraud and detail further action to limit welfare for migrants. Polls suggest that even Labour supporters now regard state benefits as too generous. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.