A shed with bed – belonging to a slumlord hit with a record £27,700 in fines, costs and confiscation orders for illegal properties – has been razed.
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Aminur Raja Chowdhury, 41, of Bennett Road, Plaistow, was found guilty at Thames Magistrates’ Court in December 2012 of planning breaches at two different properties. They comprised illegal flat conversions at a Holborn Road property; and an illegal building – consisting of an office and ‘shed with bed’ – in his back garden, at Bennett Road, Plaistow.
Children had been living in the cramped conditions in the Holborn Road flats.
Chowdury was hit with an order for confiscation of £15,500, fined £2200, and ordered to pay Newham Council’s costs of £10,000.
Now (earlier this month, April) Chowdury has been forced to demolish the back garden building at Bennett Road and remove the rubble after the council’s planning enforcement officers threatened direct action.
This would have involved the council sending in its own contractors – and forcing him to cough up.
Failure to pay could have resulted in prison.
Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales said: “We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing.
“One bad house can drag down a whole street and we are doing this for the community.
“There are good landlords in Newham and we want to work with them. Unfortunately there are also some unscrupulous ones – and these are the ones we are targeting.
“We will never accept private sector tenants being directly exploited by landlords who force them to live in dangerous and unacceptable conditions.
“Good landlords have nothing to fear. For the bad ones, we have a clear message: clean up your act or pay the price.”
