A High Wycombe landlord, Mr Iqbal Singh Mann was caught red handed for illegally renting out an annexe at back of his house at 40 Lindsay Avenue, the court at Aylesbury Magistrate’s Court heard.
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The court also heard how he had deliberately tried to hide the evidence by hurriedly removing taps and a toilet while council officers obtained a warrant to enter the annexe to carry out checks and prosecuted him for obstruction.
After listening to all the evidence and seeing photographs of the premises, the court recognised that the offence committed by Mr Iqbal Singh Mann was deliberate and that he was illegally renting out the annexe at the back of his house for commercial gain. Despite the defendant indicating he was in receipt of benefits, the court imposed the maximum possible penalty fine of £2,500 and ordered Mr Iqbal Singh Mann to pay £5,000 towards the Council’s legal costs for bringing the case. A victim charge of £15 brought the total he will now pay to £7,515.
The annexe was part of a house at Lindsay Avenue which is rented out as a house in multiple occupancy (HMO) to four tenants living in the main house. The council’s environmental health team regularly inspect HMOs but became suspicious that in addition to the tenants in the main house, there was a further tenant living in the annexe. A request to make an inspection of the annexe was refused on site and it was necessary to enter the premises with a warrant.
On returning to the annexe four hours later with the warrant, the officer found that the taps and WC had been removed from the annexe bathroom and an attempt had been made to disguise the fact that a tenant was living in the annexe.
The court was satisfied that the verbal and photographic evidence provided by the council showed that conditions in the annexe were unsafe and that Mr Iqbal Singh Mann had attempted to alter the means of occupation to mislead the Officer.
The Council has since served a Prohibition Order on the landlord preventing use of the annexe due to the unsafe conditions.
Councillor John Gibbs, Cabinet Member for Community at Wycombe District Council said: “We always strive to work positively with local landlords. Sadly there are some rogue landlords out there who are illegally renting unsafe premises to vulnerable tenants. Sometimes, as in this case, tenants are living in conditions which are unsafe and which could even put their lives at risk. In this case there was a deliberate attempt to conceal the fact there was a tenant living in the annexe – as the verdict shows, we were right to take this case to court.”
Prosecutions such as this case for obstruction are in fact quite rare, as normally landlords will co-operate with environmental health officers. It is time consuming and incurs legal costs to bring such cases to court, so wherever possible the Council strives to resolve issues before they need to go to Court.
The Defendant has a right to appeal against sentence or conviction to the Crown Court and the appeal must be lodged within 21 days.