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Wembley landlord fined £40K for
squeezing 24 tenants into house for 7
(Main image) The shed that burned down. (Inset image) The sheer number of people in the house meant it was left in a mess
A rogue landlord faces a court bill of
almost £40,000 after being caught
cramming 24 people into a house
in Wembley.
Willesden Magistrates’ Court heard
Tilak Raj Sarna of George V Avenue in
Pinner initially claim innocence but
then accept his guilt after two days of
cross examination.
Brent Council granted Sarna a
licence to house seven people at his
house in multiple occupation (HMO)
on Bowrons Avenue, but when Brent
housing enforcement officers made
an unannounced visit to the house in
January 2016 they found 24 tenants
living there, including seven families
with 10 young children.
The squalid conditions at the
house included; an infestation of
cockroaches, blatant disregard of basic
fire safety measures, with missing
smoke alarms, overloaded electrical
sockets and inadequate fire doors
plus cold and damp rooms and
overflowing bins.
Six tenants lived in an unheated
shed in the house’s back garden until
it burnt down in October last year in a
fire caused by a portable heater. The
blaze, which started while a child was
asleep in the shed, was exacerbated by
the sheer number of people living in
such a small space.
The magistrates threw the book at
Sarna for his overcrowding and fire
safety offences, with fines totalling
£33,000. He was also ordered to pay
costs of £6,420 and a £120 victim
surcharge, making a total of £39,540.
The case also saw a prosecution for
Mrs Anila Patel, who collected £3,700
monthly rent from the tenants on the
landlord’s behalf. She was convicted of
two offences and fined £1,000 and told
to pay a £90 victim surcharge.
All the tenants living in the
property have since found alternative
accommodation.
Cllr Harbi Farah, Brent Council’s
Lead Member for Housing, said: “This
case underlines the necessity of our
commitment to ensuring private
tenants in our borough have safe, high
quality accommodation. In situations
like this, unscrupulous landlords are
12 Landlord & Buy-to-Let Issue 69 • November 2016
not only taking financial advantage of
vulnerable tenants; they’re also placing
tenants’ lives in danger.
“We are improving standards in
Brent’s private rented properties by
working with landlords through our
property licensing regime, which helps
ensure that tenants do not have to live
in filthy, dangerous accommodation.”
Cllr Margaret McLennan, Brent
Council’s Deputy Leader, accompanied
officers on the raid in January. She
said: “Where we find serious breaches
of the law like this, we will always
take landlords and their agents to
court. Mr Sarna had housed a family
in the garden shed and had grossly
overcrowded the two storey property,
leaving tenants in an unsafe, damp
and cockroach-infested house while
taking £3,700 off them each month for
the privilege.
“As he had been granted a licence
Mr Sarna knew exactly what was
required of him, so we are very pleased
that the court shared our view of
the seriousness of the offences and
imposed such severe penalties”.