Registering landlords

Casework can include visiting residents at home. I am often appalled at the awful places where some families live in small and often sub-standard accommodation. Where I can, I have reported these poor conditions. Developers and landlords are often greedy, packing in extra tenants and charging excessive rents. It seems that developers and landlords are kings in the current housing market, but there are ways to stop the worst offenders. At Harrow Court, for example, a landlord was ordered to pay more than £160,000 after being convicted of illegally converting the property into flats. She was told to pay a confiscation order of just under £159,000 - a slice of the amount she received in rent payments - for the unlawful renovation of the site into 10 separate dwellings and had a fine of £3,500. In Willesden, I have found and reported a 6-flat building converted to eleven flats. = Brent council wants to ensure the quality of accommodation in the borough, so a pilot scheme to register landlords is being undertaken in parts of Brent including Willesden. Licensing schemes for landlords of "Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO's)" are already in place. The pilot scheme will register other properties, properly converted and managed. The other side of the pilot is enforcing action against the landlords providing sub-standard accommodation.