Landlord crams 31 tenants into what was four-bedroom home

The article below is from Property Industry Eye
Written by Rosalind Renshaw, 29th July 2016:

A televised raid on a rental property uncovered appalling conditions including a Slumdog Millionaire-esque shanty town shack made from wood off-cuts, pallets and tarpaulins.

The raid on the Wembley property by Brent Council's enforcement team, which was featured on BBC London News on Tuesday, found 31 people living in what was originally a four-bedroom house.

The shack, which is in the garden of the house, is unheated and unlit and was being used to house the only woman living at the address.

The property is owned by an landlord who now faces prosecution, a criminal record and an unlimited fine. It has been converted from its original state to have nine bedrooms, each stuffed with bunk beds in order to cram in as many tenants as possible.

It's thought the sheer number of people in the house meant that the landlord was earning in the region of £80,000 a year in rent.

Cllr Harbi Farah, Brent Council's Lead Member for Housing said: "We've seen pest-ridden slums and even beds in sheds before, but this is a new low. The shack looks like something you would expect to see in a Hollywood depiction of a shanty town, not Zone 4 of London." Criminal landlords cannot and will not get away with this.

"The people who pay the heaviest price are tenants, who pay over the odds for substandard accommodation and live in cramped, hazardous conditions. We will prosecute any landlord or agent we find treating their tenants in such a despicable way."

Since the start of this year, the council has ramped up its enforcement activity, with between two to five prosecutions each week and many more expected in the coming months.