Landlords fined £350k over failure to comply with enforcement notice
Two landlords have been hit with a £350,000 fine and an order to cover Camden Council’s costs totalling £247,000 after failing to comply with an enforcement notice that was served more than a decade ago.
Landlords Joel Salem, 65, of Highview Gardens, Finchley and Judith Robinson-Dadoun, 57, of Brampton Grove, Hendon, were handed the fines late last month (24 February) after being found guilty in June 2020 by a judge at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court, under section 179(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
The London borough served the enforcement notice in 2010 after finding a terraced house had been subdivided into seven flats, despite planning permission only green-lighting four flats for the site.
According to the notice, the flats, by reason of their size and floorspace, did not provide a suitable mix of residential accommodation to meet housing needs within the borough or an acceptable standard of living accommodation, contrary to the requirements of policies in Camden's Unitary Development Plan and the residential development standards in the council's planning guidance.
Summonses were later served on the pair in 2018, alleging that the defendants had acted unlawfully by not complying with the notice.
In June 2020, the council successfully prosecuted the joint owners of breaching the 1990 Act.
The pair continued to receive rent from the property during this time, up until selling the property in 2021.
In handing down his sentence last month (28 February), Circuit Judge David Aaronberg KC said both defendants "bear high culpability" in the failure to have complied with the enforcement notice, having been involved in the management and running of the property.
"Each was directly involved in the letting of the property after the notice came into force, as shown on various tenancy and other signed management and other agreements," he said.
"And each would clearly have understood the requirements of the enforcement notice and the implications of failing to comply with its requirements over a protracted period."
The judge was said to be satisfied the property housed large numbers of people in unsatisfactory accommodation for many years after compliance was supposed to have taken place, in a "flagrant" breach of the notice.
Cllr Danny Beales, Cabinet Member for New Homes, Jobs and Community Investment, said: "These developers, sought to make as much money as possible from residents living in poor quality accommodation. We will not accept this sort of behaviour and are satisfied that a sufficient punishment has been given by the Courts, who also recognised that it would be 'wholly wrong for the council's taxpayers to meet the council's costs in these proceedings'.
Adam Carey
