Professional landlords and property investors that cover their properties with landlord insurance will be delighted by the news that Brent Council in London has been awarded cash to combat the growth of “shed with bed” illegal landlords.
Brent Council has managed to secure a grant of over £160,000 from the Department of Communities and Local Government to tackle the growing number of tenants who are being exploited by callous landlords. The criminal property owners are providing tenants with squalid living conditions often squeezing several families into one small living space. The illegal landlords recruit their tenants from migrant workers who are often ignorant about their rights and are scared of dealing with the authorities due to language problems.
A typical case was described by Naomi Moore, a housing case worker in Brent, she said: “I had a case of a Polish client living in a disused fire station or a barn and the landlord had maximized every inch of the property by installing false walls to create rooms in order to maximise the rent. There was no running water, no electricity, no gas supply. It was completely illegal. The man said there were lots of people in the property – at least 20 – with sometimes two people sharing one room and this man had brought over his wife and child from Poland, who were living with him. I asked him why he lived there and he said: ‘I have no choice. I cannot afford anywhere else.”
Cash from the grant will be used to track down the illegal lets, which often are nothing more than sheds or garages at the bottom of a garden. The council intends to take aerial photographs of the area to help them locate the hidden buildings and they expect to increase the number of enforcement notices served on illegal landlords fourfold by the end of the year.