Tenants in a block of flats in Waltham forest, London have successfully managed to bring a rogue landlord to heel after suffering years of hassle.
Jeanette Eccles and Silvia Nicoleascu both lived in the same apartment block and both suffered due to changes made by the landlord to optimise her profits. Miss Eccles’ ground floor flat was constantly flooded with leaks from the flat above and Mrs Nicoleascu, who lived above Miss Eccles, was paying the gas bill and council tax bill for a one bedroomed apartment that the landlord had divided into two. The confined space had 5 people living there but without appropriate facilities. It is not known whether the landlord had purchased property insurance but she certainly hadn’t received planning permission to re-arrange the apartments.
Once the tenants had plucked up courage to approach their local council, enforcement officers took the matter in hand. Councillor Clyde Loakes said: “I hope that the enforcement action that we are pursuing in this case will make any landlords think twice before they imagine they can ride roughshod over our planning policy and carve up their properties into flats. The landlord would have been refused permission, the fact that they didn’t even bother and simply went ahead with the conversion regardless is now going to cost them a pretty penny as the enforcement notice requires the flats be restored to the original configuration, removing all dividing walls, kitchen and bathroom facilities.”
The sad fact of course is that once again one bad landlord gives the rest a bad name, and respectable landlords in the area will now have their work cut out persuading prospective tenants they are in good hands and can be trusted to treat them fairly.