Posts with tag: rogue landlords

A notorious landlord in Southend, Essex has been banned from letting his property, which was found to lack basic health and safety standards.

Several complaints were made about Robert Crow, who let 19 Devereux Road in SS1.

Water leaking through lights, a filthy shared kitchen, disgusting bathroom conditions and a lack of washing facilities were among some of the major issues uncovered during an inspection of the property.

Tenants also found that their tiny bedrooms were cluttered with the landlord’s personal belongings when they moved into the property.

Unfortunately, anti-social behaviour was not uncommon at the property, which was the scene of a stabbing in October 2017.

Magistrates found Crow guilty of 18 offences relating to the dangerous, unsanitary and substandard conditions at the property, which he shared with his tenants.

The landlord was fined £36,000, and ordered to pay costs of £7,865.10 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Crow was also served a Criminal Behaviour Order preventing anyone from entering the property, other than himself and his immediate family. Breaching the order could result in up to two years’ imprisonment.

The notorious landlord has now been ordered to pay close to £90,000 in fines and costs over the past couple of years, due to a number of offences relating to his property in Southend.

Councillor Tony Cox, the Cabinet Member for Adults and Housing, welcomes the prosecution: “This landlord has knowingly been putting his tenants at undue risk and failed to provide even the most basic standards of habitation.

“We have tried to work with the landlord to bring the property up to standard for several years, but he has taken little to no action, yet continued to cash in his rent.”

He continues: “Anyone who sees the photographs taken at this house would be rightly disgusted and would immediately understand why we have taken such firm action in this instance.

“The property was not fit to be rented out, and this prosecution ensures that Mr. Crow won’t be able to in future. The justifiably high price he is now paying for his reckless neglect should serve as a warning shot to other landlords who think it is acceptable to rent out severely substandard properties.”

Landlords, the recent surge in stories regarding rogue landlords should serve as a reminder to always comply with the law, and protect your tenants’ health and safety.

Two landlords have been caught on camera by the BBC offering sex for rent to prospective female tenants.

A BBC journalist, in an undercover sting, exposed the landlords, after they posted advertisements on Craigslist, seeking sexual favours in exchange for a free place to live.

The men, both from Bristol, offered to waive rent, cover bills and even pay expenses if they could sleep with a tenant half their age as often as once a week.

Shown on BBC Inside Out West, the investigation worked with the charity Safe Lives to expose the shocking way that sex for rent landlords are exploiting female tenants.

One landlord, called Mike, told the undercover reporter that she could have a designer two-bedroom flat with “everything provided”, as long as they were in a “friends with benefits relationship”.

He is recorded saying: “The room, the rent, all the bills, everything paid for. And I’ll even give you an allowance every week so that you feel that you’re looked after. The benefit is that you sleep with me once a week.”

After being exposed by the programme, Mike said that he was “pretending to be a landlord”, as part of research into the exploitation of women in the UK.

Another landlord, calling himself Tom, who is in his 60s, told reporter Rachel Stonehouse that she would receive free rent, gas, electric and wifi if she moved into his flat.

Landlords Caught on Camera by BBC Offering Sex for Rent

She then asked him if they had to have sex, to which he replied: “I’m getting embarrassed now. Do what you want, and if you want to make love, make love. Give it a week or two if you’re not ready straightaway. But, at the end of the day, yes [sex is required].”

Tom refused to respond when he was told that the BBC was filming him.

One woman from Bristol told the show that she had been asked to partake in group sex to get her rent for free.

‘Everyone I spoke to just seemed a bit dangerous,” she said. “One guy expected me to sleep with him, but also having group sex with a lot of his friends. It’s not worth it, doing it for a bit of money.”

The programme exposed the range of adverts that have appeared online demanding similar arrangements of tenants. Offering sex for rent is illegal, but, in one online advert, a 35-year-old man asked for a picture of the tenant and offered a room for £1 in return for “female services”.

The advert read: “Hi! I’m a 35-year-old male, fairly good looking. I have my own house with a spare room available. I am looking for a female lodger, possibly rent free, depending on services offered. Please reply with pic and a bit about yourself, thanks.

“I have a high sex drive, and am very adventurous and have no limits. Therefore (and this has worked over the last year), I am thinking of a couple of evenings a week where you surrender to me. Sometimes I will not want anything but will to play with you. Sometimes we will play online together. Sometimes we will role play. One thing I can guarantee is you will be satisfied and it won’t be boring.

“You must like sex, and be adventurous as well. On the other nights of the week, we would be like any other people sharing a house. Please let me know what you think and let me know your limits and experience as well.”

Nikki Watson, the Assistant Chief Constable for Avon and Somerset Police, responds to the findings: “It’s worrying that, in this day and age, anyone believes it to be appropriate to advertise accommodation in return for sex. This appears to be an emerging issue, with incidents not being reported to police locally or nationally. I’m very concerned that vulnerable people could be exploited in these circumstances.

“I welcome debate on this issue, and would call for national coordination between the Ministry of Justice, Crown Prosecution Service and police to find a way forward. I would also call on classified ad providers to step up their processes to identify and reject such adverts.”

She adds: “Sexual exploitation is wrong, and I’d encourage anyone who has been affected by it, or who suspects someone is being subjected to it, to report it to the police.”

The Inside Out West show was first shown on BBC One on Monday 10^th September at 7.30pm. It is now available through the BBC iPlayer.

A landlord has been fined £5,000, plus £500 in legal costs, 100 hours of unpaid work, and given 20 rehabilitation days.

He’s been spared jail, even after he was found to have made 183 videos of naked women, planting cameras in his tenants’ rooms so he could watch them showering and having sex.

Paul Dunster, 59, made the videos over a ten year period to ‘satisfy his sexual needs’.

He initially denied two charges of voyeurism, but later admitted making the secret videos after setting up cameras in the bedroom and bathroom of one of the properties he rented out.

In the Sexual Offences Act 2003, voyeurism is a relatively new offence. These cases often involve an individual filming someone without their consent. They contain a maximum sentence of two years.

Police raided the former security worker’s home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and found two memory cards containing the voyeuristic videos.

The court heard that Dunster was landlord of seven flats, and had total outstanding mortgages of £870,000.

Prosecutor David Reid told Portsmouth Crown Court: “The first memory card had 18 videos which showed sexual encounters between men and women in the bedroom.

“Those videos lasted a total of 20 minutes but none of the tenants were aware of the camera.

“The second memory card was taken from the bathroom and showed women having baths and showers – women who were also totally unaware they were filmed.

“There was significant planning to this and it was an abuse of trust as the women were tenants.”

Judge David Melville QC said: “The residents would have been disgusted to know you had a camera set up in the bedroom to film people having sex.

“I’m sure people would also have been disgusted to know you set up a camera in the bathroom to satisfy your sexual needs. It is sad story and one which is disgusting.”