The property on Vicarage Road in Leyton
(Picture: Waltham Forest Council)A “duplicitous” landlord who left his tenants living in rodent infested conditions has been fined more than £50,000 in a prosecution brought by Waltham Forest council.
A court heard how Arbab Ahmed, of Eastern Avenue in Ilford, allowed his tenants to live in “atrocious conditions” with people “sleeping next to rodent droppings”.
Ahmed, who rented two properties on Vicarage Road in Leyton, was found guilty of ten housing violations at Stratford Magistrates Court.
Waltham Forest council was first made aware of Ahmed’s failures to properly protect tenants in June 2019 when council workers visited the premises after receiving a complaint by tenant.
It emerged Ahmed had harassed them for arranging for their gas meter to be removed which would leave them without heating or hot water.
The investigation found Ahmed had split the building into two properties, including having a “poorly adapted shop premises” on the ground floor which was occupied by a family.
The upstairs flat was found to have been rented out to six men, including two in the “tiny attic” space.
The second flat was found to have been extended over three floors with a poorly constructed and part-completed rear extension and a ladder providing access to the attic space which had just been boarded and carpeted for use as a makeshift bedroom.
Officers also found evidence the property was rodent-infested, had inadequate locks to the ground floor flat, cracked tiles in the bathrooms and leaking waste pipes to the ground floor bathroom.
Also they found a defective smoke alarm to the ground floor hallway, a faulty boiler and lack of fire doors.
A month after the first visit the council issued a Prohibition Order which prevented the ground floor commercial unit to be used as resident accommodation.
The council also imposed an Interim Management Order for the first floor flat, allowing Waltham Forest council to take full management control of it.
Under the order, Ahmed was forbidden to access the property or contact, harass or bully the tenants living in it.
But he was found to have flouted it and kept in custody for a seven-day period as part of a separate action in 2019.
On December 9 last year, the case was heard at Straford Magistrates in Ahmed’s absence.
District judge William Nelson said the landlord as “duplicitous” who had “deceived multiple tenants”.
Judge Nelson added Ahmed had caused a “significant degree of harm” to his tenants, a number of whom were vulnerable people on low incomes and whose first language was not English limiting their ability to complain about their circumstances.
Ahmed’s managing agent Eden Homes pleaded guilty to three charges and he was sentenced.
Cllr Louise Mitchell, Waltham Forest Council’s cabinet member for Housing and Homelessness Prevention, said: “Arbab Ahmed is among the worst of the worst landlords that our team has ever encountered – and the District Judge certainly agreed.
“The tenants in his property were living in appalling, dangerous and unsanitary conditions, and when they raised complaints, they were harassed by the landlord as he tried to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.
“We will always use the full extent of our powers to crack down on landlords who try to exploit their tenants, but cases like this show once again the very real need to ensure that landlords are registered, so that people like Ahmed are stopped from treating innocent people in this way.”
Ahmed was fined £45,000 and he ordered to pay the council’s costs of £14,404.08.
Eden Homes was also fined £3,700 with a victim surcharge of £180 and also ordered to pay £1,557 towards the council’s costs.
