Illegal HMO: Rogue landlord sentenced

Nursery assistant Mona Jetwani, 53, who gave her address as St Pauls Road, Egham, the bungalow which was converted, had previously admitted 10 charges against her under the Housing Act 2004. In summary these were that she:

• Operated a licensable House of Multiple Occupation without a licence
• Failed to supply a Gas Safety Report
• Failed to comply with fire safety regulations
• Failed to comply with a number of regulation requirements relating to size of the rooms, access to washing facilities, etc

On 27 November, the same judge who heard the case, District Judge Cooper, sitting at Staines Magistrates’ Court, ruled that Jetwani should be fined £12,000 and ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge. The fine was initially set at £18,000 but was reduced by the judge due to Jetwani’s early guilty plea.

Jetwani was prosecuted by Runnymede Borough Council, after the Council was alerted by anonymous tip offs that the bungalow was being illegally used as an unlicenced house of multiple occupancy.

Jetwani and her brother initially became aggressive and threatened to make complaints when Council staff tried to visit the property to find out how many people lived there. They claimed they would undress a baby to create a safeguarding issue to try to stop visits.

Council workers eventually had to apply for a warrant to enter the building. They found shoddy construction methods had been used to create 15 spaces, including four in the loft space, and three which could only be accessed by going out of the building and back in through separate doors. That meant access to showers and toilets did not meet the requirements of an HMO.

None of the rooms were big enough to be of legal size for occupation and there was just one small kitchen and only two bathrooms.

When workers spoke to tenants they found evidence of up to 15 people living in the building. Interviews with tenants who were present during the inspection found they were paying between £85 and £125 per week to live in the bungalow.

Council staff found:

• Mould growing on the floor and ceiling of one bathroom, which also had penetrating damp.
• The other bathroom had clear glass in the windows, meaning no privacy for occupants.
• An inadequate number of smoke alarms, none of which were interlinked.
• Some of the 15 ‘rooms’ had large gaps in plasterboard partitions offering inadequate fire separation. Other rooms had no windows or natural light.
• One room was created under the eaves in the converted loft and had a mattress that could only be used by crawling on to it. This room had no external windows.
• Council staff had to crouch or kneel in order to get into other rooms in the loft space, because the ceiling height was so low.
• Some tenants had only camp beds to sleep on.
• A fridge was provided under the stairs presenting a fire risk in what should be a protected means of escape for occupants in the event of a fire.

When Council staff visited the garden they found piles of rubbish and discovered that the patio had been covered, and appeared to be used as a communal space. They found a set of bedside drawers being used to store fresh food.

Further inspections of the property revealed that some of the rooms were as small as 3.48 square metres. The smallest acceptable size for rooms in an HMO property is 6.51m.

Following intervention by the Council, in a process which began in July 2023, Jetwani informed the Council that remedial work would be carried out, and a small number of basic changes had been attempted.

A Council spokesperson said: “Our first thought is for the people who found themselves living in these dangerous conditions; hopefully they have found better accommodation.

“This bungalow was in an appalling state. Our environmental health staff cannot remember another incident where a landlord had tried to profit to this extent. People’s lives have been put at risk because of these living conditions and a family home was turned into a cash cow.

“People running HMOs need to do so within the rules for good reason. This prosecution came about through anonymous tip offs and we would absolutely encourage anyone else who believes an HMO is being run dangerously or without a licence to contact us. It took over a year to deal with this case but we do not give up when safety is at risk. The majority of landlords operate their properties within the law, but the sentence in this case should be a wake up call to the few who do not, wherever in the borough they are.”

Speaking in court as she issued the fine, District Judge Cooper said: “These people were low income, English was not their first language, and they were vulnerable. I place culpability at its highest – though the Defendant may not have understood she needed a licence, she must have understood these rooms were very small, and the partitioning was inadequate. In my view the partitioning was put up in a hurry to allow [the defendant] to make the most gain from the small space. It was telling that in her PACE interview she didn’t refer to them as rooms but as “spaces”, which suggests she thought of them for the purposes of money-making… these were people who can’t get other accommodation. The fact that they can’t get accommodation does not mean that the accommodation provided to them should be of such a low standard.”