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Harrow Council Leader Speaks Out About Landlord Rogues

The leader of Harrow Council has spoken out again against irresponsible buy to let investment landlords following another inappropriate property discovered by enforcement officers.

Enforcers came across a second poorly maintained property, noting a ‘sea of mattresses’ and makeshift bunkbeds at the two-bedroom house in Wealdstone. It was thought that the home could house as many as 18 people, including children. However, the landlord claimed that everything was as it should be with the house.

The property was an unlicensed house in multiple occupation (HMO) and had no smoke detectors, faulty electrics, and was covered in mould. This led to the leader of Harrow Council reiterating his pledge to weed out irresponsible landlords from the sector. Rogue landlords can pose a danger to tenants’ lives by letting out unsafe and worrying properties. They also pose a danger to the sector in general, with the action of a small minority of landlords bringing the buy to let market in general into disrepute.

Councillor Graham Henson, leader of Harrow Council, said: ‘What kind of monster would profit from housing children in filthy and dangerous conditions like these? What if these faulty electrics caught fire? Or the rotten ceilings collapsed? It’s a nightmare that belongs in the Victorian era, not today. It keeps me awake at night, worrying about illegal HMOs like these and the criminals that rent them out.’

He asserted: ‘We will never, ever stop uncovering properties like these and punishing those responsible.’

In a particularly worrying turn of events, enforcement officers were forced to make a swift escape as the bathroom floor began to fall from underneath them.

Councillor Henson insisted that formal action will be taken against the landlord and an emergency order has been put in place. An emergency order will prevent anyone from living in the house until it is made safe for human habitation.

Source: Residential Landlord