Landlord ordered to pay £220k following enforcement notice dispute
A landlord has been ordered to pay £226,000 following a long-running legal dispute with Haringey Council over an unlawful change of use of a property into flats.
Pathfield Estates Ltd had previously appealed to the High Court concerning the wording of an enforcement notice that required the landlord to restore the building, which was found divided into five flats, back to its historic state of two flats.
According to a case summary from Roderick Morton of Ivy Legal, the point of contention in the notice, which was issued in 2008, was a requirement "to restore the property as two flats".
In response to the notice, the landlord evicted the tenants and converted the property into a single dwelling instead of two flats.
A council officer closed the case, finding the landlord had complied with the notice and that a single dwelling was an acceptable outcome.
However, an investigation launched in 2020 found the property had later been converted into six flats, in breach of the 2008 notice.
This led to a conviction at the Crown Court for failure to comply with the notice, despite an argument from the landlord that the notice had been varied or waived by the decision to accept the single dwelling use as compliance, so removing the need to convert to two flats.
The landlord appealed to the High Court, which dismissed the landlord's appeal and found it had not complied with the notice.
Pathfield Estates was ordered to pay the council's costs of £11,000 by the High Court.
At a sentencing last month, the company was ordered to pay £226,433, which included a £50,000 fine for not complying with the enforcement notice, a confiscation order under the Proceedings of Crime Act of £163,258 to reflect its financial benefit from breaching the enforcement notice, plus a further £13,175 in costs.
Haringey Council's Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning, Cllr Sarah Williams, said: "This conviction serves as a warning to disreputable landlords operating in our borough.
"Our residents deserve to live in safe, high-quality homes and we will not hesitate to take strong action if landlords flout planning laws or leave tenants to languish in poor conditions."
Adam Carey
