A landlord has been fined £5,000 and ordered to pay more than an additional £1,750 for carving up a house into rental flats without consent.
Shiraz Akbar Khan, from Walthamstow, was prosecuted by Waltham Forest council for the unauthorised conversion of a single dwelling Leyton into two self-contained flats.
The trial had originally been scheduled for October but Khan's no-show at that time and inability to produce a medical certificate to cover his absence led Stratford Magistrates Court to add £450 abortive costs to the £5,000 fine and other costs of £1,558 plus a victim surcharge of £120.
Khan has been given six months to pay.
The landlord was not legally represented in court and pleaded not guilty, but the district judge said Khan - who runs a business letting out three properties - could and should have taken legal advice.
In September last year the council brought into force an Article 4 direction HMOs stopping landlords of single properties carving them up by removing permitted development rights', which would otherwise allow a landlord to change the property without planning consent.
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