A firm of property agents that conducted a campaign of harassment against some tenants has been fined.
Wimbledon-based Spudnic Ltd was ordered to pay £20,561 in fines and prosecution costs after the Wandsworth Council took it to court when officials uncovered a prolonged campaign of dirty tricks against its tenants.
Kingston Crown Court heard that Spudnic turned off the water and electricity, damaged the toilet, sealed up the letterboxes and sent in builders without notice, who then left the property full of rubble and rubbish.
One of the tenants, a librarian, returned home from work to find the front door locks changed and belongings packed up and removed from the house.
Spudnic also sent quasi-legal documents to the tenants telling them they had to leave, even though the company did not have an eviction order.
One Spanish-born tenant received a letter from Spudnic telling him they needed to see his passport and wage slips and that if he failed to provide them, they would report him to the Home Office and also to the Inland Revenue fraud department.
Tenants were also sent threatening letters warning them not to co-operate with council officials and to refuse them entry.
On one occasion, tenants returned to find a notice on the front door telling them the electricity supply was dangerous and that they had to move out. But while they were standing on the doorstep discussing what to do next, two new tenants arrived who had been told by Spudnic they could move in.
The court heard that the company had been charging the tenants upwards of £20,000 a year in rent for the five-bedroom property in Roehampton.
Commenting on the case, the council’s housing spokesman, Cllr Paul Ellis, said: “This was a truly shocking and relentless campaign of harassment and intimidation carried out against innocent tenants.
“The tenants were paying their rent on time and were not causing any problems to their neighbours. Yet this company seemed determined to drive them out. Its behaviour was totally unacceptable.
“Landlords and their agents should not be under any illusion. We will simply not tolerate them bullying their tenants in this way.
“If you are a landlord and you would like a tenant to leave, then you simply must go through the proper legal channels.
“Any tenant who is threatened with an illegal eviction or harassment should contact the council’s housing department straight away.”
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Comments
Only £20,561 fine and costs. It should have been at least 3x (geddit!).
P.S. I just about know how to add 10 + 4 after months of practice so could we have a different combination please?
I means 2 + 2 = 5 doesn't it?
Why haven't they been closed down - surely it is criminal behaviour? Unfortunately fines are not enough to stop these types of crooks who intimidate law abiding tenants - they need to be imprisoned.
This is almost unbelievable in this day and age
Anyway it is obviously an HMO and needed to be managed in accordance with relevant HMO Management Regs even if it did not need a licence.
One assumes therefore that a fat, juicy repayment of rent claim is under way under those Regs too. As usual this will hurt much more than the PoE Act 1977 Court fine.