Letting Agent involved with renting property as HMO without landlord's consent is hit with £40,000 fine

A Brent based Letting Agency “Easy Let” and several of its employees who knowingly sub-let a property as a HMO without the landlord’s knowledge have been fined nearly £40,000.

The prosecution was executed at Willesden Magistrates Court where the agency, also known as Focus Property Management Ltd, was found guilty of licensing and housing offences.

Brent Council have confirmed that both firms and several of their personnel received penalties in a Court hearing last month. The case involved a landlord of a property in Gowan Road, Willesden, who had rented his five bedroom terraced house to Claudio Crisafulli, who it later transpired was working for Easy Let as a freelance Estate Agent.

Crisafulli manipulated his tenancy by illegally sub-letting the house as a HMO without advising his landlord. In fact the landlord only became aware of the breach after neighbours complained to Brent Council about the constant flow of people in and out of the property.

The total fines and costs in the entire case added to the sum of £19,180.

This article was written by Legal Assistant Daisy Elizabeth, please contact us if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of housing management matters.