News
Brent Council secures their largest fine against a criminal landlord who made tenants’ lives a misery
A criminal landlord has been ordered to pay £60,170 fine and £6,000 court costs after being found guilty of making tenants’ lives a misery through licensing breaches. The whopping fine is the biggest fine Brent Council has secured to date and is a reflection of the truly appalling conditions tenants were living in.
According to the council, Hugo Pulqueiro sent in the heavies to remove the belongings of one of his tenants and change the locks to kick her out after she complained of the deteriorating conditions inside the overcrowded flat she was sharing with six other tenants in High Road, Willesden.
Council enforcement officers raided the property after seeing a shocking video filmed by the victim who found herself homeless and her belongings damaged outside the flat one freezing winter’s night in February. She had been turfed out of her home because Mr Pulqueiro hadn’t wanted his tenants to complain about their horrific exploitation.
Photo showing entrance to the property
Inside the four-bedroom flat, Mr Pulqueiro of Park Avenue, Willesden Green, created a partition wall down the middle of two single rooms to create two illegal micro rooms that he then rented out to more tenants.
He failed to give his tenants written agreements, depriving them of their rights, and sent over different strangers to collect their rent in cash at irregular times during the week. His tenants told officers that they had never even met their landlord and that they didn’t know how many people had keys to their home.
Mr Pulqueiro also neglected to protect his tenants’ deposits, failed to meet fire safety regulations and ignored his responsibility to maintain the property to a liveable standard. The Fire Brigade was called to the property to put out a fire a week before the enforcement officers’ raid.
Cllr Eleanor Southwood, Cabinet Member for Housing and Welfare Reform at Brent Council, said:
“This is an absolutely shocking case and it’s appalling that Mr Pulqueiro believed he could get away with such gross mistreatment of his tenants. No renter in Brent should be forced to endure what these tenants went through. We will never stop fighting for decent living conditions and are using our licensing schemes to drive up standards in the private sector. We will do all we can to ensure that slum landlords like Mr Pulqueiro feel the full force of the law.“
Mr Pulqueiro was found guilty of licensing breaches at Willesden Magistrates Court on 13 June.
A free guide containing more detailed information about property licensing schemes in the London Borough of Brent is available here.
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