News
Newham landlord sentenced to 175 hours community service for harassing tenant
Since January 2013, landlords of all privately rented properties in Newham have been required to have a property licence. Failure to apply for a licence can result in prosecution and an unlimited fine.
The council uses private rented property licensing to ensure that all privately rented properties are well managed. Many landlords do this already, but a small minority of bad landlords neglect their management responsibilities.
So far Newham Council has processed almost 43,000 applications for licences and carried out more than 1,000 prosecutions against landlords. The latest case was against Olanrewaju Sharomi, 49, who was convicted in December at Snaresbrook Crown Court of harassing a mother and her two children aged six and ten at the property they rented from her in Dennison Point, Gibbins Road, Stratford.
Sharomi, from Dagenham, appeared for sentence on 13 January and was ordered to complete 175 hours of community service. The court heard she visited the victim, sometimes twice a day, demanding that she leave the property. She also forced her way into the flat and left the tenant and her children without electricity.
Sharomi has also been ordered to pay £26,776 in court costs; £20,082 by 1 June and a further £6,694 by 1 November 2017.
It was the second time the council’s private housing team had prosecuted registered childminder Sharomi, a former board member of the Carpenters Estate Tenant Management Organisation. She was convicted in December 2015 of failing to license the leasehold flat in Dennison Point and also of supplying false information to the council. She claimed she lived at the flat, but her childcare business was registered at the Dagenham address. She was fined a total of £13,000.
Councillor Andrew Baikie, mayoral adviser for housing, Newham Council said:
“Sharomi is exactly the sort of person our property licensing scheme is designed to drive out of the borough. Her convictions are a clear message to other landlords – you will not be allowed to exploit our residents and prosper.“
Further information about property licensing requirements in Newham is available at www.londonpropertylicensing.co.uk/newham, or by visiting the Council’s website.
For all the latest news and events, you can sign up for the free London Property Licensing newsletter here.
