Landlord fined £12k for illegally renting out basement

A landlord has been fined just over £12,000 after repeatedly ignoring warnings from council planning enforcement officers not to carry on renting out a room underneath an outbuilding at his home.

Gurcharan Singh, 57, of Gunnersbury Lane, Chiswick, in west London, illegally rented out the basement for four years despite a number of warnings from planning officers telling him to take the space out of residential use.

An investigation by Hounslow Council revealed that Singh rent out the basement from 2013 until earlier this year, despite the fact that it was cramped with no natural light and just one access route via a flight of stairs.

Cllr Steve Curran, leader of Hounslow Council and cabinet member for planning, said: “Some landlords are trying to let out sub-standard illegal housing to vulnerable tenants in the hope of making a quick profit.

“We are taking and will continue to take, the strongest action possible against these individuals until this blight on our borough is eliminated once and for all.”

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