Tenants’ rent tribunal win may cost billionaire landlord dearly – claim

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Billionaire landlord John Christodolou could face a deluge of rent claims after a judge ordered him to pay back £18,000 to former tenants in his Stoke Newington block.

The three members of Somerford Grove Renters (SGR) campaign group received a Rent Repayment Order for eight months’ worth of rent.

It has promised to file nearly 50 more cases from tenants, representing half a million pounds in possible claims, after a First Tier Property Tribunal heard how the 56-year-old tax exile had failed to license an HMO in Simpson House, Somerford Grove.

The tenants told the tribunal that their landlord had neglected to install fire safety measures. They also reported a lack of heating and hot water, poor building maintenance and lack of pest control measures

But a director of his investment company said that maintenance works had been carried out promptly when complaints were received.

Rent reduction

Last summer, SGR wrote to the lettings agent that represents Christodoulou, Tower Quay, asking for a rent reduction for struggling residents in next-door Olympic House (pictured, above), which he largely owns.

After initially saying renters’ requests for relief would be dealt with individually, they were turned down and instead told to use money saved on lunch, holiday, entertainment, clothes and travel to pay rent, it is claimed.

The judge ruled: “The tribunal does not accept that…a company with a large property portfolio could not have become or made itself aware of the additional licensing scheme that had come into effect on 1st October 2018.”

One of the winning tenants, Marc Sutton, told the Hackney Citizen that the victory would be the first of many. He said: “Our billionaire landlord responded to a request for a rent reduction by those of us who have lost income due to the pandemic by issuing eviction notices.

“After a year of campaigning and fighting, we are thrilled to have achieved such a major win, the first of many more to come.” 

Read the tribunal ruling in full.

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Five-fold increase in London rent repayment orders this summer

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London councils are relying more heavily on low-cost ways to penalise landlords and letting agents, resulting in a whopping 532% increase in Rent Repayment Orders during the last three months.

Fines totalling £139,146 were handed out in July, more than doubling June’s figure of £42,500 and up on May’s figure of £22,000, reports geospatial technology firm Kamma.

Its analysis of the Mayor of London’s Rogue Landlord and Letting Agent Checker (RLAC) shows £6.5 million in fines have been handed out since it was set up in 2018.

Both landlords and agents are at risk, with landlords fined more often and agents fined more heavily; the largest single fines ever recorded are £100,000 for a landlord and £167,000 for a letting agent.

Despite housing officers’ work being impacted by lockdown rules and regulations, this data reveals a dramatic return to enforcement practices, says Kamma CEO Orla Shields (pictured, below), who adds that councils are also deploying tenants to support enforcement in a low-cost way by using a checker search tool.

“While the pandemic seems to have reduced enforcement levels, it did not slow the level of regulation which is higher now than at any time before,” she says.

Tower Hamlets Council has issued almost 70 RROs, reclaiming £200,000 in rent, and with other local authorities following suit it’s more important than ever that agents get up to speed, advises Kamma.

“As the NRLA has recently pointed out, it’s right that councils enforce their own regulations, which otherwise would be a tax on good landlords, with rogue individuals continuing as before,” adds Shields.

“The danger is that good landlords and letting agents offering high quality homes to market could still get caught out by a change in regulation. With tenants acting as enforcers, agents and landlords have to stay one step ahead.”

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