Landlords hit with £250k confiscation order after dividing home into flats without permission

A Crown Court has ordered a couple to pay a confiscation order of £250,055 for the income generated from charging rent on five units for which Hillingdon Council did not give planning permission.

Amarjit Singh, 54, and Jasbinder Kaur, 45, of Munster Avenue, Hounslow, were also individually fined £10,000 and required to pay prosecution costs of £4,480 following a hearing at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday, 7 April.

The judge granted a period of three months to pay all fines, and default on the payment of the confiscation order could lead to two years and nine months imprisonment.

Officers at the London borough first visited the property in June 2018 and found that a large outbuilding had been constructed in the garden without planning permission.

Internal inspections found it contained a separate bedroom, kitchen, shower room, and lounge, and it was being used as an independent residential unit. 

A follow-up visit in July 2018 led to officers finding the main property

Officers later found that the main property had been illegally subdivided into four self-contained flats with separate bedrooms, kitchens and living spaces. 

Planning enforcement notices were subsequently issued in November 2018, requiring the owners to return the building and outbuilding to use as a single dwelling.

However, an unscheduled inspection later found that the enforcement notices had been ignored.

Singh and Kaur pleaded guilty to two offences of breaching planning control at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on Friday 23 February 2024. Following a financial investigation by the council's trading standards team uncovering the rental income received from the illegal flats, the case was referred to the Crown Court for sentencing and confiscation proceedings.

Cllr Steve Tuckwell, Hillingdon Council's Cabinet Member for Planning, Housing and Growth said: "This is a significant result for our planning enforcement and trading standards teams and sends a clear message that the creation of beds in sheds and illegally rented properties will not be condoned in our borough.

"We're determined to keep residents safe from harm and ensure everyone can live in safe, good quality homes, and we will continue to take legal action against any landlords who break the rules."

Adam Carey