[Ben Reeve Lewis is out and about …)
I was out with two different councils in the week on multi-agency operations in overcrowded and unlicensed HMOs.
Different HMOs
One in West London and one in East London and I was struck by the local variations.
East London, like my old stomping ground of Lewisham in South East London, seems mainly dogged by large Victorian buildings converted without planning permission behind closed doors into rabbit warrens of unbelievable filth and nastiness.
Far West London is all beds in sheds, some of them quite nice.
It occurred to me that the main driver is simply the gardens. Leafy West London largely having the space for the things where heavily built up East and South East London generally don’t.
Elementary my dear Watson.
A new scam
Also came across a new scam of a letting agent trying to subvert tenancy laws by insisting that scabby outbuildings behind shops are in fact holiday lets, for which they issue monthly renewed agreements insisting these places are hotels.
Nice try boys.
They catch out the clueless foreign tenant market but not when it comes to the attention of tenants rights advocates, who then fetch up with enforcement teams. False economy methinks.
Keeping an eye on prices
As a soon to be house seller/buyer, I am keeping a keen eye on property prices and so are the BBC apparently, God rest their unbiased reporting. I read with interest this alarm call that Brexit has caused a 1% dip in house prices since July whilst at the same time telling us that they are still 8.4% higher than last year.
Not so rosy in Knightsbridge however where their local prices have dropped 7.3% over the past year. Mind you that will still leave the average Knightsbridge bed in shed @ around £7 million
Removal firm Bishops Move give us a different angle on it though, informing us that they are seeing jobs cancelled and delayed since the historic vote but when you read into all of these articles the factual underpinning seems to largely be predictions by think tanks and survey groups.
In the wake of Brexit the sense of impending doom hasn’t gone away at all and journalists from all camps are throwing their hat into the ring to
- a: make it look like they have their finger on the pulse and
- b: put themselves in a position to say “I told you first” if the wheels do come off.
The BBC, that once bastion of honest reporting as I wrote last week, are the worst of the lot and yet people still trust them.
The prestige of the BBC
I filmed an episode of ‘Inside Out’ for BBC 1 last year and took the crew out in my car which is covered in mud from the dog.
Frazzy was horrified when she found out. I dismissively said “Oh they’re fine” but her mouth fell open and she said in hushed tones “But it’s the BBC”, as if somehow they are related to the Queen.
She wasn’t bothered when I had Channel 5 out with me in the same car…………they’re just Channel 5 after all. Peasants!
Rogue landlord story
Ever on the lookout for rogue landlord stories, I fell across the sad tale of Cardiff landlord Kowser Chowdury sad as in “Sadly predictable”.
He claimed that he couldn’t afford to fix the problems that the council had served notices on him to make his property safe for the tenants.
Fined £4,800 for fire safety breaches, fined another £5,000 for failing to comply with a prohibition order.
Employing the other sadly predictable old trick of the rogue landlord he tried getting rid of the original tenants and replacing them with new ones who didn’t know about the council involvement. On a later visit the council found the replacement tenants and served a notice on Chowdury requiring him to provide names and details of the newbies, again he failed to comply….yet another nick.
And the saga continues with Ms C failing to turn up for the court hearing. Presumably, he couldn’t afford the bus fare. While the landlord staunchly continues to believe that if he sticks his head in the sand long enough the council will go away.
While the landlord staunchly continues to believe that if he sticks his head in the sand long enough the council will go away.
Unfortunately, he will now be officially listed as a sitting duck while his continued non-compliance and non-attendance robs him of any viable defence.
A common ploy
Maybe he will employ one of the other sadly predictable tricks like the rogue landlord my team once prosecuted who was abusive and threatening on the doorstep as he stepped out of his Mercedes only to turn up in court wearing a threadbare cardigan and on the arms of an interpreter saying he didn’t speak English and didn’t understand the proceedings, while he professed a heart condition and managed to look more frail than Mahatma Ghandi in a wind tunnel.
Unfortunately, the judge bought it.
A good plan
The Guardian ran a rare piece of good housing news this week with the story of real community development when you get the planners, developers and politicians out of the way.
Exercising Cameron’s Big Society idea (remember that?) Haringey council in North London asked local residents what they wanted to do with part of the St Ann’s hospital plot that was being sold off.
The plan before asking the locals what they wanted was simply to build private housing developments with 14% affordable housing (if you are from Mars or Cairo reading this “Affordable housing” means 80% of market rents, which in London means it is unaffordable…..its called linguistics) but Haringey residents saw the bigger picture and voted to integrate the site in with remaining health services.
Providing accommodation for hospital staff and patients seeking independent living with support at the same time.
Holistic problem solving as opposed to the other sadly predictable story of the fastest way to a buck.
What made me smile this week
A couple of weeks back it was discovering young Jacob Collier and his multi-talented take on Nu Jazz but this week its going back in time and discovering the truly wonderful James Booker, who Dr John described as “The best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced”.
Not only an astonishing piano player (imagine Mozart playing boogie Blues) but a singer of pure soul.
Pour yourself a glass of wine, stick the headphones on and listen to this. Why was he never huge?
See ya next week.
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