Lambeth takes on developers who piled in ‘too many unauthorized flats’ – South London News

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

A pair of developers who have crammed 14 flats into two adjoining properties intended to hold just six are locked in a battle with the local authority over the future of the extra flats.

In February, Lambeth council issued two enforcement notices ordering the owners of Seven and Nine Rita Road in Vauxhall to stop using the unauthorized flats on the two properties and remove them by October.

But two appeals were lodged against the council’s order in April, claiming the enforcement notices would have “very serious implications for the existing tenants living in the flats”.

The Planning Inspectorate – a government body that deals with planning appeals – will now make a decision on the future of the flats.

According to the enforcement notices issued by the council, the unauthorized apartments result in ‘substandard, cramped and overintensive accommodation to the detriment of current or future occupants’.

The dwellings “have not adopted the minimum recommended spatial standards, lack storage space and have increased opportunities for noise impact between apartments,” according to the notice.

A “family-sized apartment” created in the basement in each of the properties is particularly criticized. The apartment in each building is described as offering “dreary living space and inadequate outlook” and having “unsustainable dependence on artificial light”.

Building work to create the extra flats appears to have started on the two properties sometime between 2021 and 2022, shortly after Lambeth council accepted a planning application to make changes to seven to nine Rita Road in April 2021.

The approved plans include erecting a rear loft extension, creating a basement lightwell and interior alterations to the two properties, but do not mention the addition of more flats.

The planning application approved in 2021 was submitted by Glenhazel Ltd. According to Companies House – the UK’s government register of companies – the sole officer of this company is Muhammad Nadeem Siddiqi, a chartered accountant.

Mr Siddiqi is also the officer of a company called Henley Beech Limited, which appealed against Lambeth council’s enforcement action at seven Rita Road to the Planning Inspectorate.

The company is registered at the same address on Trinity Road in Tooting, South London as Glenhazel Ltd. This address is a block of flats subdivided into a number of flats.

Another company, Ascot Gate Limited, appealed the enforcement action at 9 Rita Road. Muahmmad Nadeem Siddiqi is a former officer at this company but resigned in July 2022.

Ascot Gate Limited is registered at a residential block on Tooting High Street. Sophia Amejee is listed as the managing director of the company. She was appointed as an officer at the company on the same day Siddiqi resigned.

Tenants are believed to have moved into the flats at the two Rita Road properties after building work was completed last year and are renting through a lettings agency.

One resident contacted who lives in a one-bedroom flat said they pay £1,800 a month to live there. Another tenant who rented a studio in one of the properties said he was paying £1,400 a month.

Oliver Johnson, 25, who lives off new Rita Road, said: “People think London is too expensive and the rent is so expensive, so why not subdivide these flats because people will move into them?

“But you shouldn’t cram as many people into a city as possible.”

In an email, Mr Siddiqi said: “Due to client confidentiality I cannot provide any information. All relevant information will be provided to the London Borough of Lambeth.”

Image above: Rita Road, where the two unauthorized flats are in Vauxhall (Image: Robert Firth)

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