The HMO landlord’s “illegal eviction” was discovered during the court hearing

A tenant of an unregistered HMO has been awarded a £4,872 rent repayment order following a tribunal hearing which highlighted his landlord’s likely illegal behaviour.

The NHS nurse moved into the property in Wallington, near Croydon in January 2021. The rent was initially £550 per month with a £580 deposit.

The house consisted of four bedrooms upstairs and two converted rooms downstairs. There were five other occupants, although the owner Samuel Babajide Saibu lived elsewhere.

All the tenants had separate locks, but they shared a bathroom, two toilets and a kitchen – in other words, a HMO.

Closed from the outside

In April the rent was increased to £590 a minute and then in December Akinwale’s landlord gave him two weeks’ notice to leave. Akinwale refused, saying he needed more time, and despite paying his rent as usual on January 25, 2023, he was locked out the same day.

Akinwale said he never got his deposit back, nor the last rent payment, and had difficulty getting his belongings back. When the court questioned Saibu, he said he had rented the property for £1,700 from Priyanthini Naveenthiran through Andrews estate agents.

He denied using it as an HMO, instead claiming it was his permanent home and that he had originally moved in with his brother and mother. Saibu said they then moved out, but he stayed, and as of November 2020, has taken in tenants, but never more than four at a time.

He admitted there were occasionally more people in the house, but said they were only friends of his lodgers. But he admitted that he evicted Akniwale.

Reprehensible

During the hearing it became clear that Saibu was himself the subject of a possession order because he owed the landlord £8,586.20 in rent arrears. He also failed to pay council tax on the property, for which he owed a further £3,991.

In addition, both gas and electrical safety certificates were out of date, with the judge deeming such behavior “reprehensible”.

Saibu’s case was further weakened by the testimony of one of the nurse’s fellow tenants, as well as Saibu’s failure to produce his bank statements. Since everyone was paying their rent electronically, his statements would have shown exactly how many occupied the house, it was pointed out.

The judge found in favor of the tenant, Akinwale, because the eviction was illegal under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Because he had not paid his bills, the judge gave Saibu no credit for rent or outgoings, fining him £4,872. (70% of rent) plus £300 costs.

Read the judgment in full.

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