Four year ban for landlord after children found in cu...

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03 March 2021

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Four year ban for landlord after children found in cupboards

A four year ban on letting any residential property has been imposed on a landlord found guilty of using accommodation that could cause a serious risk to life.

Last year Deepak Singh Sashdeva was found guilty of five offences relating to the failure to manage a house in multiple occupation in Avonmouth, Somerset.

He was fined £87,000, after inspectors found some of the worst living conditions they had ever seen.

Bristol council environmental health officers found three people, including two young children, sleeping in cupboards in the eaves of the roof. Officers also noted that nine people, including two children and a pregnant woman, were housed in the two tiny different living spaces.

Bristol council successfully applied for a banning order, which will also prevent Sachdeva from carrying out any property management work.

Council officers visited the accommodation in Avonmouth again in January this year to check on conditions and found someone sleeping in one room of the property, in contravention of a Prohibition Order that makes it illegal for people to live in the unsafe accommodation.

When asked about the property Sachdeva said he was selling the lease, but to date had failed to provide proof that this was the case.

In making the banning order, Judge J Dobson said: “The Tribunal concludes on the facts found that the respondent was a rogue landlord who had failed by a large margin to meet his legal obligations and who had exploited the occupiers by providing substandard and dangerous accommodation.”

Sachdeva did not attend the Tribunal hearing and has not provided the council information about any other properties he may let out or any letting agencies he is involved in.

He will be added to the government’s Rogue Landlord Database. If he breaches the Banning Order he could be prosecuted and the penalty if found guilty includes imprisonment.

The council says anyone with information about properties let by Sachdeva should email: private.housing@bristol.gov.uk.

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