Inspectors employed by a big London borough have started knocking on doors around Wembley to check whether landlords have a selective licence.

Brent’s street patrols have kicked off the initiative by visiting every house in Stanley Avenue, offering advice on waste management, listening to concerns about anti-social behaviour and, where the property was a rental home, asking if it was licensed and free of serious hazards.

The initiative comes six months after the start of borough-wide licensing which covers every landlord who rents out a property in Brent, except for Wembley Park. Patrol teams were made up of officers covering planning, anti-social behaviour and private housing services.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council and cabinet member for housing, says although the authority is receiving licensing applications, there are many more still to be made.

Unlicenced premises

“We have intelligence on certain streets with evidence to suggest that tenants might be living in unlicensed properties, or in properties that are in breach of planning regulations, and those are the areas we are targeting through our street patrols,” says Butt (pictured).

“No rogue landlord will slip through the net in Brent: if you are a landlord in Brent and your property is unlicensed, we will find you and you will face prosecution and hefty fines.”

A landlord whose tenants were paying £3,500 to live in an overcrowded ‘house of horrors’, has been handed fines totalling nearly £50,000 - the largest set of fines and court costs brought by Brent against an unlicensed HMO landlord this year.

Sanjay Patel was prosecuted after inspectors found eight tenants, including two children under the age of 13, crammed into the house meant for a maximum of five people in Vivian Avenue, Wembley.