A council in London has taken the unusual step of banning a woman from the private rented sector for three years after Mamataj Begum Konica illegally sub-let a property in a case that is one of the worst LandlordZONE has ever reported on.

This follows Waltham Forest council’s successfully legal action against her in 2022 for her illegal sub-letting and now an application to a First Tier Tribunal to have Konica banned from the private rental sector under section 15(1) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

Konica who operated the property with her partner, is now banned in England from letting housing, engaging in letting agency work or property management or working for a company that offers any of these services.

The tribunal heard that the property on St George’s Road in Leytonstone (,main image), London had been visited by council officers after complaints by tenants and local about the property.

Subletting

It had been rented out to Konica and her partner via a letting agency in 2016 but with a clause in the contract preventing subletting.

It became clear in 2020 just before Covid struck both to the letting agent involved and environmental health officers that the property had been turned into an illegal HMO that contained 12 individuals living in dangerous conditions including in a converted garage.

Konica either pretended to ill when probed about the property or was ‘non-responsive’ to both council and Tribunal investigations, it was revealed. The council then took legal action and a court heard that seven HMO offences had been identified, including a lack of licencing or any basic safety features required under HMO legislation.

The address also featured mould, rising damp, ill-fitting doors, no proper heating and for some, no natural light.

Thames Magistrates Court fined Konica £10,000 after she pleaded not guilty to the offences. The Tribunal judge Nikki Carr has subsequently said it was clear Konica had collected rent, therefore putting her ‘in control’ of the premises.

Carr, during her summing up, said: “We consider that both [Konica’s] conduct in subletting to the individuals concerned, and in trying to illegally evict them after her actions were discovered, was deliberate, conscious, and culpable. That conduct was indeed egregious.”