A group of London tenants who have been awarded a record £263,000 in rent repayments from their “rogue landlord” have raised fears they may never receive the money.
Diane Abbott warned John Christodoulou, one of the UK’s richest men, “must not be allowed to get away with it again” after current and former residents of Olympic House and Simpson House in Hackney were awarded the six-figure sum by a legal tribunal following a five-year battle, due to unsafe conditions.
The claimants successfully challenged Mr Christodoulou's companies for operating unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which meant the buildings were not subject to the safety and quality standards required by law, leaving residents vulnerable to hazardous conditions.
Jordan Osserman, 36, is among the 46 tenants from 15 different flats across both buildings who said they launched the case in 2020 after Mr Christodoulou’s letting agency, Tower Quay, told tenants that they could not have a rent reduction during the Covid pandemic as they could use money saved on lunches.
The claimants have now won what is one of the largest groups of rent repayment order cases in London's history, but they fear they face an ongoing fight given Mr Christodoulou has previously failed to refund them, with a judge suggesting the landlord has engaged in tactics to delay rent repayments.
Mr Osserman, a university lecturer, told The Independent: “I have mixed emotions. I’m elated after all these years we finally won this case, likely the biggest single rent repayment order case in British history. I think we’ve made a powerful statement that by collectively organising we change the housing system and hold landlords to account, even billionaires like Christodoulou.
“But I’m also furious about Christodoulou’s attempts to dodge paying us, forcing us to spend all this time, effort and money to make him pay up. Clearly there’s one set of rules for ordinary people – we fear what will happen if we’re even a month late on rent or mortgage payments – and another for billionaires.”
Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said: “My constituents have been battling this landlord over unfit housing for years. Worse, when he loses a case, he shuffles assets between his companies so that he can avoid paying money he owes. He must not be allowed to get away with it again.”
Mr Christodoulou, who is Cyprus-born and based in Monaco, is the 70th richest man in the UK, according to last year’s Sunday Times Rich List, moving up four places since the previous year as he made another £50million as a result of his property company Yianis Group – taking the 59-year-old’s total wealth to £2.5billion in 2024. The Independent has approached him via Yianis for comment as well as Tower Quay.
Mr Osserman and his partner Marc Sutton, 46, who are former residents of the 170-flat blocks, helped to organise the legal action via the tenants’ group Somerford Grove Renters (SGR), which is part of the London Renters Union (LRU), for Olympic House, Simpson House and St John’s Court, all majority-owned by Mr Christodoulou.
Mr Sutton, a website developer, said: “The landlord collects the rent and does the minimum knowing that tenants will often move on in a year or two without anything being done. They raise the rent on every flat every year and, with 171 flats, have been a large driver of spiralling rents in Hackney, causing a housing crisis forcing out families.”
Judge Robert Latham ruled on 3 March: “The respondent can only be characterised as a rogue landlord.” According to the LRU, the combined total that the legal tribunal awarded the claimants came to £263,555.68 in Rent Repayment Orders (RROs), which force landlords who have broken housing standards law to pay back rent.
But last month, the tenants said they discovered that the company they were paying rent to has now been liquidated, with ownership of Olympic House and Simpson House now transferred to another company within Mr Christodoulou’s group.
Mr Osserman was one of the claimants whose case was heard first, with the view that it would be used as a basis for the others, and they were awarded 65 per cent of a year’s rent, which came to £18,400, in June 2021.
Mr Christodoulou’s lawyers appealed the decision, but they then withdrew from the case shortly before the hearing and did not attend. The judge concluded: “A party who does so at a late stage without any explanation is at risk of being taken never to have been serious about pursuing the appeal and to have done so simply to delay the enforcement of the FTT’s order for repayment.” Martin Rodger QC also found that “the landlord’s business practices involved a systematic or institutional neglect of regulatory requirements” and increased the amount awarded to the tenants to 80 per cent of a year’s rent, which came to £22,500.
Mr Sutton said his partner never received the refund.
He said: “I'm deeply frustrated by Christodoulou's evasive tactics ... There's clearly a double standard: ordinary people live in fear of missing a single month's rent or mortgage payment, while billionaires seem to operate under an entirely different set of rules.”
In a direct message, he said: “Mr Christodoulou, enough is enough. The law has spoken. Your properties were unlicensed, and you must return our money.”
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