A rogue landlord has been ordered to pay back more than £400,000 after he illegally converted a property into seven small bedsits and flats in one of London’s trendiest neighbourhoods.
Sheikh Behaeddin Adil and his company HAAB Development Limited have been prosecuted by Westminster City Council over the conversion and unlawful extension of a property on Harrow Road almost a decade ago.
The property is located in the Queen's Park Estate Conservation Area, which has been protected since 1978 due to the special architectural and historical interest of its buildings.
The area, a trendy enclave of northwest London, has around 1,500 homes and 53 Grade II listed properties, and has counted the likes of Daniel Craig, Sienna Miller, Lily Allen, and Dermot O’Leary among its residents.
A neighbour complained in 2015 that the property, originally containing a shop and three bedrooms, had been extended to create seven homes – either tiny studios or one-bed flats.
The council issued an order for the changes to be reversed, but the order was ignored for several years.
At Southwark crown court last month, Adil and his company were each fined £9,750 for breaching the planning enforcement notice and told to pay £50,000 in legal costs. They were also told to pay back £415,101 which had been collected in rent from the unlawful homes.
Westminster City Council said its officers were alerted to the illegal ground and first-floor extension in May 2015, and found “seven inadequately sized studio or one-bed flats”.
An enforcement notice was issued in April 2016 with instructions that it should be complied with by November of the same year. By January 2020, the notice had not been complied with, said the council.
A prosecution began, and the notice was finally complied with in February 2023,
“Planning Enforcement is there to protect and prevent harm to our historic built environment such as the much loved Queens Park Conservation Area”, said Cllr Geoff Barraclough, Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development.
“We are clear that enforcement notices will be served and must be complied with if a building owner goes ahead with development without getting planning permission first.
“I welcome this verdict, and the proceeds of crime order, as a warning to others and a reminder that Westminster Council is committed to protecting our city from unscrupulous property developers.”
