Enforcement officers have begun patrolling streets across Brent to check whether rental homes are licensed, with Wembley being one of the areas under scrutiny.
The first patrol took place six months after the borough-wide licensing initiative started, which requires all landlords in Brent, except those in Wembley Park, to have a licence to rent out their property.
The patrol teams included officers from planning, anti-social behaviour, and private housing services. They visited homes along Stanley Avenue, Wembley, advising on waste management, addressing concerns about anti-social behaviour, and checking if rental properties were licensed and free of hazards.
“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,” said Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council and Cabinet Member for Housing.
He added, “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.”
Willesden Magistrates Court recently fined a landlord £49,495 for breaches to the Housing Act at a property he managed on Vivian Avenue, Wembley, where tenants paid £3,500 to live in overcrowded conditions.
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