“NO tenant should have to live this way”.

That’s the message from a councillor after a ‘slum landlord’ was fined £55,000 for several health and safety breaches at his Slough HMO.

Fahed Choudry, of Homefield, Wembley, was handed the huge court bill after an unannounced visit to his Arborfield Close property by Slough Borough Council officers in May 2021.

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Here, officers found nearly a dozen health and safety breaches, including:

  • A bike was blocking the entrance to the house meaning fire escapes were not free from obstruction
  • The fire door did not open and close and appeared to be defective
  • The water supply and drainage systems were not in good working order
  • Not all of the house was in a state of clean, decorative repair
  • The ceiling lightbulb on both floors of the property was missing
  • The garden was unkempt and overgrown with items littered all over it
  • There was a hole in the wall behind a door, and the wall was dented, raising concerns about the building’s structural integrity
  • In a bedroom on the first floor, there was an exposed live wire on the ceiling with no bulb
  • An outside pane to a double-glazed window was smashed

Upon inspection, it was found 11 people were living at the address despite Chowdry losing his licence to be a HMO landlord in 2019.

He lost his licence because of concerns about Mr Choudhry’s fitness to be a landlord having been found in breach of regulations previously.

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Appearing in court on January 14, Choudry was convicted of 11 offences -- 10 offences of breaches of the management regulations and one offence of not licensing the HMO.

He was fined £5,000 for each offence and ordered to pay court costs of £2,387.92, as well as a victim supplement of £190.

This brought his total bill £57,577.92.

Councillor Martin Carter, lead member for housing and environment, said: “Mr Choudhry cared not one bit about the law and even less about the safety, health and wellbeing of his tenants.

“The seriousness of the offences is shown by the fine imposed and I hope this serves as a warning to other slum landlords, who we know are operating in Slough, that we will not hesitate to hit your where it hurts the most; in your wallet.

“Gone are the days where unscrupulous and uncaring – and often absent – landlords can prey on the poorest in Slough’s communities, taking advantage of their desperation, their lack of knowledge of the regulations, putting tenants’ lives at risk just to line their own pockets.

“No tenant should have to live this way. We will continue to find those who flout the law; putting tenants’ lives at risk just to line their own pockets.”