‘Greedy’ landlord couple ordered to pay back £560,000 in rent or face prison
Brent Council took action against the pair who “milked £564k from illegal ‘shoebox’ flats” and "ignored the law for years".
A ‘greedy’ landlord couple who “milked £564k from illegal ‘shoebox’ flats” have been hit with a huge court order and possible prison.
Brent Council in North London took action against Inderjeet and Jasvinder Chokkar, who it said “carved up a family home into cramped, substandard flats and ignored the law for years”.
The couple illegally converted a three-bedroom house (see main picture) into six tiny rental flats without planning permission. The council ordered them to undo the work, but they refused and carried on cashing in.
Years of defiance
Finally, after years of defiance, the pair were convicted of breaching a planning enforcement notice.
Their appeal was then thrown out, and the court ruled they must hand back £564,367, the full amount they made from the illegal scheme.
The court heard the flats were poorly converted and far too small. Judges took a dim view of the couple’s experience in property, their repeated refusals to comply, and their clear financial motive.
Prison
Mr Chokkar was fined £25,000 and faces up to 12 months in prison if he doesn’t pay.
And Mrs Chokkar was given a £15,000 fine, with eight months in jail for non-payment. Their company, Housing Solutions (GB) Ltd, was fined another £25,000.
The couple must also pay nearly £50,000 in council enforcement, prosecution and legal costs. The total financial penalty and recovery ordered by the court was £679,142.
These rogue landlords have felt the full force of the law after choosing to rip off tenants.”
Krupa Sheth, Cabinet Member for Public Realm & Enforcement at Brent Council, says: “These rogue landlords have felt the full force of the law after choosing to rip off tenants, house them in substandard conditions and ignore planning regulations.
“This kind of exploitation is illegal, and we will root out every last landlord in Brent who behaves like this and take them to court,” she says.
“If you break planning laws and exploit tenants in Brent, we will do everything in our power to bring you to justice. You will pay the price.”
Criminals ignore the law so the licencing punishes the legit landlords with extra costs and admin which inevitably is passed on to tenants so the whole thing counter productive…
There’s something quietly corrosive about the human condition that we rarely name. It’s not ideology or technology or politics. It’s dishonesty, ordinary, small scale, constant dishonesty, and the way it taxes everyone else.
We need anti virus software because some people enjoy breaking things that are not theirs. Insurance premiums rise because some people see fraud as a victimless sport. Shoplifting pushes prices up for everyone who pays honestly. Benefit scams harden systems until every genuine claimant is treated with suspicion. Licensing schemes pile paperwork and cost onto decent landlords because the worst ones ignore the rules entirely.
The pattern is always the same. A minority cheats. The majority pays. And then we all pretend the rules themselves are the problem.
It’s the same instinct everywhere. Jump the queue. Bend the truth. Take the shortcut. Justify it because everyone else would if they could. The result is a world wrapped in passwords, checks, forms, cameras, disclaimers, and mistrust. Not because we are cautious, but because we are tired of being taken for fools.
What’s sobering is that none of this is sophisticated evil. It’s small, petty self interest. Me first. Me now. I’ll take it if I can get away with it. Enough people do that, and the cost becomes structural. Whole systems are built to defend against the worst behaviour of a few, and those systems slowly grind down the goodwill of the many.
At Christmas we talk about peace on earth and goodwill to all. But goodwill is expensive. It only works when honesty is normal, not heroic. When integrity is assumed, not audited.
The uncomfortable truth is that our eventual undoing is not some great catastrophe. It’s death by a thousand small cheats. A world where trust becomes irrational, and suspicion becomes prudent.
Merry Christmas everyone, Try not to be the reason the rest of us need another form, another password, another policy, another premium increase.