Pensioners found living in ‘slum’ in Forest Gate

A landlord was fined �1,250 by Newham Council after they found two pensioners living in a slum in Forest Gate.

Sukhbir Singh Birak, 37, of Kensington Gardens, Ilford, admitted failing to comply with an Improvement Notice at Thames Magistrates Court earlier this month (November 14th).

Birak was also ordered to pay costs of �370 and a victim surcharge of �15.

Council housing inspectors found the elderly couple had been living for over seven months with a deficient heating system, a broken window, collapsed ceilings in both the bedroom and kitchen and an electric shower as the only source of hot water in a three-bed Victorian house in Chester Road.

The landlord ignored numerous requests to rectify these problems causing inspectors to step in and carry out remedial works costing over �1,400, which the council are claiming back.

Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales said: “We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing.

“One bad house can drag down a whole street and we are doing this for the community.

“There are good landlords in Newham and we want to work with them. Unfortunately there are also some unscrupulous ones – and these are the ones we are targeting.”