'Rogue' Bristol landlord given four year letting ban

A landlord whose tenants were found sleeping in cupboards in the eaves of the roof has been banned from letting houses for four years.

Council inspectors visited a property owned by Deepak Singh Sachdeva, in Avonmouth Road in Bristol in 2019.

They said the building posed a serious risk to life and was among the worst living conditions they had ever seen.

Mr Sachdeva was previously found guilty of offences relating to the failure to manage a house in multiple occupation.

He was fined £87,000 by magistrates on 4 March 2020 and was ordered to pay a further £1,554 in costs and a surcharge.

When Bristol City Council environmental health officers arrived at the property in November 2019 they found three people, including two young children, sleeping in cupboards in the eaves of the roof.

Nine people, including two children and a pregnant woman, were housed in the two tiny different living spaces in flats above the landlord's Premier Convenience shop premises.

The council told a tribunal hearing on 22 February that it wanted Mr Sachdeva to be banned from letting properties for 10 years.

The judge at the first-tier tribunal said he thought that length of time was "inappropriate" and imposed a four year ban instead.

In making the banning order, judge Jonathan Dobson said: "The respondent was a rogue landlord who had failed by a large margin to meet his legal obligations and who had exploited the occupiers by providing substandard and dangerous accommodation."

It is not known whether the landlord owns any other properties and the council is asking anyone with information to get in touch with its officers.

Helen Godwin, cabinet member for women, children and homes, said: "We will use all the powers available to us to stop people who flout the law from renting properties illegally."

Mr Sachdeva did not attend the tribunal hearing and will now be added to the Government's Rogue Landlord Database.