Two landlords have been ordered to pay a whopping £597,000 bill following a long-running legal battle with Camden Council.

Joel Salem, 65, of Highview Gardens, Finchley, and Judith Robinson-Dadoun, 57, of Brampton Grove, Hendon, were found guilty in 2020 of renting out sub-standard flats and ignoring enforcement notices relating to a property at 52, Fortune Green Road in Hampstead (pictured).

Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court has now handed them a £350,000 fine and costs of £247,011.

The pair had illegally sub-divided it into seven substandard flats, despite only being granted permission for four. Following an investigation by the council’s planning department between 2009 and 2010, they did not comply with an enforcement notice, ignored repeated warnings and continued to receive rents until selling the property in 2021.

Judge David Aaronberg KC said the property housed large numbers of people in unsatisfactory accommodation (see pic) for many years in “direct and flagrant breach of the requirements of the enforcement notice”.

He added: “The tenants of this kind of accommodation often do not feel able to complain to their local authority about their living conditions, and more often still, they do not have the means to do so. That is what makes such tenants vulnerable.”

Concealed

The judge said both Salem and Robinson-Dadoun had concealed their true wealth from the court.

Councillor Danny Beales (picture), Camden Council's cabinet member for new homes, jobs and community investment, says: “I am delighted by this verdict as it shows that we will not accept substandard accommo_dation and that we will always strongly pursue the breach of planning enforcement notices for as long as it takes.”

‍