Sheffield landlord fined for harassment

A buy-to-let landlord from Sheffield has been ordered to pay £2,412 in court costs, fines and compensation after being found guilty of harassing a tenant and failing to sufficiently manage his property.

Mr Nilendu Das was convicted at Sheffield Magistrates Court this week, where he was also told to carry out 180 hours of unpaid community work.

Texts

Mr Das was found guilty of sending his tenant several text messages, many late at night. One on occasion, he sent ten text messages in just three minutes and on another, he sent 15 in the course of a day.

Alongside pleading guilty to harassment, Das pleaded guilty to four health and safety breaches in his property. The court heard that there were damaged fire doors, an unprotected fire escape and faulty alarms.

Sheffield landlord fined for harassment

Das also had previous convictions for failing to comply with an improvement notice and further harassment, which led to a 49-day prison sentence.

Serious

Councillor Jayne Dunn, cabinet member for housing at Sheffield City Council, said: ‘This case is serious. The landlord has been convicted twice before for similar offences and he knows how strictly the court treats these matters.’[1]

‘We don’t just investigate issues where we hear about tenants being threatened or evicted illegally. As this case shows, we also prosecute when there is lower-level harassment and when the landlord acts in a way which is outside the law. Everyone deserves to live in safe, good quality housing regardless of whether they rent or own their home. I am determined to carry on clamping down on the very small minority of bad landlords in Sheffield that treat their tenants badly and tarnish the private rented sector,’ she added.[1]

[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/3/landlord-in-sheffield-continues-to-tarnish-the-private-rented-sector