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Labour MP Jas Athwal, the most important landlord within the Home of Commons, has apologised to tenants and vowed to cowl the price of repairs and renewals after black mould and ant infestations had been present in a few of his rental properties.
Athwal stated on Sunday that he was “shocked and sickened” by issues that had come to gentle, after a BBC report this weekend confirmed fireplace alarms hanging off ceilings and a washer dumped subsequent to a stairway in a number of the flats in east London.
In a single block of seven flats owned by Athwal — the brand new MP for Ilford South and former chief of Redbridge Council — half of the tenants claimed they needed to often clear the ceilings of their bogs to take away mould.
One tenant advised the BBC that that they had been threatened with eviction by their letting agent in the event that they complained about issues of their flat.
“I had not been conscious of those points till this week, for which I’m livid,” Athwal stated on the social media platform X, as he apologised to tenants. “I’ve instantly dismissed the managing agent of my properties.”
“I will probably be reimbursing each tenant that’s out of pocket for repairs or renewals they’ve needed to undertake,” he stated, including that he can be conducting a survey of all tenants “so that every one points are uncovered”.
Athwal was revealed by the Monetary Instances final month to be the biggest landlord in the Commons with 18 rental properties. The brand new revelations are awkward for the Labour authorities, which has repeatedly vowed to get powerful on rogue personal landlords.
Angela Rayner, housing secretary and deputy prime minister, has stated there may be “no excuse to let personal landlords off the hook” for poor circumstances.
Athwal, who beforehand stated he had chosen his rental company for its “fast response occasions and wonderful customer support”, has additionally been compelled to confess that his properties wouldn’t have the right licences below a scheme he launched as Redbridge chief.
Lucy Powell, a senior cupboard minister, on Sunday stated Athwal shouldn’t resign as an MP and that he was taking motion to resolve the issues.
“As I perceive it, he himself is livid as a result of he didn’t know that is occurring in his housing inventory and he takes speedy steps to place that proper and that’s completely correctly,” she advised Sky Information.
Powell added that the federal government would quickly legislate with its “Renters Reform Invoice” to “sort out the scourge of unhealthy landlords”.
However Andrew Boff, a Conservative London Meeting member who has visited the flats, referred to as on Redbridge Council to analyze Athwal.
“Right here we’ve a state of affairs the place anyone who’s the chief of Redbridge Council, which launched a licensing scheme, which he advised everyone else to enroll to, and he didn’t do it himself,” stated Boff.
Athwal stated in a press release to the BBC that he had believed that licences for all of his properties had been updated.
“I’ve just lately seen an e mail which shared that licences are because of discover. I’m within the means of renewing all licences,” he stated.
