Landlord who allowed tenant to sleep in cupboard refused licence

A landlord who allowed a tenant to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs has lost his bid to continue renting to multiple people amid claims he had shown a “disregard” for planners.

John Friel applied for House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) licences for two neighbouring houses he owns on Hope Park, Haddington.

However, a meeting of East Lothian Council’s licensing sub-committee this week rejected the applications after he challenged restrictions on the number of tenants he could house from council officers and insisted an extension added to one property, which had been declared unlawful, should be allowed to remain in use.

Mr Friel told the committee that he was a builder by trade and a member of the Federation of Master Builders and could find no reason for the extension not to be allowed.

Committee chairperson John McMillan expressed reservations about Mr Friel’s history with the local authority’s officers.

“I think [Mr Friel] has shown a disregard for planning authorities,” Cllr McMillan said.

“He has been advised over a very long period to look at this, and I think as a builder, as a master builder, he ought to have known better.”

An earlier hearing had heard that licensing officers discovered a tenant was staying in a cupboard under the stairs in what was described as a “Harry Potter style” situation.

Mr Friel had said he was helping the man out as he needed somewhere to stay, and the alternative was turning him out onto the street.

The use of the cupboard was included in a report to the sub-committee earlier in the summer, which raised a number of issues about the two houses.

The committee was told one of the properties had an HMO licence which expired over three years ag,o while the other did not have one, and that work was needed to make the homes compliant with fire regulations.

Concerns were also raised by licensing officers over claimsthat single beds were discovered in garden sheds at both properties, tenants paid in cash and enforcement action was ongoing over an extension to one of the properties.

A decision on the licences was deferred to a meeting this week to allow Mr Friel to work with fire officers and bring the properties up to speed however councillors were concerned by the challenges made over the extension which, they were told, was unlawful and should be taken down.

Councillor Tom Trotter said the fact that the extension remained left him unable to support a licence for the properties.

“If this building had been taken away as it should have been, then, as per instructions from planning, there may well have been a different outcome from my point of view,” he said.

“I am not convinced Mr Friel will not use that building continuously if this [licence] is granted today, and on the back of that, I cannot agree this application is accepted.”

Fellow committee member Councillor Carol McFarlane agreed. She said: “I am not happy that the decision by planning officers that the extension should be demolished has been completely ignored.”

The committee unanimously rejected the application for HMO licences.

Cllr McMillan said: “We are now looking at the question of whether we trust, whether we think he is a fit and proper person to hold such a licence, and in my opinion, having weighed up the evidence, I am definitely sure I am not prepared, given all I have heard, to grant an HMO licence.”