- The landlords of a London flat that suffered a fire have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
- Mizanur Rahman, 41, was killed in the fire on 5 March.
- An e-bike battery reportedly caused the blaze.
The landlords of an overcrowded London apartment that suffered a fire have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
The fire, which occurred in an east London property and was caused by a faulty lithium-ion e-bike battery, led to the death of Mizanur Rahman, 41, a father-of-two who had arrived 10 days previously in London from Bangladesh.
The two-bedroom apartment was occupied by as many as 22 people, according to the Tower Hamlets local government website.
The ramshackle property had previously been let out for around £90 per resident, which is $114, a week, or £25, or $32, a night by married couple Sofina Begum, 50, and Aminur Rahman, 53, former tenants said, per The Guardian. They could bank more than $130,000 a year for a property they had bought for $127,000 (£100,000) in 2006, it said.
Their tenants lived in squalid conditions that included mold, bedbugs, and dirt, per the report.
In the overcrowded apartment, students, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable people were sleeping in bunk beds and on the floor, without heating or use of the washing machine, and sharing a single toilet.
Begum had been charged with six offenses, including “allowing the premises to be overcrowded, failures to comply with license conditions, carry out inspections and have a valid gas safety certificate.”
Her husband, Rahman, was charged with “allowing the premises to be overcrowded, failure to comply with licence conditions and for failing to provide the Council with requested documentation.”
Anthony Iles, chair of the Tarling West Tenants and Residents Association, told the Guardian, that the couple were “ruthless landlords.”
In August, a London council banned a local landlord from renting out properties to tenants for five years after letting up to 40 people live in a four-bedroom property.
Brent Council said “slum” landlord Jaydipkumar Rameshchandra Valand made £360,000, or about $457,000, from the tenants at the property in Wembley, in northwest London.
The council said that officers found one of the tenants “living in a lean-to shack made out of pallets and tarpaulin with no lighting or heating.”
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