By Gavin Mackintosh-
Essex rogue landlord, Robert Crow, is in a desperate negotiation process to sell one of the repossessed flats of his four bedroom property, after the third of his four flats was cleared by his Mortgage lenders last Friday.
Crow, 70, has had all four flats of his property repossessed after failing to pay huge mortgage arrears for his four bedroom house in Southend Essex.Three of his repossessed flats have been boarded up, but he still lives in the bottom flat, yet to be locked up and cleared out.
Disgruntled neighbours at Devereux Road in Southend are anxious to see the back of the notorious landlord who once accommodated the homeless, many of whom were drug addicts and alcoholics.
All the belongings of the despised landlord were emptied into a waiting van outside his property . One of the flats has already been sold and the other three have all been repossessed.
Mr.Crow spectacularly fell out with Southend Borough Council after a prolonged court battle which saw him defeated in every singe one, incurring total costs of over £80,000. His first defeat was in 2016 where he was fined £39,000 for multiple breaches of an HMO, then several court cases followed in the next two years which he battled to no avail-often acting as an unrepresented litigant.
Several appeals to successive convictions backfired on him, stretching his legal debts, until Southend Magistrates Court relieved him of all costs after receiving evidence that there was o realistic way of him paying the debts.
The tiny room in the first floor of the property- one which has also been repossessed, and on schedule to be seized from him later this year unless he miraculously manages to find money to pay the debts, or sells it before it is taken from him- is his last hope of having a roof over his head.
He shares the flat with a Romanian couple who have never paid a dime in rent, but once substituted rent for domestic work for the landlord. He has tried to kick them out for months with no success despite a Criminal Behavioural Order which forbids him from allowing anyone spend the night at the property.
His mortgage lenders were about to lock up that flat in March, when lockdown measures announced by Boris Johnson froze all repossession procedures, allowing him to hold unto the only flat, not yet boarded up.
Mr.Crowe told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”I am desperately trying to sell flat 2 and discussing this with a potential buyer, but the Mortgage lenders say they are dealing with an Estate Agents for the sale of flat 2 and flat 4 and say I have no legal grounds to enter negotiations. I owe a lot of money on that flat to the mortgage lenders, but if they let me sell it, at least I’ll end up with some money.
I have been treated really badly and am feeling really depressed. Southend Borough Council are a rogue council who have been allowed to get away with murder. They are taking the life out of me’, and I will one day sue them when I have the money”.
Advise
Mr.Crow ignored advise from friends and family to sell his property when matters were not so bad and he was still in receipt of benefit money for tenants he was housing. His relationship with the council was strained even then but progressively deteriorated until they stopped paying him benefits.
One after the other, his tenants left the property after they could not afford to pay his rent from their pockets, leaving the Romanian couple whom had always substituted rent for manual work for mr.Crow, but not to an equal level.
Crow told the Eye Of Media.Com early this year that he had resumed a smoking habit due to stress and depression which he had given up for 10 years. He continued: ”This evil campaign against me has driven me to the bad habit of smoking which I though I had abandoned and left in my past.
I am seeing my life’s hard work fading away before my very eyes, and it is a shame that some neighbours obtain delight from this. This is very depressing for me, and shows how evil they are, and dare I say they will get their comeuppance.
Market
The 70 year old is preparing to put the bottom flat where he lives on the market before it is taking from him, but owes just over £100,000 on it and hopes to get a buyer for considerably more than he owes to leave him with more money.
”One of my greatest worries is that I will struggle to even rent a place after this because of my bad credit rating, but at least with some cash I’ll have some hope of getting somewhere. I’ll go abroad if I have to, I don’t think there is any justice in this country”.