By Gavin Mackintosh-
Essex Landlord, Robert Crowe, is being hounded by bailiffs for debts that amount to over 10,000 pounds.
68 year old Crowe, who owns a 70,000 property in Southend Essex has been billed a total of 15,000 for debts associated with mortgage arrears for his five bedroom property in Devereux Road, Southend. Amongst his debts is a 4,000 bill for Council Tax by Southend Council, a 5,000 bill from the Bank of Scotland for one of the rooms of his five bedroom property for Mortgage arrears.
If that’s not enough, Crowe is also allegedly in arrears Mortgage of 7,000 for one of the other rooms. Crowe says the charge has been inflated by the leas holders.
Baliffs for Southend Council have been sending letters and chasing Crowe for 4,300 pounds Council Tax bill. The Bank Of Scotland – the mortgage providers for one of his rooms have also been chasing him over a 5,000 pound mortgage arrears bill. Crowe told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”These charges are trumped up charges, I have asked them to send me a break down and justify it. I don’t believe I owe them that much, besides there is no way I can pay it”
Crowe, who was fined 40,000 pounds by Chelmsford Magistrates Court in 2016 for subjecting tenants in a house of multiple occupation(HMO) to conditions of squalor, says a sustained campaign has been immorally launched against him because he takes on the homeless. The eccentric landlord whose property is located in one of the most expensive areas of the town has been accused of bringing the street he resides to disrepute.
Bailiffs attended mr.Crowe’s address on Tuesday, but the landlord refused to let them in, engaging them in an argument. ”I told them to sod off that I dispute the bills against me. I am being unfairly ganged up against, and I’m not having it. All I have ever been is a good humanitarian, but people don’t want to see that”. Mr.Crowe clearly has difficulty in understanding that money legitimately owed has nothing to be with being a humanitarian , the issue has to be whether the money is legitimately owed.
DISCREPANCY
Crowe has highlighted a worrying discrepancy between a 4,000 council tax bill he received for self contained flats and the 40,000 pounds fine he was handed by Chelmsford Crown Court. He says it confirms that Southend Council have unlawfully and immorally set out to frustrate his business and close him down.
Crowe told The Eye Of Media.Com ”The Magistrates Court took orders from Southend Council and didn’t listen to anything I had to say. I told them that my property was not an HMO, but they chose to listen to the testimony of Southend Council officials who were bent in their mission to bring me down by hook or crook”.
”My property is not an HMO, it is a self contained flat. The judge made up his mind he was not going to listen to anything I said but was going to believe the Council instead”.
Mr.Crowe has been paying 200 pounds a month for the past year in an attempt to pay up the debt, but has seized the payments whilst The Eye Of Media.Com thoroughly investigates his claim . Southend Council was contacted last week to clarify the discrepancy between the high Council Tax awarded to him and the fine he received from the Magistrates Court, fining him for having an HMO.
Chelmsford Magistrates Court has also been contacted to confirm that the fine imposed against Mr.Crowe was right and lawful. We await a response from both parties.
UNSIGHTLY
Mr.Crowe operates a property that is unsightly from the outside with a very untidy communal area on the inside. His five bedroom property is generally maintained by his various tenants, many of whom he admitted without obtaining an initial deposit. Most of them have reneged on their rent, leaving him with the difficult task of having to take them to court if he wants them evicted. This means paying more money to lawyers.
In December, he unknowinglyrented the basement in his property to two londoners were arrested for alleged drug dealing, leading the police to force him not to rent that part of his property out because of a prohibition order imposed by Southend Council.
” I had no idea they were drug dealers. They seemed like nice lads who needed accommodation. Besides, I have been told the police found no drugs on them, so really, they were suspected of drug dealing. That’s different from them drug dealing”, he protested. In relation to the prohibition order, Crowe said;
That prohibition order was unfair, he fumed. They said I had no cooking facilities, but pictures they took of the downstairs featured a fridge when they had it published in The Echo. It is ridiculous that they will prevent me from using renting out the downstairs”.
However, The Eye Of Media.Com was concerned that their are no facilities for tenants downstairs to have a shower, neither are there any proper cooking facilities there. How paying tenants can be considered to be inhabiting the downstairs is anybody’s guess. The problem for this landlord is that without being able to rent his downstairs flat, his chances of being able to catch up on any arrears are very slim.