By Gavin Mackintosh-
Rogue landlord, Robert Crow, has received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine, in an attempt to shield him from the risk of catching Covid-19 from tenants not authorised to be at his property.
Over 10 million people have so far been vaccinated in the UK to protect themselves from the virus, particularly the elderly, with many more waiting for their turn. Many professions like the police fighting to be including in the priority group for the jab.
However, 71 year old Mr Crow, who has lost three of his four flats at the much sought after Devereux Road in Southend On Sea, was driven to quickly get the vaccination because he has two residents in his property, living rent free, who leave the house in the morning daily, and return late at night.
Mr Crow told The Eye of Media.Com: ” I had to make it a priority to quickly get vaccinated because the couple in my property go out everyday early and come back at night. I don’t know where they go all day.
Asked how the vaccination went, he said: ”I had a bump for a couple of days, but after that I was fine. I had to do my bit to make sure I don’t get snuffed out by a couple of lunatics who wonder out all day to God knows where then come back to share a small space with me by force”.
The 71 year old who was accommodating the homeless for years, has been convicted multiple times for breach of an Hmo property, and has been banned from renting out his property to any persons. Neighbours on his road are united in their drive to see him leave the area due to several incidences if anti-social behaviour.
However, he says he has had to endure an unwanted couple for nearly 2 years, because they have refused to leave his property, and he did not have the money to force them out.
‘He added: ” I have taken the vaccine to reduce the chances of me contracting Covid-19 from the two illegal foreigners I have in my property right now. The courts said I am not allowed to have anybody spend the night at my property, but I have asked the police to chuck these scroungers out of my flat, but they keep telling me it is a civil matter’.
It is unbelievable that a court says I can’t have people stay at my residence, but the same law is doing nothing to get rid of them, simply because they are trying to victimise through their long campaign to bankrupt me”.
Asked why he hasn’t changed the locks to his property, he said: ”you have to understand that we are dealing with a big 6ft 8 bloke who gets violent when he is drunk. If I change the lock, he will simply break in and confront me. His size is intimidating, and he stands really close to me whenever he wants to express something he is not happy about.
I have done everything to get him out, including calling the police to remove them, but all I get is that this is a civil matter”.
Mr crow was in the red for over a year, and could not finance his mortgages for his 4 flats. Residents complained that his property was not in good condition, and that they had seen mice in his flat.
The defunct landlord claims the council was in cohort with ”snobby residents who objected to the fact he was housing the homeless on a street they wanted to remain posh”.
Neighbours say the landlord is in denial, and exploited lots of residents at his property, some of who were refused a return of their deposit when they concluded they did not want to stay at the property.
Mr Crow says deposit are exactly that, and to be forfeited by would be residents who decide to change their minds after putting down a deposit in advance. ”Once you put a deposit down, you are making a statement that you are prepared to move into the property, and forfeit the money if you don’t move in for any reason’. Other prospective tenants may have been turned down because of the deposit you put down”.
Some would be tenants put money down out of sheer desperation, but demanded it back after better opportunities for accommodation presented themselves.
Prohibition
Mr Crow’s Criminal Behavioural Order forbids him from having anybody to spend the night at his property, unless they are a close family member, or partner. However, he has been stuck with two Russians who have refused to move out of his property, benefiting from the argument from police that Mr.Crow’s case is a civil matter.
Under normal circumstances, such a case would fall under the civil law. but not when a criminal court order has been made. Southend Council have refused to do the landlord the favour of driving out his scrounging residents who have not paid a penny in rent for over two years. They have no right to be there, and Mr. Crow says all efforts he has made have failed to get them out.
Police Call
Police were called to the property of Mr. Crow at Devereux Road a total of 51 times in 2019, many of their calls relating to crime and anti-social behaviour. One of the incidences involved a stabbing in the neck of the victim, and the perpetrator was also a tenant at Mr.Crow’s property.
The accused was a crack addict held on remand for the case, and whose father was murdered whilst he was in jail. Other involvements of the law included a drug raid in which members of a known county line form London were arrested with a large sum of cash, but no drugs was found at the property.
Essex police believe the drugs was either disposed off or run out at the time of their raid. Other complaints that attracted cops to the property includes a racist complaint, and numerous incidences of violence.
Southend Council eventually stopped paying benefits to his property, and the landlord later had his electricity supply completely disconnected. Irregular use of the electric supplies was cited as the reason for the sudden disconnection.
Mr crow’s outstanding case for breaching his criminal behavioural order has been postponed twice, once after he cited Covid-19 symptoms, and the other, when he decided to change his plea from guilty to not guilty.
Mr Crow accuses his neighbours of conspiring for his demise , but one neighbour, anonymously said:
” I have no sympathy and think he has brought everything he has got to himself. He has access to the courts, if there is someone in his property that shouldn’t be there, he should be able to make an application to the courts and get them out. That’s what most responsible citizens would do.
At no point could he plead poverty as his excuse for not seeking the intervention of the courts, after all he has a monthly pension.
It is incredible how stupid he has been, he could have had it all”
Another neighbour, a professional male, who also didn’t want to be named, said : Mr Crow is in pure denial about his incompetence in running a property. He needed professional support and should have hired somebody to help him manage the property and oversee the affairs there. He only has himself to blame for the breakdown of his business, but his property was just not fit for purpose”.
”I now find that I am not bothered by him[Mr.crow] as I hardly ever see him, and for me justice has already been served in that he has lost the property, he has no friends apart from the racist one and is now on the verge of homelessness. He is also suffering from depression and can now have some idea of how we the tenants and neighbours felt”.
In relation to the residents still at his property, she said: ”He has had many chances to change the locks on his front door when they would leave in the morning and not go back until the evening, he did that to his other tenants.
He is only 71, he is not frail he is just very good at manipulating the situation
Mr Crow says he is not guilty of any criminal disorder committed by others. He said : ” I think it is crazy that this council has done everything to frustrate my well being, to the extent of even allowing a couple live at my property illegally”.
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the Council and the police do have the power to eject an illegal resident basically squatting at a property in which a criminal order has been made by the court.
Both have avoided their responsibilities in this case because Mr Crow is not one they want to help in any shape or form. He has been more than a bother for them, and can’t themselves wait to see the back of him.