Property developer handed 'record-breaking' fine for Hoxton flats built without planning permission
The council said that it will look to take further enforcement action if the building isn't torn down
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Your support makes all the difference.A property developer who built a six-storey block of flats with no planning permission has been handed a “record-breaking” fine.
Since 2011, Yusuf Sarodia has been in a demolition fight with Hackney Council in London over his multi-million pound project.
The 62-year-old has continually refused the authority’s demand to knock down the tower, and now he’s been hit with a £735,000 fee to pay. And he's still got to tear it down.
The property magnate is the director of Garland Development and oversaw the construction of the 34-flat building in Hoxton, east London.
Each home is reportedly worth an estimated £300,000 – it means the building could be valued at more than £10 million in total.
Unsurprising, then, that Mr Sarodia is unwilling to pull it down.
Hackney Council ordered Mr Sarodia and his company in August to pay £700,000, plus more than £25,000 in costs.
But he didn't act, and three months later, the block of flats remains. It's currently empty.
Sarodia and Garland Development were then taken to Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London and fined another £10,000.
“The planning service has never seen this amount of confiscation before,' said Andrew Woollard for Hackney Council.
“We think it is a record figure.”
Woollard told Mail Online that Mr Sarodia had failed to gain approval from the relevant authority to build, which is why the problems first came about.
The council spokesman added: “We told him to demolish it which he did not do, hence why the action was taken.
“The confiscation order of £700,000 is a reflection of all the rent he's got since he built it.
“He would have been fined a lot more if it wasn't for the order already in place.”
Mr Sarodia believes that he’s being victimised by the council, but insists he'll pay.
The company director, who lives in an £800,000 end-of-terrace home in Illford, West London, with a BMW 3-Series parked outside, said on Monday that he intends to pay Hackney Council “next month”.
“I am a simple person, I don’t use outside builders, I do it myself," he said. "Everybody makes mistakes. But we have not done any drugs here or had prostitutes in here.”
Added Mr Sarodia: “I have not done anything wrong, I have given the residents a good sized bathroom and good sized bedroom.
“Nobody’s saying it’s a bad building, I don’t know what the problem is here.
“When I build the site, in the beginning I did as what was on the plan, but I put in a few extra windows.”
But the council said that it will look to take further enforcement action if the building isn't torn down.
Cllr Guy Nicholson, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, said: “Anyone who thinks they have a right to build a property in Hackney without first obtaining planning permission must realise that the Council will take action against those who flout the rules.
“Putting up a building without planning permission is not only breaching planning law but to be quite frank puts at risk the safety of residents and neighbouring properties.”
It’s reported that money received from Mr Sarodia’s fine would be used by the council to reinvest into local services.
The council would receive one third of the three quarters of a million sum – the other two-thirds would be split between the court and the government’s Treasury department.