A landlord has been ordered to stop using a three-storey terraced home as a 22-bed party house.
Giles Wigoder has until 28 May to convert 55 George Street in Kemptown back into a five-bedroom shared house.
Neighbours say guests have played loud music in its garden and shouted obscenities until the early hours of the morning, far later and louder than the pubs in the same street.
The house, dubbed Moroccan Hub, is currently advertised for let on booking sites up until the end of September.
Mr Wigoder bought the house via his property company Avalon Industries Ltd in 2000, and had been using it as a holiday let wihthout permission when the pandemic hit.
He then applied to turn it into a five-bedroom house of multiple occupation (HMO) which was approved in October. But by February this year, it was again being used as a holiday let, again without permission.
A retrospective application to turn it into a holiday let was refused because of the impact on neighbours and the loss of housing.
A next door neighbour who objected to that application said: “Large groups of people staying there have been out in the courtyard area playing music at excessive levels, shouting and singing.
“This can go on for hours into the night.
“On a few occasions, the language used has been disgusting and actually worrying to listen to. Our daughter is often in our property alone and has been quite scared by some of the groups she’s heard and feels too vulnerable to go and ask them to stop.
“We appreciate that our property is in a mixed commercial and residential area, but number 55 has become a party house – as good as a nightclub – which is it not designed nor positioned to be.
“Since number 55 has been a holiday let, we have had to leave our garden and go back inside our property due to loud music, sexual and offensive language, shouting and abusive behaviours from the groups staying at the property.
“Such behaviours would not be tolerated in licensed venues for parties. Why should it be in a residential area?”
Another objecter said: “The tenants of the HMO were young men who caused no issues to us at all when using the outdoor space of 55.
Due to the layout of the rear of the properties it means that we and the ground floor flat, and also the next door student house, are directly affected by noise from the rear of 55, while others are further away and shielded by walls.
“The connecting rear space consists of a very small brick enclosed courtyard directly abutting the rear of our property.
“The noise made in this space echoes and funnels around the buildings.
“The fact that only a few properties are affected should not mean that we should be subjected to issues that affect the enjoyment of our homes due to the noise caused by guests at 55.”
Mr Wigoder told Brighton and Hove News he is intending on appealing the refusal of his planning application. He said: “I am currently preparing an appeal against both the planning refusal and the enforcement notice.
“The council were made aware of my intention to appeal against the planning and during the legal time limit that i have to do so they have simply issued proceedings before by planning consultant had time to issue the appeal.”
The last filed accounts for Avalon Industries Ltd, which also runs the Vintage Wine Gifts website, state it has investment property assets worth £2.7 million.
In the past, Mr Wigoder has also applied to turn two other Kemp Town family homes into HMOs, at 17 Bloomsbury Place in 2019 and 35 Camelford Street in 2020. Both were approved.
People commenting on the Bloomsbury Place application said it was then being used as a hen party holiday house.
Will the council also be chasing him up for unpaid business rates and for using the public bins for commercial purposes?
I own a legitimate guest house and am fed up with unofficial holiday lets run by professionals. Legitimate guest houses pay business rates, have proper fire and food inspections, public liability insurance, have to pay for 3 kinds of TV licences, pay to have rubbish removed (even when paying business rates) etc etc. It’s about time these unofficial properties had to do the same.
I wonder if HMRC are aware of Wigoder’s many business ventures?
I think this is something I agree with more than anything, the lack of regulation in comparison to “traditional” guest houses. Fair few horror stories as well.
I look forward to greater regulation of holiday lets to be standardised with other similar ventures.
The regulation is the same as for guest houses. If someone isn’t following it is illegal just as many guest house owners also don’t follow it.
That’s simply not true. Many of these holiday lets are completely off the radar as they never apply for change of use and don’t put their addresses on some rental platforms.
For example, we had a fire inspection recently, which we passed (as we want to keep our guests safe), but if we hadn’t we could have been closed down. The fire service don’t even know where most of the unofficial holiday lets are so they are never inspected.
Indeed, because they aren’t required to register anywhere, the city has little to no ability to know where they are. Good thing that scraping data exists.
Has the council told you he is not paying business rates, or hasn’t got insurance or he is not doing fire risk assessments or not payin tax etc? I doubt it as it would be against GDPR and he would need to be really dum to not do this as it would be illegal.
It is an HMO so is treated the same as a residential property ie he will pay council tax rather than business rates.
If he is illegally using HMOs for holiday lets then I don’t hold out much hope for him following any other rules.
In summary, I’ve just googled it as there is a public register and 55 George Street is paying business rates so I am sure the fire department or anyone else that wants to have inspected them have done.
The pure size of this one makes this somewhat of an exception. I wonder if we can be confident that the majority of multiple two and one-bedroom whole property holiday lets are doing the same? The fact that the council do not have visibility on holiday lets because they are not required to register makes me less so.
Really, which website did your Google search take you to?
According to the Government website, as set out by the Valuation Office Agency, 55 George Street was removed from the ratings list of business rate payers in December 2020.
Hi – where is that database please?
Using the argument that people wouldn’t do something because it would be dumb…please see the entire history of the human race.
I agree but this is like saying your neighbour takes illegal drugs. Maybe they do. Many people do. It is illegal and it is a really stupid thing to do and the police probably don’t know that he does. However, it is illegal. Saying that his property doesn’t adhere to the fire regs which holiday let properties and HMOs need to and therefore the owner has decided he would rather risk going to prison because he hasn’t done this is illegal. It may be that he is operating illegally, but there is no reason to assume this any more than the fact that your neighbour may be taking illegal drugs or that half the restaurants in St James street may not be following health and safety laws. HMRC and the valuation office will know what he is doing unless he is breaking the law.
I feel your comment underscores the importance of proactive measures to ensure properties comply with regulations. Appropriate registration and regulation with the council could serve as a valuable tool to keep property owners informed and accountable to ensure they are adhering to the higher legislative burden, whilst protecting clients. Almost a bit like Scores on the Doors?
Nice one! So many people think Brighton is just a quick way to make money and ignore that fact that real people actually live here. We need to stop destroying our community.
Attending the Housing Strategy next Saturday?
I stayed here on my mates hen do.
Was mental. Partied until 5am
Great memories and owner cool even though we had a few accidents. Lol 🙂