A Brighton landlord has been fined £5,000 for turning a house into flats without planning permission.
Jobie Lee Edwards, 32, Bazehill Road, Rottingdean, pleaded guilty to breaching an enforcement notice when he was taken to court by Brighton and Hove City Council.
Edwards turned the house at 1 Abbotsbury Close, Saltdean, into a one-bed flat and a three-bed maisonette – a change that required planning permission.
The two flats remained even after the council issued an enforcement notice and Mr Edwards lost an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Edwards was fined £5,000 at Eastbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday 15 July and ordered to pay £850 towards the council’s costs and a £120 victim surcharge.
Councillor Julie Cattell, who chairs the council’s Planning Committee, said: “The message is to check whether you need planning consent if you want to make changes to a property.
“If you face enforcement action, please talk to us about how you can comply.
“Planning rules are there to protect everyone’s neighbourhood so we’re not going to simply drop a case if we’re ignored. We will go to court if we must.”
The council said: “It is the latest in a string of successes for Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning enforcement team.
“It has recently won four appeals with the government’s Planning Inspectorate. In each case landlords had created shared student houses from family homes, without the required planning permission for change of use.”
