[2024] UKUT 62 (LC)

There are five applicants. Mr Rakesh Patel owns numbers 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 24. Through First Docklands Property Management Limited, which is wholly owned and controlled by Mr Patel, he also owns Number 22. We refer to those eight properties together as “the Patel properties”. They are all let as HMOs, and each has five occupants at present although Mr Patel’s evidence was that they have been occupied by four, five or six people at various times. Each has an HMO licence for six occupants. Number 16 is owned by Mr Mikky Ho and is let on an assured shorthold tenancy to two tenants, but his evidence was that he intends to move back there once the projects are completed. Number 18 is owned by Mr Anthony Onabanjo. At the time of the application Number 20 was owned by Mr Ali Tekin Atalar but in July 2023 the property was sold to Ms Carolyn Chuah. Only Mr Onabanjo and Ms Chuah currently use their properties as their home.