A landlord continued to rent out an unsafe, unheated flat with no windows despite being ordered not to by environmental health inspectors.

Property owner Ayo Adewale has been fined nearly £9,000 for ignoring a Prohibition Order and failing to carry out a raft of repairs to his House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in West Green Road, Tottenham.

When Haringey’s environmental health team visited the property in February last year they found that there was no shared fire alarm, two of the eight flats had no heating and one had no windows apart from a small skylight, leaving the occupants with almost no natural light.

An unguarded staircase and a bare ceiling light dangling next to the shower were among other issues uncovered.

A prohibition order was immediately served on the windowless flat, banning Adewale from renting it out until he had addressed the issue.

But when officers visited again in March this year they found that not only had most of the repairs not been done but a new tenant was living in the out-of-bounds unit.

The skylight had been removed but in its place was a hole in the roof covered with temporary plastic panels and green plastic sheeting.

Mr Adewale pleaded guilty to failing to comply with three improvement notices, failing to carry out works required as a condition of his HMO license and contravening a Prohibition Order. He was fined £6,600 and ordered to pay £2,925 costs.

Haringey Council Cabinet Member for Environment Cllr Peray Ahmet said: “It is inexcusable for any landlord to rent out a property which they know is not fit to live in and we will continue to hold rogue landlords to account.

We are currently consulting on a wider HMO licensing scheme, which will allow us to get even tougher on landlords who are clearly putting profit before the safety of their tenants.”