Ex-red must pay back £8k to city council
A FORMER Nottingham Forest footballer has been ordered to pay back thousands of pounds in rent payments.
Nottingham City Council said landlord Dexter Blackstock failed to licence his properties and must now pay back more than £8,000 in rent, on top of the £24,000 he was fined in October 2019.
Former striker Blackstock (pictured), of Papplewick, has been told he has to pay back £8,592.98 in Housing Benefits that he was paid by tenants for two unlicensed properties.
Blackstock, 34, was previously fined £24,000 for owning rented homes which had no licences. The offences related to properties in Bingham Road, Addison Street, Hucknall Road, Haydn Road, Magdala Road, Langtry Grove and Marmion Road.
He was also ordered to pay £1,100 costs and a victim surcharge of
£170 by the court in October 2019.
Following the prosecution, Nottingham
City Council applied for a
Rent Repayment Order for two homes where Housing Benefits had been paid despite the properties being unlicensed.
Now, the First-tier Property Chamber has made its decision public that Blackstock must make a Rent Repayment Order of £8,592.98 following a decision in December 2020.
A Rent Repayment Order (RRO) is where a tenant or local authority can ask a landlord for up to 12 months of Rent, Housing Benefit, or Universal Credit to be repaid after a landlord has been convicted of the offence of operating a property without a licence.
Councillor Linda Woodings, portfolio holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage at Nottingham City Council, said: “This has been a long and complex case for our Safer Housing team, from investigations to prosecution and finishing with this great result on the Rent Repayment Order. Housing Benefit is paid out from the council to support residents in paying their rent. Following this conviction, we had to recuperate the money that Mr Blackstock was not entitled to. This could have all been avoided if Mr Blackstock licensed his properties or engaged and worked with us.”
Dexter Blackstock declined to comment.