Letter to Mayor about the Somerford Grove Renters

Dear Sadiq Khan and Zoë Garbett,

Somerford Grove Renters and John Chistodoulou

I am writing to you regarding the Somerford Grove Renters and their experience with John Chistodoulou as their landlord. 

In July 2021, Members of Somerford Grove Renters were awarded £18,420.96 in a First-tier Tribunal decision for the landlord’s failure to obtain an HMO license. There were more than 40 flats that should have had licenses but were unlicensed for years in the Simpson House, Olympic House and St John’s Court buildings. 

In March 2025, the First-tier Tribunal ruled on the other 16 Simpson House and Olympic House rent repayment orders for unlicensed HMOs. This brought the total to £263,555.69 to 47 tenants. Judge Robert Latham said: “The Respondent can only be characterised as a rogue Landlord.” 

Despite the judicial ruling, the tenants still have not received compensation. Instead, John Chistodoulou appears to be ‘phoenixing’ his property holdings, i.e. liquidating the business found guilty of mismanagement while carrying it on in a new name. The adjudicators have said there is a growing risk that tenants will receive no compensation, while John Chistodoulou seemingly continues to profit from Somerford Grove via a new shell company. 

The experience of Somerford Grove residents are just one instance of a range of exploitative business practices attributed to John Chistodolou. For instance, in December 2022, a First Tier Tribunal ruled against two of Chistodolou’s companies in a £1.6million case concerning the overcharging of leaseholders at the Canary Riverside development in Canary Wharf. At the time of writing, his company has reportedly failed to undertake remedial works ordered by the High Court in 2019 on a residential skyscraper it owns and operates in Manchester - a situation described by the local MP, Lucy Powell, as a ‘living hell’ for residents.

There are many more reports by residents around the country of poor practices by Chistodolou’s companies. Meanwhile, he has allegedly attempted to silence tenants, journalists and politicians with the threat of legal challenge.

I am writing to you today to ask you to:

• Ensure that if John Chistodoulou does not pay the outstanding debt to tenants that Hackney Council applies for a banning order against his companies. 
• Investigate from Hackney Council as to whether any of the issues, HMO registration (and selective licensing under the new scheme introduced on 1 May 2026) and fire safety, have been resolved at Olympic House, Simpson House and St John’s Court in Somerfield Grove. 
• Investigate from the GLA, the behaviour of John Chistodoulou as a London landlord, and look at adding him and his companies to the rogue landlord database. 
• Raise with the new government the need for greater powers to prevent landlords ‘phoenixing’ their operations to dodge legal liabilities.

John Christodoulou is a billionaire based in Monaco, a tax-haven, and is one of the largest private landlords in the UK. Time and again tenants and leaseholders have had to challenge his business practices. We need local and regional authorities to have no tolerance for rule breaking.

Yours sincerely, 
Benali Hamdache 
Green Party Member of the London Assembly