Bulgarian National Lottery Winner Rents out an Illegal Cabin

Bulgarian lotto millionaire has built an illegal cabin in his back yard, which was reported and he is currently undergoing an investigation in the UK.

George Traykov is a former member of the Bulgarian skydiving team, who won the National Lottery twice. The first time in 2011, he won the fantastic GBP 1 million in the Millionaire Raffle and the second time was last year when he took home GBP 160,873 from EuroMillions, which operate under UK gambling laws.

Unfortunately for Traykov, he has been reported for building an illegal cabin in his garden, which he is renting out for GBP10,000/year.

The rise of a real problem

He is currently going through an investigation procedure of his home in Harrow, north-west London, which is done by council staff, following the discovery of the cabin that has a bedroom, kitchen and toilet.

His case of having an illegal building is not sporadic, as such constructions seem to be appearing more and more, accommodating to the needs of the large number of immigrants, who are moving to the UK, both legally and illegally.

Traykov’s suspicious building was detected by a special aircraft, which was equipped with a thermal camera, which was used by the authorities, so that illegal structures can be located more easily.

Authorities’ concerns

Susan Hall, the Conservative leader of Harrow council, commented on the growing problem: “The beds-in-sheds phenomenon means there is a hidden community springing up in the back gardens of our cities – in our borough alone the thermal pictures we receive suggest there are four times as many as we first suspected.”

Bulgarian lotto millionaire is undergoing an investigation in the UK for having an illegal cabin on his property

• There are numerous cases of illegal buildings, which serve the needs of numerous immigrants

• The owner is currently renting the unregulated cabin as well as another bedroom from his main house

• Traykov is appealing the council decision for the property

She added: “The pressures of migration in London, fuelled by recent waves of new arrivals from Eastern Europe, are creating new stresses on local authorities that we just haven't had to contend with before. What was once thought, even just 18 months ago, to be a problem for the centre of big cities, is now rippling out to the suburbs.”

Hall continued: “These are people who use council services, like bin collection, but for whom we receive no extra funding. In many cases the people in beds-in-sheds are at the bottom of a pyramid of exploitation. But we get complaints from their neighbors that we cannot ignore, and it is not fair on them that these houses should turn into cash cows for opportunist landlords.”

Ealing Council reported that the estimated number inhabitants of “beds-in-sheds” caused an increase of the population in the area by 60,000 to almost 400,000 residents.

Traykov’s case

Traykov, who is said to be travelling at the moment, hasn’t made any public comments regarding his case. When he won the lottery, he has already been living in the UK for over 20 years, and was working as a property developer. He commented for various gambling news broadcasts: “I've always worked very hard and never spent more than I have, so money has never been a major problem for me.”

Apart from the illegal structure, his house has four rooms, one of which he is renting to a Polish special educational needs teacher Agnieszka Klojzy, who lives there with her two children. She commented: “George is a good landlord. He looks after us quite well. It was scary (when the council came). I felt like a criminal.”

A neighbor, who preferred to stay anonymous, mentioned that numerous people are entering the property of the Bulgarian and declared that additional fence was put, so that the illegal building could be hidden.

The Harrow council handed in two planning enforcement notices to the owner. The statement of the council said: “There is a national yardstick for what constitutes a licensable HMO (House in Multiple Occupation). In Harrow, the rule is that a building has to be at least two stories and have four unrelated people living there.”

The council continued: “Courtenay Avenue was clearly licensable and was not. The outbuilding constituted a breach of planning because it had no planning consent to be constructed, especially as it was equipped for stand-alone living – i.e. kitchen, lavatory, bedroom etc.”

Additionally: “In November Harrow Council served a planning enforcement notice with two elements. One required the beds in sheds outbuilding to be demolished while the other part required the main building to be returned to a family dwelling. The notice should have taken effect from December 12th with a six-month deadline, but has been frozen because the landlord has appealed.”