'Selfie queen' Karen Danczuk slapped with fine in unpaid rent row
MP'S WIFE Karen Danczuk has been ordered to hand over £2,000 in unpaid rent owed by a deli she started.
Mrs Danczuk, 31, labelled the selfie queen due to the large volume of revealing photos she posts on Twitter, says she sold the company back in February and claims she had paid all debts.
However, landlord for the site in Rochdale of Danczuk's Delicatessen, now renamed Cafe on the Walk, insists he is due rent.
Stephen Butterfield, 63, claims officially Mrs Danczuk is still the owner, as no new tenant has been vetted by his letting agent.
He says the £2,045 payment ordered by the country court was rent due for the last quarter of the year and she will also owe him for the next three years of the five-year contract she signed in 2013.
Mrs Danczuk who was a 50 percent shareholder of the deli along with her husband, Rochdale MP Simon, when it launched, said: "I am in dispute with the landlord, I have taken initial legal advice and intend taking further legal advice. I hope to resolve this amicably in the near future."
But the county court judgement showed Mrs Danczuk had not responded to Mr Butterfield's claim and would therefore need to pay up.
Mr Butterfield said: "I had no choice but to go to court. I'm not a big, bad landlord. I let them be. I'm not vindictive, but I won't be treated like a mug.
"She is liable for the rent - and she has three-and-a-quarter years left on this lease.
"She owes the money and she should pay up.
"It's not as simple as just selling it to someone. She should have gone to the agents, who could have put it back up.
"I could release her from all this if she just works with me.
"New tenants have to be vetted."
Mr Butterfield's solicitors, Ramsdens of Huddersfield, said there would need to be a formal deed of assignment between Mrs Danczuk and any tenant.
That could only happen with Mr Butterfield's permission - and Mrs Danczuk would remain liable for the rent if the new tenant didn't pay.