Landlord Licensing & Defence BLOG
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Court Fines, Civil Penalties and News
£66,000 fine for landlord letting out HMO with safety failings
15 Jan 2021 A landlord has been hit with what a local authority calls a record £66,000 fine after being found guilty of letting an HMO that was dangerous to tenants. Reading council prosecuted Mohammed Naseer Zamir, following its housing team’s findings at the...
Reading Borough Council fine landlord £66k for failing to meet fire safety requirements
13 Jan 2021 A LANDLORD has been slapped with a £66,000 fine over 'serious' safety breaches including plug sockets next to the shower, and repairs that risked residents being trapped in a fire. In a record attempt by Reading Borough Council (RBC) to clamp down on...
Landlord’s excuse for operating Unlicensed HMO not a ‘Reasonable Excuse’ finds Appeal to Upper Tribunal
05 Jan 2021 Thurrock Council has won an appeal from a decision of the First-tier Tribunal to cancel a civil penalty imposed for the offence of managing or being in control of a house in multiple occupation that is required by the Housing Act 2004 to be licensed, when...
The true Cost of Unlicensed HMOs
30 Jan 2020 A landlord in bath was fined £10,000 plus £4,000 costs and given a criminal record in Bath this month for not licensing her HMO. We see cases of this every week and the "going rate" is around £12,000 for not licensing an HMO. But that is only the...
£600,000 fine for damage to bat breeding site
22 Dec 2020 A major house builder has been ordered to pay what is understood to be the largest fine ever issued by a court in relation to a wildlife crime. On 8 December at Woolwich Crown Court, Bellway Homes pleaded guilty to the offence between 17 March 2018 and 17...
Yet another landlord gets £14,000 fine for not having HMO licence
17 Dec 2020 A landlord has been fined £10,000 by her local council for failing to licence a HMO. Tracey Davies of Bath was found guilty in her absence when the case came before magistrates in the city. The local authority - which says it was “acting on information...
Liverpool tries again to implement selective licensing tax
15 Dec 2020 In a cynical attempt to hide their revenue creation motive by stating: “The council makes no profit from the scheme. Every single pound we get from landlords would be ring-fenced, paying for our team [of enforcement officers] to be out on the streets...
Landlord denied licences despite past conviction being ‘spent’
10 Dec 2020 A London council has confirmed its right to refuse licenses to criminal landlords - even reformed ones. A story in the East London Guardian says Nasim Hussain and her daughter Farina took the Waltham Forest council to court after the family’s licences for...
Huge fine for HMO owner after refusal of planning consent
09 Dec 2020 A long-running case about a house divided up and let out without planning permission has resulted in a fine of nearly £10,000 for the owner. Brighton & Hove council investigated the property back in July 2018. The owner, Shirley White, had divided...
Tribunal upholds civil penalty notice and £8,852 fine on landlord
20 Nov 2020 A £4,550 fine, one of several imposed by the council, has been upheld after an appeal by the landlord was rejected by a property tribunal. Fenland council served five civil penalty notices on the landlord totalling £8852 earlier this year for failing...
Success! We bat 5 over zealous council court summonses into the long grass – defending older landlord
20 Nov 2020 A LONG READ – Well Worth it. Especially if you were born between 1950 and 1980 and, you are a LANDLORD. A client Of Landlord Licensing & Defence who has lived in abject terror for months due to bullying and ridiculous Local Council action had a Happy...
Council to crack down on Dorset Landlords in Dorset
04 Nov 2020 PRIVATE landlords who fail to stick to regulations and treat tenants unfairly can expect a tougher approach from Dorset Council. Senior council officers told a committee this week that they now had the backing, and funding, to adopt a tougher stance where...
Retail to Residential looks to increase the quality of rental property – lookout ‘average’ landlords!
29 Oct 2020 The high street was already struggling before the pandemic, but Covid-19 has perhaps sent it into terminal decline. High streets in major towns and cities across the UK are now virtual ghost-towns as office workers and tourists stay away. With the rise in...
Northampton Council takes Landlords house
29 Oct 2020 Northampton council is seeking a so-called Charging Order against a landlord who failed to carry out improvements to her property and then ignored the resulting £12,400 civil penalty. In December 2018, council officers carried out an inspection of the...
Tenant dies in HMO fire – landlord gets 4 months plus fines, Fire Safety Order
28 Oct 2020 A landlord has been prosecuted following the death of a tenant in a house fire at an HMO said to have had inadequate fire safety precautions. The case was brought by Luton council, working with Bedfordshire Police and Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue...
Landlord £300,000 property confiscated for planning breach & faces prison
26 Oct 2020 A London landlord who ignored six enforcement notices served by his local council has been ordered to pay over £300,000. Salim Mussa Patel from Southall has been made the subject of a confiscation order for £207,000, has been fined £50,000 and made to...
University acts Criminally putting Landlords in Danger of Prosecution
23 Oct 2020 Following the recent revelation that the University of Warwick is dumping hundreds of private landlords in favour of its own student accommodation , it has today come to light that as part of this strategy it appears to have deliberately put landlords...
Landlord who refused to pay for legal assistance gets stung for £28,000 in Rent Repayment Orders
19 Oct 2020 A Landlord who told our firm that he’d rather go out alone than pay £450 in fees for legal assistance has ended up with the inevitable DIY result of a massive Rent Repayment Order for £28,000. "Landlords who think they have the skills that they can handle...
Landlady fined £18k over unauthorised shared house
19 Oct 2020 A landlady has been landed with a court bill of more than £18,000 for continuing to rent out a student house after being denied planning permission. Shirley White, of Southgate, London, applied for planning permission to turn 41 Bevendean Crescent,...
Landlord fined for keeping tenant’s deposit in a tin
15 Oct 2020 A landlord has been ordered to pay his ex-tenant £1,500 after failing to protect her deposit with an approved scheme. The Housing and Property Chamber First-tier tribunal for Scotland found that Mark Bradley of Gourock had not protected his tenant’s...
Tenant in arrears? Text them! New research finds phone calls are too intimidating…
12 Oct 2020 Most tenants claim they are “intimidated” when agents or landlords telephone them about arrears - and they would much prefer a text. Warned Phil Turtle, compliance director with Landlord Licensing & Defence “Thus is potentially scary for...
Rogue rent-to-rent landlord will face prison if he tries to rent out property again
06 Oct 2020 A landlord has failed to overturn a ban from renting out properties after repeatedly putting tenants’ lives at risk by letting unsafe housing. Balazs Stalter was prosecuted earlier this year by Wandsworth Council’s housing team following complaints...
Enfield Council persecutes private landlords while leaving Council Tenant in “mouldy, mouse-infested” accommodation for three years
05 Oct 2020 Of course if a private landlord had left a disabled tenant and his whole family in "mouldy, mouse-infested” accommodation for three years, any council in the land would have thrown the book at them and issued Civil Penalty...
New Permitted Development Rights being challenged in Court
17 Sep 2020 A Divisional Court will next month hear campaign group Rights : Community : Action’s (RCA’s) judicial review challenge to the government’s new rules on permitted development. On 2 September Mr Justice Holgate directed that RCA’s claim should be heard over...
Civil penalty notices served on landlords who cannot be named
11 Sep 2020 Two landlords have been served with civil penalty notices for operating unlicensed HMOs. The notices were from Wellingborough council; one was for £6,000 and the other for £8,250. Details of the individuals and properties cannot be disclosed as the...
Criminal sentences after rental property carried “risk of death”
11 Sep 2020 Two suspended sentences, community service, a fine and disqualification from being a director - those form the penalty for a rogue landlord guilty of letting out a property as a dangerous and illegal hostel. After three years of serving prohibition notices...
Prison Sentence for Landlord over Poor Fire Safety
01 Sep 2020 A buy to let property owner has received a four month prison sentence for letting out a property he had already been warned was too dangerous to live in. Manmohan Sahib, of Ilford in Essex, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court after pleading guilty to...
“Screw your Landlord” Westminster City Council launches online tool encouraging HMO Tenants to claim Rent Repayment Orders
In a move designed to punish as many landlords as possible with crucifying Rent Repayment Orders of up to 12 months rent, City of Westminster has launched a "find out of you can screw your landlord" tool on their website. They are obviously using this 'hook' to get...
Coventry Landlord £180,000 Proceeds of Crime fine is just deserts
04 Aug 2020 Arrogant Maria Protheroe was paid income support payments after claiming she had no income – despite renting out a portfolio of properties the length of the country. The scheming property owner also lied to obtain mortgages to buy yet more houses – and...
Court fines Landlord £26,000 for rats and cockroaches in un-declared HMO
22 Jul 2020 A pregnant woman was among nine people put “at risk” by their landlords, who allowed their tenants’ home to become infested with rats and cockroaches. Barnet Council says its enforcement officers found a “severe cockroach infestation” at...
Speed cameras being used by Councils to create revenue new report – just like property licensing & Landlord Fines
16 Jul 2020 In a report by the Inspectorate of Police and Fire Services they accuse Safety Camera Partnerships (dominated by local authorities) of being cynical and putting cameras to generate revenue and not to save lives. What landlords need to know...
Bristol Council Starts Cynical campaign to bankrupt Landlords
13 Jul 2020 In another cynical move by landlord-hating councils, Bristol Council is encouraging tenants in the town who believe they have been mistreated by landlords to seek punitive rent repayment orders. Said Phil Turtle, director of Landlord Licensing &...
£10,000 fine per 2-bedroom shared house as Greenwich mounts witch-hunt to raise revenue
10 Jul 2020 Four buy to let investors have each been fined £10,000 for letting out unlicensed HMOs. The unlicensed properties , all in the Greenwich area, include a two-bedroom HMO rented to four separate tenants, a five-bedroom HMO rented to seven...
“All hands to the pumps” demands Lord Chancellor as he vows to catch up on Court and Tribunal cases
06 Jul 2020 The Lord Chancellor has agreed that there should be no constraints in the number of sitting days available during the COVID-19 recovery period for the courts or any hesitation in using fee-paid and deputy judges to fill any gaps which cannot be filled...
DON’T TALK TO THE COUNCIL!!!
03 Jul 2020 By Des Taylor A New Landlord hounded, bullied, harassed and falsely accused of breaking the law – until we put the bullies and the idiots in their place. Unjustified Enforcement yet again! READ THIS TRUE STORY – Every landlord needs to know the council is...
PM promises “biggest shakeup since the war” to not-fit-for-purpose planning system
01 Jul 2020 Build Build Build: Boris Johnson says he will make the most radical reforms to the planning system since the Second World War, making it easier to build where people want to live. New regulations will give greater freedom for buildings and land in our town...
Property Owner faces Confiscation for ignoring planning enforcement
30 Jun 2020 Two joint property owners have been found guilty of illegally sub-dividing a building into seven substandard flats in a prosecution brought by the London Borough of Camden. They now face confiscation of the property under the proceeds of crime act which...
Going Up! New Right to extend blocks of flats skywards
30 Jun 2020 Guest Post by Planning Consultant Colin Smith New permitted development right allowing two-storey upwards extensions to blocks of flats were published On 25 June 2020 by John Geoghegan. New rules allowing blocks of flats to be extended upwards by two...
Council Demolishes illegally occupied outbuilding. Issues £16,000 fine
25 Jun 2020 A property built without planning consent and then illegally let to a family has been knocked down by Ealing council in West London - and the owner has been sent the bill for the demolition job. Rapinder Kaur Sehajpal has been sent an invoice for £16,000...
Delight as Dominic Cummings pledges to take an axe to the planning system
29 Jun 2020 Boris Johnson’s most trusted, it somewhat controversial Seriously Advisor Dominic Cummings has pledged to “take an axe” to the planning system. In a conference call with government advisers that has mysteriously found its way into the pages of The...
Bristol landlord £5000 Rent Repayment Order
24 Jun 2020 Two Bristol landlords have been ordered to repay nearly £5,000 following investigations by the council’s so called rogue landlord unit. One, Lucy Sherry, was found to have breached the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. She was found to have harassed...
‘Landlord in Crisis’ Cases This Week
23 Jun 2020 The last two weeks has been hectic and often people see what we publish and ask what exactly do we do? Well here are some of the things we have covered in the last two weeks, no day is ever boring and it is a long read and these cases are all landlords...
‘Landlord in Crisis’ Cases Last Week
23 Jun 2020 The last two weeks has been hectic and often people see what we publish and ask what exactly do we do? Well here is the first half covering just some of the things we have covered in the last two weeks, no day is ever boring and it is a long read and these...
HMO Landlords: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
01 Apr 2020 Over the past year we have seen Mandatory HMO licensing increased in scope to include all properties with 5 or more occupants, where they belong to two or more households. Since this we have seen a dramatic increase in the use of prosecutions, civil...
Special Offer £71,600 – Rogue Landlord Special
A new case just in. A new slant on property investment: Here we have a landlord with a 6 Bed HMO in the Northern Home Counties. This case is a cookie-cutter duplicate based on a pattern we are seeing on a week in, week out, basis. It starts with a Council...
Landlord fined £87,000 for putting tenants in ‘serious danger’
11 Mar 2020 A private landlord has been prosecuted by Bristol City Council for providing private rented accommodation that posed a “serious risk to life”. Nine people were found living in cramped conditions in a small flat rented out by rogue landlord...
Landlord ordered to pay £190,000 for renting out illegal flats
03 Mar 2020 A buy-to-let landlord has been ordered to pay back a whopping £190,000 after he was caught receiving rental from illegal flats. A confiscation order was issued against Olu Soyebo, 61, of Lagos, Nigeria, after he failed to comply with a planning enforcement...
BTL landlord ordered to pay £9,500 for failing to maintain property
02 Mar 2020 A buy-to-let landlord in Liverpool has been ordered to pay almost £9.500 after failing to provide acceptable living conditions for his tenant. John William Kildare was found guilty of failing to comply with an Improvement Notice after allowing his tenant...
Issuing 2,500 Civil and legal Landlord Penalty Notices puts £7/month on every Liverpool Rent
Overall, 70 per cent of inspected properties in Liverpool have been found to be in breach of their licence condition claims Liverpool City Council since their now defunct selective licensing scheme was launched in 2015, uncovering, say the council, serious hazards...
Landlord and Agent fined for 32 occupants in 2 bed flat
The managing director of a letting agency and the Landlord of a two-bedroom flat where an unbelievable 32 people were found to be living have been fined, along with the agency itself. Altogether they have been ordered to pay a remarkably low £30,000. However, as this...
£30,000 fine for lack of safe fire escape route – as resident hangs off guttering to save his life
A resident was found standing on a windowsill hanging from guttering and had to be rescued by firefighters. This was because he was unable to access any emergency escape route during the fire due to inadequate fire precautions. These were problems that would have been...
Landlord fined £90,000 for faultless properties
06 Feb 2020 A landlord has been ordered to pay just over £90,000 for repeatedly ignoring selective licensing laws in Brent, north London. Said Phil Turtle a director of Landlord Licensing and Defence, "The Council admits that there were 'no serious concerns' with this...
Fatal fire in unlicensed house leads to £15k fine and entry on rogues database
20 Jan 2020 A judge has ordered two landlords to pay a total of £14,858 for illegally renting out an unlicensed house without working smoke alarms to tenants whose teenage son died after it caught fire. Firefighters attended the scene in Thornton Heath, south London,...
Now Council Licensing are doing Dawn Raids just like the Drug Squad
22 Jan 2020 An investigation was launched this morning into the safety of residents in 10 rented properties operating without landlord licences. Officers from Slough Borough Council knocked on the doors of the 10 properties simultaneously at 5am to examine the living...
£18,000 Civil Penalty for Landlord who didn’t comply with HHSRS
12 Jan 2020 A landlord in one of the most scenic parts of Devon had been served with a £18,000 civil penalty because he failed to do work demanded by an Improvement Notice. The landlord has not been named by South Hams council, but it says the landlord has now...
Landlord fined for failure to comply
21 Jan 2020 A buy-to-let landlord has been ordered to pay more than £2,000 after ignoring several requests to carry out important repairs to a property in Bridlington, Yorkshire. David Christlow, of Prospect Street in Bridlington, was fined a total of £2,000,...
Mandatory Electrical Test (EICR) before you can let any property will be Law very soon
14 Jan 2020 By Giles Parker of Nearly Legal. The draft of The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 has been laid in Parliament. The regs require a resolution of each house, so this will not be an immediate approval, but...
Birmingham launches city-wide Article 4 Direction for HMOs
07 Jan 2020 Birmingham’s Labour-led council is to introduce a city-wide Article 4 Direction from June, which means a planning application must be submitted for proposals to convert family houses to small HMOs. Specifically this means consent is required to change a...
Landlord found guilty of unlawful harassment and misleading practices
A rogue landlord in Gainsborough will be sentenced later this month after being found guilty of unlawful harassment towards his tenants and pursuing misleading and aggressive practices. Ragoopathy Naidu, 64, ordered his tenants to move out of their property inside an...
From our Barrister’s Desk: Civil Penalties, HMOs and The Housing Act – a Brief Guide
By Julian Hunt, Barrister at Law & specialist in HMOs and the Housing Acts I have advised on many Housing Act Civil Penalty Notices (CPNs) since their inception. There is no set format for these notices which arrive with that ominous thud on the doorstep. I have...
