Landlord Licensing & Defence BLOG
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Court Fines, Civil Penalties and News
Landlord loses 6-year fight against property improvements. Council wins massive fines
05 Jul 2022 A landlord who repeatedly let out an unsafe house has been fined £20,000 by magistrates. Housing officers from Salford council found fire doors were not up to standard and the fire alarm and detection systems and escape routes were still unsafe three years...
Letting Agent and Property Manager fined thousands for ‘failure to produce documents” to council
04 Jul 2022 Two landlords have been fined £3,000 and ordered to pay more than £6,000 in costs for failing to provide documents to a local council. Nicole Cameron, director of local letting and property management company South Tyneside Rooms, along with property...
Incredible story of violence, drug-planting and extortion of tenants by letting agency
22 Jun 2022 A lettings agency used violence, vandalism and power black outs to extort and illegally evict tenants, a court has heard. One tenant was doused in petrol and had his teeth smashed by a gang of 10 while another was booted out after landlords pinned a bag of...
Landlord jailed for illegal eviction
15 Jun 2022 A rogue landlord who harassed and illegally kicked out his tenant has been jailed for 12 months. Mirza Tariq Mahmud Jaral, of Burmer Road, Peterborough, denied the charges but was found guilty after a trial at Peterborough Crown Court and ordered to pay...
£130k in fines for banned agency director and landlord because of unlicensed HMO
13 Jun 2022 The sole director of a lettings agency, who was recently made the subject of an anti-social behaviour injunction and banning order, has been found guilty and sentenced for controlling an unlicensed HMO and providing unsafe housing for its tenants. Mohammed...
Landlord Jailed for illegal eviction and harassment
09 Jun 2022 A landlord has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for the illegal eviction and harassment of a tenant, and has been ordered to pay over £8,000 in compensation. Mirza Tariq Mahmud Jaral, of Peterborough, pleaded not guilty to offences of illegal...
Council forgoes civil financial penalty in pursuit of Banning Order
06 Jun 2022 Despite announcing in 2018 that they were now pursuing landlords for failure to licence HMOs and breaches of HMO Management Regulations under the civil penalty regime, (see £16,000 fine given for non-licence HMO”) the local authority has instead...
£40k fine for unsafe scaffolding at house
26 May 2022 Kent-based RPS Scaffolding Ltd has been fined following an incident where the scaffolding the company erected collapsed, injuring two workers. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that in August 2020, two workers were injured when the scaffolding they were...
Housing market a mess as local authorities and Shelter continue to confound landlords and developers
19 May 2022 Landowners are claiming that the negative stereotype given to private landlords in recent years by government contributes to the overall housing crisis. Scottish Land & Estates, representing landowners, says: Aspirations to improve housing volume and...
Infamous and abusive landlord faces fines of over £125,000
12 May 2022 A court has told a multi-millionaire landlord he must pay £125,000 after a 10-year campaign of abuse against a local council. Last year Fergus Wilson, 72, was the subject of a life-time injunction banning him from contacting his local Ashford Borough...
Rent Repayment Order – Illegal Eviction
04 May 2022 Watch Now Illegal Eviction happens more often than many realise. Often the actions of the landlord constitute illegal eviction without them realising until it is to late. The damage has been done. Then the tenant can apply for a rent repayment order. Harsh...
Landlords in Glass Houses shouldn’t Throw Stones
26 Apr 2022 As a landlord before you have any disagreement difference of opinion or need to settle differences with a tenant it is important to make sure your house is in order. There is a pattern emerging of landlords and tenants having disagreements and and while...
Council encourages tenants to get Rent Repayment Order against Landlord
21 Mar 2022 A London landlord has been fined £5,000 for letting an unlicensed HMO. The fine was issued after the landlord ignored repeated warnings from Hackney council to obtain a license to continue letting the property. The landlord appealed the fine to the...
Local Authorities using Credit Checking to Trap You (and Identify Your Tenants)
10 Mar 2022 Guest post by Des Taylor Casework Director at Landlord Licensing & Defence It has come across my desk from more than one local authority and in multiple cases that the Council is checking information with Consumer Credit Reference Companies as part of...
CIEH to Train Housing Enforcement Officers to Prosecute Thousands More Landlords
04 Mar 2022 Poor housing quality is a serious issue affecting the public health and mental health of the UK population, yet 18% of homes in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) fail the government’s decent homes standard. Enforcement is a key part of...
£60,000 fines for landlord with non-compliant properties
23 Feb 2022 A landlord who harassed tenants and left them in dangerous accommodation hit has been branded “atrocious” and has been hit with a £50,000 bill by a London council. Arbab Ahmed was brought to book on 10 housing violations at Stratford Magistrates Court by...
Planning reform update promised this spring
15 Feb 2022 The government is to set out further details on its planning reforms, according to a statement from the chief planner. In a monthly update to local authority chief planners, Joanna Averley said the government would “further update on our approach to...
Another council ponders Article 4 Direction to limit HMO numbers
15 Feb 2021 Coventry City council is considering dramatic moves to limit the numbers of houses in multiple occupation. A public consultation is being planned this summer in Coventry to change rules which at present enables landlords and property developers to turn...
£64,000 fine for HMO without planning permission
20 Jan 2022 A dodgy landlord from Kentish Town has been ordered to pay more than £64,500 for breaking housing regulations in Barking. Sumon Miah of Mortimer Terrace, off Highgate Road, was recently sentenced for breaching a planning enforcement notice on the...
Landlord fined £15,000 for failing to comply with Improvement Notice
08 Dec 2021 Harrogate Borough Council has announced another win against a landlord. Landlord Kingspark Limited who received a penalty of £15,000 for failure to comply with an improvement notice requiring works at a property on Electric Avenue, Harrogate. Trevor...
Landlord fined £15,000 for failing to comply with Improvement Notice
25 Nov 2021 Harrogate Borough Council has announced another win against a landlord. Landlord Mr Stephen A received a penalty of £15,000 for failing to comply with an improvement notice requiring works at a property on Providence Terrace, Harrogate. Trevor Watson,...
Landlord fined £13,000 for changing the locks
22 Nov 2021 A couple have been fined over £13,000 after they were found guilty of unlawfully evicting four tenants and breaching management regulations on a property they rented out in London. Landlords Stephen Kayode Rotimi and his wife Fadeke Rotimi not only removed...
Harrogate Borough Council has announced its latest win against a landlord
11 Nov 2021 The most recent success relates to a case the council served on landlord Mr Jamshid J-G, for failing to comply with an improvement notice of a property on the High Street, Starbeck. As Mr J-G failed to address several hazards at the property, including...
Confessions of a Council HMO Enforcement Officer
11 Nov 2021 Des Taylor - Casework Director - Landlord Licencing & Defence Today we had an unusual communication This morning was one of those mornings where you receive a message and punch your fist in the air with delight – discovering that there are still some...
£25,000 fine for failing to comply with Improvement Notice
29 Oct 2021 The most recent success relates to a case the council served on landlord Mr Jamshid J-G, for failing to comply with an improvement notice of a property on the High Street, Starbeck. As Mr J-G failed to address several hazards at the property, including...
Letting agent fined £11,500 for an illegal eviction
29 Oct 2021 A lettings agency has been prosecuted by Birmingham council for unlawfully evicting a tenant. Principal Homes is based at Great Barr and was found guilty under Section 1 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 of unlawfully evicting Natalia...
Massive fines given to landlords for first selective licensing offences
05 Dec 2017 Four Gainsborough landlords have been fined and ordered to pay costs totalling £232,155.68. They are the first landlords to be prosecuted under West Lindsey District Council’s selective licensing scheme. Magistrates heard one case at Lincoln in October and...
Civil Penalty Notice and hefty fine for HMO landlord without licence
12 Oct 2021 A landlord has been fined over £7,000 for letting out an unsafe and unlicensed HMO. South Gloucestershire council’s private sector housing team issued the landlord a Civil Penalty Notice after a number of offences were identified at a three-storey...
Lettings agent jailed after £182,000 fraud
20 Sep 2021 A lettings agent has been jailed for three years for defrauding tenants and landlords out of more than £182,000. Lee Clarke, 42, of Park Corner, Windsor, was director of Berkshire Estate Agents in Slough. He disappeared in 2019 after being...
District planning authorities in England issue fewest number of enforcement notices since records began
06 Sep 2021 Finally some good news for landlords and property developers! District planning authorities in England issue fewest number of enforcement notices since records began District planning authorities in England issued fewer than...
Will Government make Rogue Landlord Database public? Decision awaited
11 Aug 2021 There has still been no formal response to a government consultation on the database of rogue agents and landlords, 25 months after comments were initially requested and 22 months after the exercise closed. The database of rogue landlords and property...
Edinburgh to require Planning Permission for all short term lets! Is this the end of SA?
11 Aug 2021 A consultation is to begin next month regarding the designation of an entire city as a Short Term Let Control Area. If Edinburgh council eventually gives the go ahead - and if the concept is approved by the Scottish Government - the new powers would mean...
London Borough of Camden secures ASBO injunction & exclusion zone against landlord
30 Jul 2021 Camden council in north London has become the first local authority to secure an anti-social behaviour injunction against a landlord in order to protect private tenants from illegal eviction and harassment. The council secured the injunction against...
BREAKING NEWS: Change to which Landlords can receive Rent Repayment Order.
Rakusen v Jepson and others appeal upheld and Upper Tribunal Decision Overturned. In what is the most important news for Landlords who find their property has been sublet unknowingly in Rent to Rent Residential to HMO situations. the Rent to Rent company will be held...
Landlord in court because buy to let was unclean and unsafe
23 Jul 2021 A landlord who failed to ensure his property was clean and safe for tenants to live in has been prosecuted by a council. An environmental health officer from Oldham council first visited a private rented property in the town in September last year...
Nowhere for HMO landlords to hide as Councils turn to Artificial Intelligence
21 Jul 2021 How long does it take for your Council to work out you’re running an unlicensed HMO? Less than one day! This was confirmed for us this week when a worried landlord got in touch with our landlords defence consultancy team. Here’s the situation: Landlord...
Suspended sentence for Fire Risk Assessor and warning to Landlords
02 Jul 2021 A fire risk assessor who provided an inadequate assessment for a residential block in Southampton has been fined and given a suspended prison sentence, following a prosecution brought by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service. Commented Phil...
Conviction of rogue landlord upheld
01 Jul 2021 The conviction of a rogue Dudley landlord who failed to rectify safety hazards in a property he let has been upheld. In November 2019 Latif Rehman, of Bank Street, Brierley Hill was fined a total of £151,070 by Wolverhampton Magistrates Court for three...
Landlord in hot water after ignoring council abatement notice
28 Jun 2021 A tenant was put at risk from a ceiling that partially collapsed and was left unable to use her shower after her landlords failed to adequately repair a leak. Sunita and Surinder Paul have each been fined £500 for breaching a Wolverhampton council...
Judge tears into Northampton Council’s Samantha Ling and her department
14 Jun 2021 In a shocking, and embarrassing for Northampton Borough Council (NBC), determination by Judge Wayte of the First Tier Tribunal property, he went so far as to suggest that the landlord should make a claim for costs against the Council. A move...
Yet another landlord fined massively for unlicensed property
11 Jun 2021 A London council has prosecuted a landlord for renting out an unauthorised and unsafe House in Multiple Occupation. Daniella Mbachu, who owns property in Mitcham, was found guilty of failing to apply for an HMO licence from Merton council, and failure to...
Council announces free property licensing!
10 Jun 2021 Instead of charging landlords around £1,000 like most UK councils - for the dubious honour of going into a database - which the council will then use so they can easily inspect properties and issue eye watering fines, Jersey (which is of course part of the...
HMO deemed dirty & unsafe. Lettings firm fined £21,000
09 Jun 2021 A council investigation found no fire alarms, routes of escape blocked, and a broken window covered with a 'to let' sign A Manchester letting and management company has been fined more than £21,000 after one of their properties was found to have multiple...
One in the eye for council ‘Anti-Planning’ departments as 40% increase in approvals needed if housing targets to ever be met
09 Jun 2021 Planning permissions must rise by 40% if the government is to meet its target of building 300,000 homes by the mid-2020s, a report has said.Research produced by planning consultancy Lichfields and commissioned by the Land Promoters and...
Banned: Rogue agency and director cannot let any property in England
28 May 2021 A London council has secured banning orders against rogue property agents who were previously fined over £70,000 for letting an unlicensed and unsafe home. Simple Properties Management Ltd and the company’s director, Miguel Cabeo Cespedes, were given...
Landlord gets £2,249 fine and criminal record for illegal eviction
18 May 2021 Landlord Antanas Klibavicius has pleaded guilty to illegally evicting his tenant and not taking any steps towards ending the tenancy properly and legally. Klibavicius, from Sheffield, pleaded guilty to unlawfully depriving his tenant of accommodation...
Landlord hit with curfew, and compensation bill after unlawful eviction
07 May 2021 A landlord has been placed under an overnight curfew in her home and ordered to pay just under £7,000 in compensation and costs after pleading guilty to unlawfully evicting her lodger, in a case brought by Bristol City...
Agents & Landlords urged to beware council crackdown and heavy fines
07 May 2021 A crackdown is now underway withTrading Standards divisions now taking an even stricter approach to enforcement of compliance obligations. This is yet another assault on the wallets of letting agents and landlords in addition to ever increasing compliance...
Landlord Wins £15k Compensation Against Council
07 May 2021 In what was only a hollow victory for the owner, the almost toothless Local Government Ombudsman has given Worcester City Council only a small slap on the wrist for giving a landlord false information as part of his Pre Application planning advice which...
£10k fine and Criminal Behaviour Order for illegal eviction by Agent
30 Apr 2021 A lettings agency director has been issued with a Criminal Behaviour Order for unlawfully evicting a tenant back in 2019. CFDP Ltd, trading as Belvoir Nuneaton and Hinckley, along with its director Clayton Foston, have been taken to court by...
HMO Landlord ordered to hand over 18 HMOs to Managing Agent & fined £30,000
26 Apr 2021 A landlord has been handed nearly £30,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to maintenance and safety failures at three properties. Landlord Naomi Knapp, of Bedminster in Bristol, agreed to pay £2,000 a month for at least the next year to meet the...
Tenants suffer fire, but council only interested in prosecution for lack of HMO licence
23 Apr 2021 Following a rental property fire in a house in Hendon, all the council appeared to be interested in was that it had discovered an unlicensed HMO and proceeded to prosecute the landlord “for failing to licence the HMO”. According to the council’s press...
Landlord fined £6,000 after rat droppings and disrepair
22 Apr 2021 A landlord has been fined £6,000 for failing to properly maintain a HMO in Reading. Nidan Singh, 76, has also been ordered to pay council costs of £1,956 and a victim surcharge of £181. Council officers inspected the property twice in 2019 and...
£50,000 fines for Landlord and his company
19 Apr 2021 A property company and its sole director landlord have been convicted and ordered to pay more than £50,000 in fines and legal costs. Francis Investments (East Anglia) Limited, based in Ipswich, and the company’s sole director and owner of the property,...
Landlords fined over £60,000 over 7 bed HMO
19 Apr 2021 Two landlords of a property in East London have been ordered to pay costs and fines totalling £61,057.05 after they were prosecuted for multiple housing offences. John Renvoize and Dedar Shah owners of a seven bed property in Dagenham were ordered to...
Landlord gets £90,000 Fines for Inadequate Fire Precautions at 2 properties
14 Apr 2021 A landlord and a property company have a total of over £90,000 to pay after being found guilty of 27 charges relating to two properties in Hertfordshire. Landlord Faraz Bucha and the property management firm Captain Solutions were each found guilty of 27...
Another Planning Game Changer
12 Apr 2021 Guest post by our Planning Expert Colin Smith Another game changer for your development strategy.... Councils must support unplanned sites to deliver homes for first-time buyers, says government on 6 April 2021 according to Ellie Kahn and Richard Garlick....
Councils using ‘Intelligence” to track down rental properties with low EPCs – £5,000 fines
29 Mar 2021 And so the EPC witch-hunt begins…. Threatening fines of up to £5,000 for any rental property with an EPC lower than Band E, councils are now using artificial intelligence to pull together all manner of records and information to cross-correlate properties...
Fines for Fire Safety breaches Will Become Unlimited says Home Office
25 Mar 2021 Building owners who breach fire safety regulations under the Fire Safety Order will be subject to unlimited fines, the Home Office has announced. The measures come as part of the government’s response to the Fire Safety Consultation and will be included in...
Battle of Hastings: Upper Tribunal Decision underlines end of Magic Money Tree for Rogue Tenants and their No Win/NoFee allies
17 Mar 2021 In a landmark decision, the Upper Tribunal (Lands) has confirmed that the judgement of the First Tier Tribunal that “Rent Arrears must be accounted for BEFORE rent is eligible to be reclaimed under a Rent Repayment Order (RRO).” This Judgement of the...
