09 Jul 2025
Here’s a fine pickle that has come to light today with an email from a council: “We have received a follow up complains [sic] about pigeons nesting at the back of the gardens belonging to the property above. Could I please request for this to be looked at the earliest convenience.”
Surely that can’t be the Landlord’s problem you’re thinking? Well apparently like everything from organising the bins to wiping the tenants’ bottoms these days yes it is!
Now here’s the problem.
The council can declare at will that the pigeons represent a “Statutory Nuisance” under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 to take action against landowners/occupiers (but of course the woke councils only act against landlords and never tenants).
Councils can also declare the pigeons to be a serious hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. If it is a selective licensed property the councils are all busy building in licence conditions to make it 100 times easier for them to issue fines like confetti without having to jump through a single hoop (unlike with the other legislation mentioned where they actually need some proof) and under licensing the fees are unlimited in court or up to £30,0000 (soon to be £40,000) if they issue civil penalty fines where the council gets to keep all the money (what could possibly go wrong?)
BUT
The council is also well aware that under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which protects all wild birds, their nests, and their eggs, it is a criminal offense to intentionally damage or destroy an active nest or take or destroy eggs.
So there you are the landlord is trapped.
If he/she does anything to disturb the pigeons he commits a criminal offence.
Then thanks to the egregious action of the council, if the landlord doesn’t disturb the pigeons he commits a criminal offence of the council’s making!
Said Phil Turtle, compliance director with Landlord Licensing & Defence “the amount of entrapment that councils are building into property licenses, particularly selective licences, beggars belief! Its none of it to benefit the tenants and definitely nothing in licenses is of benefit to landlords. Sadly it is 100 percent about making it easier for councils to trick landlords into unwittingly breaching licence conditions which is a criminal officer and jut like speeding licence condition breach is a ’strict liability offence’ so if they say the offence is committed and 13:55 on a particular day that’s enough for them to fine the landlord up to £30,000 and keep the cash”
Noisy Pigeons Lead To £31k Fine For Brent Landlord
A Brent landlord company has been fined after failing to combat noisy pigeons nesting in one of their rental properties, following complaints that the birds were waking up the tenants.
Landlord company Adilsons Property Limited has received a sizeable fine after their tenants complained about the noisy pigeons. The couple were persistently disturbed by the birds, whose cooing awakened them each morning at 4am. The tenants were awarded £7,638 in compensation after Adilsons Property Limited refused to sort out the issue.
Brent Council investigated the property following a complaint lodged about the pigeon infested loft and also a water leak in the ceiling of the property. Adilsons Property Limited made some repairs but was ordered to pay £31,026 after failing to comply with follow-up notices related to the problems issued by Brent Council.
The trial was held at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on March 20. Adilsons Property Limited of Cricklewood Broadway, Wembley, was found guilty of failing to comply with an improvement notice related to sorting out the pigeons. The company was fined £12,200 and told to pay £5,648 in costs and was also told that they must pay a victim surcharge of £170. The property’s manager, Aamir Sultan was also fined £6,100. The two tenants were awarded £7,638 in compensation for the trouble that they had suffered at the hands of the early birds nesting in their home.
Head of Private Housing Services, Spencer Randolph, spoke out about the local council’s decision to prosecute the rogue landlord. He said: ‘Landlords are expected to maintain the properties that they rent out. Tenants in the private rented sector have a legal right to decent living conditions. We will prosecute landlords and letting agencies that fail to comply with improvement notices. This landlord had plenty of opportunities to carry out the repairs but ignored our requests.’
