25k Fine for Bad Landlord

Published / Last Updated on 29/11/2019

A bad landlord has been issued court fines for the fourth time for exposing tenants to appalling living conditions and not properly managing his rental properties.

Leeds City Council brought the charges have given the landlord 2 months to pay over £25,000 after failing to maintain a property on Sefton Terrace, Beeston.

The landlord failed to fix defective fire doors, a broken fire alarm, repair exposed electric cables, replace rotten windows and leave the tenant with no hot water or heating for 6 months. 

This same landlord had been fined on 2 prior occasions on other rental properties in the Beeston area and ran up fines and costs just under £60,000. 

Last year he was ordered to pay more than £8,500 after ignoring improvement notices issued by the local authority.

Leeds City Council explained “The Sefton Terrace property is in one of the two areas that has been recently designated for selective licensing.   Landlords renting properties in these areas need to apply to the council for a licence from 6th January 2020 or will risk formal action.

Comment

Are we missing something here?  Surely laws need to be tightened or the penalty of forfeiture introduced.  A landlord who has not paid for fire doors costing just a few hundred pounds in total or fixing a fire alarm is not going to pay a £25,000 fine.  Change the law, repossess the property, ban all poor landlords we say but equally give tenants greater powers over poor tenants.

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