Landlords in court for letting substandard properties are damaging the property rental sector’s battle against the government wrapping investors in more red tape.
It’s difficult for landlords and representative bodies like the National Landlord Association (NLA) and Residential Landlords Association (RLA) to argue for less rules when the press reports on another landlord getting fined almost every day.
For instance, last week, the roll of shame included four landlords -
- Balasubramanian Pulendrathasan was convicted in his absence at Llanelli Magistrates Court and fined £2,000 for failing to maintain a multiple letting property (HMO).
- Paul Banks tried to persuade a court that his four-storey rental property was exempt from HMO licensing regulations. Magistrates at Lewisham disagreed and fined him £15,000 for leaving the property in an unsafe and dangerous condition following complaints from a tenant. The court heard 14 tenants were practically living in a building site.
- George Lindsay admitted failing to apply for HMO licences for two properties and was fined £2,500 plus £675 costs at Birmingham Magistrates Court. The council discovered he ran the HMOs after a fire at one of the properties.
- Janet Osei was fined £5,700, including costs for keeping a house in a dangerous and dirty condition for tenants by Greenwich Magistrates, who listened to a catalogue of faults at her HMO.
If you watch the newswires, you know this was a pretty typical week. Hardly a day passes without a landlord in court, mainly for flouting HMO licensing regulations.
The trouble is, no one remembers the 100 good things you might do, just the one bad one sticks in their mind.
