An emergency evacuation was carried out of rented flats after an inspection found the premises did not have adequate fire alarms, fire fighting equipment or emergency lighting.

Landlord Esther Bartlett, of Plymstock, was also ordered to serve 120 hours of community service and to pay £6,929 in costs by Plymouth Magistrates Court after admitting five fire safety offences relating to the evacuation in June last year.

Newmarket racehorse trainer Russell Price was fined £3,500 for breaching an house in multiple occupation (HMO) prohibition order.

The prosecution is believed to be one of the first against a landlord for breaching an order banning use of the property for letting to tenants.

Price, 42, of Newmarket, pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing to letting an HMO between September 2008 and April 2009 in breach of the order served by Forest Heath Council.

He failed to attend court for the hearing last week, so magistrates a found him guilty of breaching the council’s order in his absence..

Besides the fine, he was ordered to pay costs of £1,315.

Forest Heath Council served Price with a prohibition order in January 2008.

Subsequent inquiries by council officers revealed housing benefit was paid to tenants who said they were living in the property.

A Forest Heath District Council spokesman said after the hearing: “We believe this is the first prosecution of its kind in the country and it sends out a clear message that we will take action against the landlords of poorly managed houses in multiple occupation to ensure the health and wellbeing of potential tenants.”

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A landlord who fraudulently claimed  £12, 789 in benefits was jailed for 14 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Naresh Chauhan, 48, of Harden Close, Walsall claimed council tax benefits relating to his mother for 11 years.

In court, Chauhan, who owns a property portfolio worth about £1 million,  pleaded guilty to three charges of benefit fraud and two of using a false instrument to try and claim benefits on other properties in Walsall, West Midlands.

His plot was uncovered when one of his tenants told Walsall Council officials that he believed his address was being used as part of a fraud.

Living standards at buy to let properties in a town are under scrutiny after a landlord who rented out dangerous and sub-standard flats was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £280 costs plus a victim surcharge of £15.

In August 2009 an inspection of his rental property in 50 Bold Street, Fleetwood, revealed numerous problems including dangerous electrics, inadequate fire precautions, lack of proper cooking facilities, water damage caused by leaks and poor thermal insulation.

Vicky Westhead prosecuting for Wyre Borough Council said the landlord  Nigel Gregory of Thornton Cleveleys had ignored council advice, failed to meet with them on numerous occasions to discuss and resolve the problems at the property and ultimately failed to comply with an improvement notice served under the Housing Act 2004.

Mark Broadhurst, Housing Services Manager, said: “Targeted inspections by Environmental Health Officers are currently underway in the flats and bedsits of the Bold Street area of Fleetwood and contraventions of housing legislation, as in this case, will be taken very seriously by Wyre Borough Council.

“Rules and regulations are in place for a reason, to protect local tenants and local communities. The results of this case must send out a clear message to landlords that they must take responsibility for their properties. We would rather work with landlords but where necessary we will not hesitate to take enforcement action.”

A landlord has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after a fire in one of his properties left a teenage tenant so badly burnt she was given less than 1% chance of survival.

Only pioneering skin grafting techniques saved Layla Skalli’s life after she suffered 80% deep tissue burns all over her body following the blaze at her Norwich flat.

Virtually all the skin below her neck was destroyed by the intense 600 degree heat as the property above a mobile phone shop became a raging inferno last year with tenants in three adjoining properties lucky to escape the blaze.

Fire crews rescued a woman living in a second floor apartment above Miss Skalli’s flat as she prepared to jump for her life.  Other tenants climbed down a drain pipe to escape.

Landlord Michael Billings admitted 13 charges of failing to comply with fire safety regulations and not maintaining gas appliances at Norwich Crown Court.

The court heard Billings failed to provide even the most basic protection for his tenants, such as fitting a working fire alarm system, installing the correct number of fire doors or even providing adequate means of escape. The gas appliances in the flats above the shop had not been serviced or properly inspected.

Judge Paul Downes sentenced Mr Billings, of Ashman’s Hall, Barsham, Beccles, Suffolk, to two-and-a-half year’s imprisonment and ordered him to pay £20,000 in costs. Judge Downes said he would review the sentence if Mr Billings pays Miss Skalli £20,000 as a show of remorse. The judge also ordered a £400 award be paid out of the public purse to Dominic Gale, a passer-by who raised the alarm after spotting the fire.

Miss Skalli, now aged 20, was living in a flat above shops in Magdalen Street, Norwich, when fire broke out in the early hours of April 14, 2009. The court heard that temperatures in the flat quickly soared and her screams could be heard by distressed neighbours.

The terrified teenager was unable to escape because her sash window could only be opened by four inches and the staircase was blocked by thick black smoke.

Firefighters used their ladder as a battering ram to smash the window and climb inside where they found Miss Skalli lying unconscious on the floor with her hands covering her face, the only part of her not burnt by the intense heat.

The firefighter who carried Miss Skalli down the ladder described her body as being so hot his arms were beginning to burn through his tunic.

The cause of the blaze has never been conclusively found.

Failing to adequate fire safety precautions at a shared house has cost a house in multiple occupation (HMO) landlord more than £6,000.

Philip Penprase, 53, of Prideaux Close, Saltash, Devon, admitted failing to ensure the shared house he owned in Plymouth had adequate fire alarms, emergency lighting and general fire precautions at the city’s magistrates’ court.

He was fined £3,500 with £2,549 costs for three offences against the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005

Fire safety officers visited his HMO in Paradise Place, Stoke, Plymouth, in June last year and were dissatisfied with safety precautions in place.

An order was served on him to carry out the work within 36 hours, but Penprase told the court he did not understand that he had to comply with the order so quickly and did not complete the maintenance within the required time.

Station manager Alan Bowers, of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Ignorance of the law is not a defence and a building which has people living in self-contained flats with communal areas clearly counts as a house of multiple occupation in law and therefore has to have adequate fire precautions.”

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Landlords are facing a crackdown from a local council if they breach shared housing laws.

The warning follows a £350 fine for a company that let four people live in a house in multiple occupation accommodation (HMO).

The Highland Council’s head of environmental health and trading standards, Alistair Thomson, said: “While we will advise and work with landlords on HMO requirements, we will not hesitate to use formal action against any irresponsible property owners to secure compliance.”

Strict shared housing planning and licensing laws were introduced in England on April 6.

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Scotland and Wales have similar regulations.

All properties that are let to three or more unrelated people must be registered as a house of multiple occupation (HMO) by the council after meeting strict standards. In England, they must also have planning permission.

FWM Developments admitted running an HMO without a licence at Inverness Sherrif Court by letting four people live there

The court heard environmental health officers executed a warrant to enter the property at Kenneth Street, Inverness, in November 2008, after suspicions arose that it was an unlicensed HMO.

The council said it was being used as staff accommodation for a popular local Chinese restaurant.

Environmental health officer Gregor MacCormick said: “The property was in a  poor state of repair throughout and significantly fell below the council’s standards for HMOs. Despite several warnings, the owner failed to apply for a licence and bring the property up to the required standards.”

The council also told the court that the property had substandard fire safety precautions in place.

A landlord who changed the locks while a tenant was away on a business trip and sent his belongings to his workplace was convicted of harassment and unlawful eviction.

Miss Sandhya Anand was found guilty by Deputy District Judge Booker of criminal harassment and unlawful eviction after a two day trial at Oxford Magistrates Court.

The court heard that Miss Anand harassed and verbally abused one of her tenants, Dr Omar McDoom, several times.

She then unlawfully evicted him on 20 May 2009 by changing the locks to his home in Old Road, Headington, while he was away on a short business trip.

She also removed all his possessions from his room and arranged for them to be delivered to his office at Oxford University.

Anand, of Picketts Terrace, London, was found guilty and was fined a total of £2,000 and ordered to pay £2,300 in costs. All £4,300 must be paid within three months.

Jackie Mogridge, Tenancy Relations Officer at Oxford City Council, says: “There is a clear legal process for landlords to follow should they wish to evict a tenant. Miss Anand failed to follow that process in this case and has paid the price.

“The court has sent out a strong message that it is simply not acceptable to harass someone and then change the locks and throw out their belongings.”

Running a shared house where five tenants lived without a license and failing to maintain fire safety standards has cost a landlord £8,300 in court.

Neil Jakubowski-Birch of Cherhill, Wiltshire was found guilty at Swindon Magistrates Court of failing to properly manage the house at Rolleston Street, Swindon.

The four storey property, which had seven bed-sits and five tenants, was visited by the council’s environmental health officers in 2009 who found a smashed window, disconnected or broken smoke detectors and emergency lighting, and poor fire doors – all of which would have been dangerous in the event of a fire.

The property was not licensed as a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

The prosecution was brought after Mr Birch failed to rectify all of the defective conditions following the council visits.

Magistrates fined him £2,300 for various offences under the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations, a further £3,000 for failing to licence the property which was in breach of Section 72 of the Housing Act 2004, and ordered to pay costs to the council of £3,066.

Paul Simmonds, the council’s Head of Neighbourhood, said: “Large properties such as this with missing or defective fire safety equipment pose a considerable risk to tenants. A fully functioning fire alarm, emergency lighting system along with properly maintained fire doors are vital to warn tenants in the event of a fire and to control fire spread enabling occupants to get out safely.

“In bringing this case we are sending out a clear message to all negligent landlords that dangerous housing conditions will not be tolerated. We support and encourage the majority of landlords operating in Swindon who provide safe and satisfactory accommodation, but there is no place for those that don’t.”

Shared housing tenants were shocked to find their fire alarm was not working when a fire failed to set it off.

The tenants – who live in the same street as the landlord – contacted Leeds City Council to complain and the house in multiple occupation licensing team found even more problems at the house including:

• Seven people living there when it was only licensed for six
• A basement had been turned into a bedroom without notifying the council
• The basement window was locked with a metal grille, obstructing a fire escape route

Azmat Anwar of  Brudenell Mount, Headingley, Leeds, admitted to six HMO licence offences and was fined £12,000 with £2,013 costs and a £15 victim surcharge by Leeds City magistrates.

The tenants claimed they had told the landlord about the problems, but she had not tried to resolve them.

In January, a letter from Anwar claimed that her brother was managing the property for her, though she had failed to notify the council about the change as she was the named as manager on the HMO licence.

She accepted seven tenants lived in the house but argued the basement had always been a bedroom. Anwar said she had only applied for a licence for six people because of the size of the kitchen. The kitchen was extended later, so she took another tenant in to the basement but had not notified the council of the changes.

She agreed the fire alarm needed repair but was ill at the time and had tried to arrange for two workmen to call without success.

A further council  inspection confirmed the alarm was working. The security grille and escape window to the basement  had not been replaced or altered, and no variation to the licence had been applied for relating to the change in the number of tenants nor the management arrangements and changes to the property layout.

Councillor Les Carter, Leeds City Council’s executive board member for housing, said: “Something as vital as a fire alarm should be repaired immediately and I’m pleased the tenants contacted us when they did.

“We have these HMO licences for a reason – to ensure that these large rented properties are fit for people to live in. Licence conditions must be complied with and the vast majority of landlords do follow the rules, but the council will come down hard on anyone who thinks the rules do not apply to them.”