Fire Safety

Landlord fined £18,500 for renting out fire risk property 11/04/2011 A landlord rented a dangerous loft extension to a family with two young children despite being warned that the property was a serious fire risk. The landlord did not have planning permission for a dormer extension at the property in Sutton.

Environmental Health Officers had served a prohibition order on the second-floor loft flat under the Housing Act 2004 because its poor internal layout ‘presented a serious fire risk’.

Sutton (London) Borough Council prosecuted the landlord for failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice and a prohibition order under the Housing Act 2004.
Sutton magistrates fined the landlord £10,000 for failing to comply with the planning enforcement notice and £5,000 for failing to comply with the prohibition order. Costs of £3,585 were also awarded.

The council said it had ‘no alternative’ but to begin proceedings for these ‘blatant contraventions’, which placed the lives of ‘vulnerable tenants at risk’.

The fines, it said, reflected the ‘seriousness of the offences’ and the ‘disregard’ shown by the landlord to the requirements of the law and the safety of his tenants.

A principle Environmental Health Officer with the council said: ‘We have a good working relationship with our landlords in Sutton, but will not hesitate to take formal action where necessary.’

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