Landlords hit with fines for fire safety failings

Two landlords have been fined after being found guilty of fire safety failings in their rental properties.

Both prosecutions were brought by Hull City Council for two separate cases.

The authority fined John Holmes £1,600 for failing to adequately manage a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

He was also ordered to pay almost £700 in court costs as well as a £125 victim surcharge.

Officers from the council's private housing environmental health department found failings in several properties managed by Holmes.

In one property, inspectors found a blocked fire escape and poor lighting available in the event of an emergency.

In another, situated above a takeaway, electrical faults were found.

The landlord was issued with informal requests for improvement work which were ignored. 

On a further visit to a property managed by Holmes, officers found an internal fire escape serving six flats to be blocked.    

In the second case, landlord Ashraf Khan was fined a total of £660 and order to pay costs of £504 and a victim surcharge of £66.

He was also charged £10,000 for improvement works which were arranged by the council.

Khan ignored an improvement notice issued by the council after officers discovered electrical faults, inadequate fire precautions and window defects at a flat above a takeaway.

"We have a duty to protect private sector tenants and this proves that we take our role seriously," said Councillor John Black, portfolio holder for housing.

"We tried to work with each landlord to reach a satisfactory conclusion but the work remained uncompleted, which is why we had no choice but to take this enforcement action."