A landlord has been prosecuted for failing to comply with Improvement Notices on her property and failing to licence her house in multiple occupation.

South Holland council carried out a series of inspections of a property in Holbeach after its officers raised concerns about the condition and occupancy of the property. 

Following the visits the property was found to be in urgent need of work – in the council’s words, it had “a multitude of failings” – and an Improvement Notice was immediately issued to the landlord, Chony Andrews.

The council says that over the following months further reminders were sent out after it became clear the instructed work was not being carried out.

After Andrews had failed to act upon the five identified hazards, coupled with the failure to licence an HMO, she was summoned to Boston magistrates this week.

Andrews failed to attend court but the magistrates agreed to hear the case in her absence, and she was found guilty and  received a £2,500 fine for failing to comply with the Improvement Notice (£500 per offence), and £1,000 for failing to licence a HMO.

She was also ordered to pay a contribution to the council’s costs and a mandatory victim surcharge, bringing her total fine to £4,160. Magistrates made clear that this was money that should have been spent making changes to comply with the Improvement Notice, and that the fact that the HMO was unlicensed was a particularly serious issue to them.