A landlord who rented out an unlicenced HMO has been fined more than £22,000 after the local council found five people living in dangerous conditions in the property.

The flat in Worthing did not have suitable fire detection and fire doors to individual rooms have not been installed. There was also no safe fire escape route, and the condition of the stairs meant that access was hazardous.

As required by law, the landlord had also failed to get a licence for the three-storey building which was an HMO. 

The lack of suitable fire separation between a commercial kitchen on the ground floor and the residential flats meant the council had to serve an Emergency Prohibition Order, making five people homeless.

Council officers and staff from West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service inspected the flat above a kebab shop in December last year.

The owner of the flat, Yilmaz Yaziciglou of Worthing, was charged with failing to licence an HMO and eight further charges under the HMO management regulations.

Now Yaziciglou has pleaded guilty in court and has been fined £4,000 for failing to licence an HMO, an additional £1,500 for each of the eight offences under the management regulations, and was also ordered to pay £6,224.76 in legal costs and £170 victim surcharge for a total of £22,394.76.