A letting agent who rented out a damp, dangerous and dilapidated property must pay nearly £50,000 following a local authority prosecution.
The bill includes a £15,000 fine for managing an HMO without a licence, and is said to be one of the highest to have been imposed in the country.
A spokesman for Hounslow Council said the authority had chosen to prosecute the agent and not the landlord, because it was the agent that was managing the property.
Key Property (UK) Ltd, of 47 Bell Road, Hounslow, which trades as Key Solutions and Key Lettings, was fined £42,500 on top of costs and compensation of £5,040 at Feltham Magistrates Court after being found guilty of 15 housing offences.
The offences related to a property on Cromwell Street, Hounslow, which the council investigated following complaints from tenants in July last year.
Officers inspecting the property found seven tenants living at the property. There were five bedrooms, but these included the front and rear living rooms.
The team discovered a significant number of defects relating to excess cold, damp and mould, electrical hazards, problems with sanitation and drainage, security, fire safety, structural hazards and hygiene.
A boiler that had been turned off by the manufacturer due to its unsafe installation had been switched back on.
Because the property was an HMO, it should have had a licence.
Cllr Steve Curran, cabinet member for housing, planning and regeneration, said: “The fact the fine for failing to have an HMO licence is one of the largest in the country shows the seriousness of the offences.
“I’m pleased magistrates have thrown the book at this criminal letting agent, as the conditions the tenants were living in – no fire alarms, dangerous gas and electrics, and some of the worst damp and mould our officers have ever seen – were, frankly, appalling.
“They took more than £24,000 in rent from these tenants and left them to live in squalor.
“They tried to avoid their legal responsibilities, but thanks to the hard work of our housing team, we were able to successfully prosecute them.”
The offences, fines and costs awarded were:
• Managing an unlicensed HMO: £15,000 fine
• Supplying false information: £5,000 fine
• Three offences relating to management of the property: £22,500 fine
• Compensation to tenants: £600
• Victim surcharge: £120
• Council’s legal costs: £4,320
The council named the director of Key Property as Mrs Adibah Uddin, and the company secretary is Mr Iftikhar Uddin.
A Hounslow spokesman told LAT after the case: “The agent didn’t own the HMO, but had a management agreement to operate it on behalf of the landlord.
“We took the view that as the ones responsible for the day-to-day management, maintenance and money handling they were the culpable party as set out in the regulations, so we prosecuted them.”
On the Key website, “an unrivalled quality service” is offered. The agent, which covers both sales and lettings, says that it relies on personal recommendation “and our reputation is spread by word of mouth”.
The proprietor also says that she set up the agency after a bad experience with another agency.
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Comments
Hi everyone.
I am a relation of the landlord and although I never normally get involved in any forums, I felt it appropriate to give the facts so as to form a better opinion.
The property was let to Only 3 people on a joint tenancy so not an HMO.
One of the tenants long gone back to India. The other people are not tenants and not paying any rent to Landlord. They have moved in illegally and paying rent to the 2 remaining tenants.
Hands up, property was in poor condition WHEN tenants viewed and accepted tenancy. Agents didn’t manage property well. With so many unknown people living there n cooking n drying clothes etc in the rooms, condensation and property just kept getting worse. Remember there are from 7 to 10 people living in a 3 bedroom house with just one toilet etc.
Tenants would also deny access, we think, because they didn’t want us to see how many illegal people were living there.
Council only got involved when agent was instructed to evict tenants to do the work and to let property to just a family as originally planned.
Both landlord and in particular agents did make mistakes etc. one major mistake was to take dodgy tenants, who haven’t paid last 4 months rent and are demanding a further 12 months rent free.
Basically property is in poor condition which is admitted and landlord does want to do it up, but with no rent coming in, access denied and now threatening demands for rent free or they will go running back to council again.
This is basically a tenants scam and they are using the council etc to delay matters as much as possible.
One last fact, the agent didn’t turn upto court and hence automatically found guilty on all counts. Don’t get me wrong, agents did make some very silly mistakes and need to shoulder a lot of the blame.
I know some people will always back tenants and I agree they need decent housing and should be protected. But, if property is so bad, why did they accept it and why are they so desperate to stay there!!!
Not really sure what point David is making.
A fine is a punishment. The offences were deemed to be so serious that a large punishment was warranted.
Compensation is for actual losses incurred. The tenants presumably incurred few actual losses.
The compensation payment will also presumably take into consideration that the tenants had an element of choice - they weren't being forced to live there, so they can't claim "compensation" simply for having to live in unpleasant surroundings.
No surprise is it that they can fine this lot so many thousands & order they pay the tenants only £600 in compensation.
Fair do's on most counts I'd agree. But the photos of the mould look to me to probably have been caused by tenants not ventilating rooms properly, doubtless exacerbated by so many living in these crowded conditions. I have seen mould as bad as this in homes offered for sale by the very elderly, repossessions, and where a landlord had a bad experience with past tenants.
We don't get this with our tenanted properties, but mainly as we do inspect every 3 months as well as having it in the tenancy agreement that tenants must not allow this to happen.
Good to see what seems to be a shonky agent prosecuted successfully.