A St Helens landlord who works as a criminal law solicitor has been fined £3,500 and ordered to pay costs of £3,807 for failing to comply with a Formal Improvement Notice which tried to get her to bring shoddy bedsits up to standard.
Criminal law solicitor Grace France lives in Victoria, Central London but lets out property in St Helens.
The solicitor changed her plea during a trial at St Helens Magistrates’ Court and eventually admitted the charge. The judge heard how the council became concerned about conditions at a house owned by the defendant and converted into six bedsits.
Over a four-year period council officers had attempted to work with the defendant to remedy a series of disrepair issues including lack of a fire alarm system, damp and excessive cold.
Yet even after serving two Minded To notices – aimed at gaining a reasonable working relationship with the landlord – the necessary repair work failed to take place and conditions grew worse.
The Formal Improvement Notice was served in January 2013 but by the time it expired – in May 2013 – the work had still not been completed.
Even though several extensions were agreed, a re-inspection in December 2013 revealed that little work had taken place and that conditions had deteriorated further.
Throughout the process – until November 2013 – tenants had continued to occupy the bedsits.
Councillor Richard McCauley, St Helens Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, housing, planning and community safety, said: “This case shows that no one is above the law – and that we will take the appropriate action when necessary.
“Credit must go to the council officers who pursued this case with diligence and determination – and whose job it is to protect the rights of tenants across the borough.”
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Comments
Grace France’s Response to St Helens Councils web of shameless lies and deceit.
The Council claims that there was a breach in fire regulations. This so-called fire breach actually relates to the middle door in the hall way of the house containing a keyhole (key long ago disposed of). The council also blatantly fabricate that I failed to install a fire alarm system in the house, when an electrical fire alarm was installed in early 2012, replacing individual battery powered smoke alarms. St Helens council verified this with a fire officer and were entirely satisfied. The disingenuous actions of St Helens Council were revealed when again they wildly exaggerated as well as fabricated claims describing a fully gas central-heated house as excessively cold. The culpability attributed to me was, because I am the proprietor of the property, and deemed to be ultimately responsible, despite the fact that I had delegated the entire management and responsibility to my agent who had inadvertently made minor breaches to the requirements of the council, such as only disposing of the key instead of taking out the lock and filling in the keyhole. There were several extenuating circumstances such as a neighbour’s gutter not being cleared of foliage and thus the water build up caused damp damage to my property, which I rectified, but the council refused to acknowledge. Another fabrication by the council is that all tenants had long moved out long before November 2013. The above spurious claims and fabrications were made by the council to bolster their case and publish their bogus claims to make my case appear far worse than it was. The case is being appealed.