A rogue landlord has been ordered to pay more than £37,000 for allowing tenants to live in what inspectors described as being the worst property they had seen in the last decade.
David Greene, 64, of Brooke Lane, Billesley in the West Midlands, had been letting a three storey property at 129 College Road, Moseley, Birmingham, which included ten self-contained flats.
But he has now been prosecuted for several breaches of HMO regulations, including smoke detectors that were hanging off the ceiling, insecure front and rear doors, no hot water and heating, broken windows, some of which were boarded up, as well as poorly fitted fire doors and fire escapes that were blocked.
The landlord was contacted by Birmingham City Council on a number of occasions and repeatedly warned that he had to resolve the poor conditions which included those designed to protect tenants in the event of a fire.
However, Greene, who has been a landlord for more than 30 years, ignored the advice and was eventually handed a £35,000 fine after pleading guilty at Birmingham Magistrates Court, while costs were also awarded at £1,941 and a victim surcharge of £170.
Cllr Sharon Thompson, cabinet member for Homes and Neighbourhoods at Birmingham City Council, said: “Mr Greene has shown a callous disregard for his responsibilities as a landlord.
“This fine sends out a message to all landlords who ignore the law that Birmingham City Council will pursue anyone who lets out substandard accommodation.”
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
why did ll not fix?
Did landlord cause Smoke detectors to be hanging from the Ceiling. I think we all know the Tenants done this.
That may be true but a £35k fine means there was a lot more problems than a few smoke alarms hanging off including risk to life, if that is the sort of landlord they want to be they deserve what they get
I don’t think the LL broke the Glass in the windows either. It’s not a question of LL allowing the Tenants to live like this, the Tenant live how they choose & LL powerless to stop them, so maybe another miscarriage of justice. I see Council issues improvement notices that are usually impossible to comply with, when every room are full of Tenants belongings not possible to do the work with the best will in the World & even worse when Tenants on Benefit as they are present as well, at least if the property was vacant you could move furniture/ beds etc from one room to another temporarily but not possible with Tenants possessions & they wouldn’t want you to touch them either, for this reason generally LL not able to comply hence subsequently gets big penalty, so it’s nothing to do with LL allowing them to live like this he cannot stop them now that he has no rights anymore & excluded from the property.
Please login to comment