Landlords Shaun and Laraine Etherington have pleaded guilty to four offences of breaching Prohibition Orders against human habitation at their properties in the Guildford area.
They were each fined a total of £500, £200 for the victim support fund and jointly ordered to pay £735 towards Guildford council’s legal costs.
In March 2023, the council became aware the landlords’ one bedroom homes at Winnets in Smallfield, were in a poor condition.
This included poor electrical installations, no heating and hot water, lack of smoke detectors, as well as doors with handles and locks missing, which meant they could not be secured.
The council Environmental Health team served Improvement Notices on the couple and when these were not complied with, Prohibition Orders, which they breached when they continued to allow two homes to be occupied.
A council spokesperson says: “We are delighted with this prosecution. These landlords did not comply with the order the Council issued and continued to allow their tenants to live in awful, unsafe conditions.“
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Not a very big fine for a pretty serious offence.
I’d describe the fines as pathetically small actually.
I wouldn't have just thrown the book at them I would have thrown the library at them and jailed the pair of them.
Not executed then, Sandra?
Fairly small fine so I guess the improvement notice did not take into account who may be at fault, did the tenants smash the locks after losing a key? Did they sell the wall heaters? Did the tenants remove the smoke alarms because they had been tooting in the building?
Poor electrics yes fine them and no hot water again fine them. Jailing them is a bit much, was not that long ago Sandy B we all lived in caves...!
Tell me when was the last time you got cheeky in a cave?
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