A council has prosecuted a landlord for letting two HMOs without a licence and failing to comply with HMO Management Regulations.Mohammed Ammar Hussain of Hemel Hempstead pleaded guilty to offences relating to two separate properties for failure to apply for an HMO licence, plus three offences of failing to comply with management duties in relation to property conditions - this included a lack of working fire alarms.
Magistrates have ordered Hussain to pay fines of £13,450, a victim surcharge of £2,000 and £29,856 prosecution costs - a total of £45,306.
In 2022 the properties were discovered by Dacorum council to be operating illegally as HMOs and that there were multiple hazards to residents.
In January 2023 the council discovered that two of the properties were still operating as unlicensed HMOs and the landlord had failed to put right all of the hazards.
A spokesperson for the council says: "Our Private Sector Housing team play a vital role in making sure Dacorum residents have somewhere safe, warm and secure to live. We recognise that most landlords are responsible and law abiding, caring deeply about providing the highest standards in their home.
"However, there is a small minority of landlords who choose not to comply with the law and their tenants suffer as a result. I’m very proud of the team for achieving this excellent result on behalf of our residents.
“It demonstrates our Housing Strategy commitment to championing the provision of safe, warm, and dry homes across the borough and putting our residents at the heart of everything we do."
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Good. He has no excuse for not installing fire alarms and ignoring the council and HMO Regulations.
If LLs get fined for not having licences shouldn't Councils be fined for failing to issue licences that have been applied for in a timely manner? Why are the penalties only one way?
Another Cowboy giving us all a bad name. It’s characters like this who fuel the fires of the ideology driven pressure groups intent on destroying the PRS!
Why weren’t the Tenants prosecuted for renting an
unlicensed property ?.
Don’t they have to see the License before moving in.
£29856 Prosecution Costs ?
Stephen
Have you seen what lawyers charge- especially where their charges are not paid by their own clients?
The thing is there’s hundreds of thousands of those kind of properties.
The Council’s are not capable of administering the Schemes themselves some are subbing out the process to Computer web providers just add their own fees on top.
There don’t seem to be the shortage of housing they tell us either, a big drop off in Tenants looking for accommodation.
No doubt at the same time the Council’s Register is chocker block with people trying to get on the Councils for free or subsidised living that goes without saying, many will be scammers.
I've no sympathy for him...He thought he was above the law and no one would notice..Pity the fine wasn't steeper.
He won't pay the fine he'll be gone another family member will take over the property
Sadly, Andrew, you are correct. You only have to watch an episode of The Bailiffs are coming to see examples of this.
Sandra
See how a properly constructed post can generate "likes"!
There's a name for that ROUGE LANDLORD.
What Landlord is now ever going to give you a tenancy in this country. You’ve self sabotaged & blacklisted yourself with your comments on this forum which can be seen on google.
Don’t worry I’ve got a Go Outdoors card you can borrow it to buy yourself a tent
No-one on here condones his actions - but you condemn us all!
You would think SBR would go ROGUE with embarrassment, but she doesn't. LOL
Sandra
Putting "ROUGE" in block capitals doesn't change its meaning, which is the French for "red" - as in vin (pronounced "van") rouge (pronounced "rooge"), which is red wine (not "whine" which is a typical comment from you).
What a shame you have missed a rare opportunity where we might all have agreed with you if you had correctly used the King's English!
PS. Whilst what you meant to say in this post is difficult to discern, the Landlord's name is actually given as Mohammed Ammar Hussain.
I do hope you weren't implying his apparent ethnic origin or religion had any bearing on his faults and misdemeanors as a landlord?
The type of Landlord that no one wants to see in the industry BUT Sandra, he is in the minority.
Decent landlords want to see landlords like this removed from the industry.
Unfortunately the fines are not enough. Its taken 2 years - if both properties are 7 bedrooms, let at £800pm, the income over 2 years is £135k. How many years prior to the visit in 2021 was he doing this for? The deterrent needs to be bigger to make these types of Landlord conform to the rules.
I imagine there will be some encouragement for the tenants to apply for an RRO if they were working of course. If not, the council will apply. Either way, the opportunity is there to claim up to 12 months of rent back.
Again, Just shows you don't need a licencing scheme to catch the bad landlords. In fact if he had a licence would he have been less likely to be caught?
So if there’s a possibility of a RRO there’s a case for keeping the property empty . Maybe that’s why there’s are so many
Vacant and if minded to sell Solicitor says that’s another obstacle he’ll have to write to the Tenants, more hassle getting rid of them.
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