A landlord has been fined £1500 after his appeal to the Residential Property Tribunal was rejected.

Mr Bull failed to comply with an improvement notice issued by South Holland District Council on a property in Spalding which led to the issue of the Civil Penalty.

 The property in Gore Lane was first inspected in February 2019 following a complaint from the tenants. The landlord was notified immediately of numerous issues in the property and was given the opportunity to rectify them on an informal basis, the most concerning being an upstairs bedroom window that could not be locked, allowing rainwater in. As the window also had a low level windowsill but had no safety limiters it posed a danger to the young children in the property.

Despite a number of contacts between the Council and the landlord, at a formal inspection of the property in July it was found that whilst the window had been repaired there was still no limiter fitted and he was served with an Improvement Notice on 22 August 2019. The deadline of 3 October for all the outstanding works to be completed was extended to 8 October at the request of the landlord but at the planned re-inspection the following day it was apparent that the restrictors had not been installed on the bedroom window.

As a result, a Civil Penalty was issued under the Housing Act 2004 for failure to comply with the Improvement Notice, imposing a penalty of £1500.

In summing up, the Judge acknowledged that Mr Bull had been given ample time to complete the works. He also stated that the Tribunal was satisfied that the issue of the Civil Penalty was appropriate and the financial penalty imposed was proportionate and reasonable to the offence committed. Therefore the financial penalty of £1500 was confirmed.

For further details:

https://www.gov.uk/residential-property-tribunal-decisions/6-gore-lane-spalding-lincolnshire-pe11-1bn-man-32uf-hna-2019-0122

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