Newham landlords fined for failures under Licensing Scheme

Mould in bathroom, Fowler Road, Forest Gate (Image: Archant)

Council officers visited the three-bedroom upper maisonette, in Fowler Road, Forest Gate, in July 2012 after the tenant, who has three children, complained about its poor state.

The council carried out repairs, which came up to £4,000, as the landlord failed to complete work required under an improvement notice after officers found damp and mould throughout the property and a large hole in the kitchen floor.

On August 3, the landlord was ordered to pay £10,491.11 in a rent repayment order to the council.

Last month, a male landlord was fined £5,750 for failing to licence a house in multiple occupation (HMO)and breaching 17 of the management regulations after 11 people, including a three-month-old baby and a 13-year-old boy were found to be living in a house in St Bartholomew’s Road, East Ham. The defendant was also ordered to pay £618.59 towards the council’s legal costs and a victim surcharge of £120.

In an earlier case, a 40-year-old woman was fined £8,783.60 for failure to licence a property as a HMO, breaching management regulations and failing to provide relevant documentation to the council.

Altogether, eight people were living in three bedrooms on the first floor and a woman lived on the ground floor, of the property in Waterloo Road, Upton Park.

Officers also found that the property failed fire safety regulations as there was no smoke detection, no fire door in the kitchen and the boiler had been padlocked.

The landlord, from Romford, was also told to pay a total of £1,150 towards council costs, and a victim surcharge of £100, after an appeal to the case, from November 2014, was dismissed in February.