Sale of house blocked by judge until owner pays council fine

An unlicensed landlord who let out rooms with dangerous electrics and refused to pay a civil fine, has been told he must pay the fine before he can sell the property.

Slough council took a civil case against the landlord due to the dangerous standard of living conditions in the Home of Multiple Occupancy.

A £37,000 penalty charge notice was issued in June this year due to a breach of Management Regulations and failure to comply with an Improvement Notice. 

The landlord refused to pay the fine or engage in any correspondence with the council.

The council applied to the county court for a judgement, which was granted this month, for the £37,000 charge to been placed on the property. It means the sum will have to be paid before the house can be sold.

Rooms in the house were being rented out separately to tenants despite the presence of serious hazards including single pieces of wire being used instead of fuses and dangerous wiring to an outbuilding which was believed to be used as accommodation.

Requests by the council for work to be carried out to a basic standard of safety were ignored and officers from the authority requested a maintenance firm to go into the house and make it safe for tenants.

A council spokesman says: “When we tried to engage with the landlord we were not successful and had to bring in a team of electricians and gas engineers to make sure the tenants were able to live in the basic level of safety. The only option was to serve the landlord with a Penalty Charge Notice which they failed to pay. Now the charge on the property will prevent the owner from selling the property without first paying the full amount to [the] council.”