A landlord with multiple premises has been landed with fines totalling tens of thousands of pounds after being taken to court by Sefton council for ignoring safety risks and continuing to allow tenants to live in dangerous conditions.
Puvirasa Thankavel was originally served and Emergency Prohibition Order (EPO) by Sefton council in May 2022 owing to multiple safety hazards in three of his lettings in Bootle.
An inspection uncovered multiple hazards including risk of electrocution, fire and cold, damaged electrical outlets, inadequate fire separation between premises and unmaintained entrances.
Although an EPO prohibits a property from being used for living or sleeping accommodation due to serious health and safety breaches, a further council inspection in November 2023, found that the premises were still being let out by the landlord.
This placed Thankavel in breach of the emergency order. Serious risks were still present during this inspection.
Thankavel pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay £22,630, including a fine of £20,000 for breaching the initial order and renting the property out unlicenced. The court noted that his tenants were in ‘immediate risk’ of danger and that if a fire had taken place, it would have been ‘catastrophic’.
A council spokesperson says: “A safe and secure home is a basic need and cases like this, where landlords put residents in dangerous living conditions, is completely unacceptable. We know that many landlords stay up to date on the upkeep of their properties and offer a welcoming home to their tenants, but some take advantage of the situation and the people living in their residences.
“Sefton council will continue to inspect properties owned by landlords to ensure that they are kept to an acceptable standard, and we will continue to seek prosecutions against landlords who do not follow the basic guidelines.”
Over the past five years, over 100 Civil Penalty Fines have been served by this particular council to landlords for various offences, including failure to licence properties and breaches of enforcement notices. These fines range have ranged from £250 to £15,000.
This article is taken from Landlord Today