Pendle landlord fined £20K for failing to carry out badly needed repairs and ignoring serious hazards

Pendle Borough Council issued the fixed penalty in May un der the Housing and Planning Act 2016 after the landlord failed to carry out badly needed repairs and ignored serious hazards, like a toilet leaking into the kitchen, causing imminent risk to the tenant’s health.

The landlord neglected to fix a large hole in the kitchen ceiling, a broken kitchen sink, taps and waste pipe and leaking radiators. The property also needed a new gas boiler.

Coun. Asjad Mahmood, council leader, said: “It’s so important that landlords fulfil their duty to maintain their properties to ensure they are in a decent, healthy and safe condition for their tenants.

“The majority of Pendle landlords do provide good quality housing but, unfortunately, there are some that don’t and in these instances, action is taken against them.

“This landlord repeatedly ignored our improvement notices allowing the property to fall into a terrible state.”

The landlord received improvement notices last October after an earlier inspection revealed several serious hazards. Another visit in January confirmed they had not done any repairs.

All contact was ignored so the council arranged the repairs. The property already had an outstanding £5,000 debt from 2016 after serious hazards were also found in 2015.

Coun. Mohammad Ammer, executive portfolio holder for Housing, Health and Wellbeing, said: “If there are any reasons that work cannot be carried out, it’s important that landlords speak to us to see if we can help.

“We do have a duty to take enforcement action where necessary.”