Landlord must pay five figure sum after fire breach

A landlord who failed to licence a House of Multiple Occupation and breached fire safety regulations, must pay thousands in fines.

The case against Hajra Mehmood was heard at Reading Magistrates’ Court.

Slough council first became aware of the property in 2023 and obtained a warrant to enter the property in September that year to investigate allegations it was an unlicensed HMO.

It was found that the property was being occupied by nine unrelated people, which would require it to be licenced under the Mandatory HMO licensing scheme.

Officers also found several breaches of the HMO management regulations.

The property did not have a working fire alarm system, there was insufficient means of escape in the event of a fire, there was a lack of fire doors to the bedrooms or where they were present they were in a poor condition and unlikely to provide 30 mins of fire protection and there was a lack of fire proofing between floors (meaning in the event of a fire it could spread quickly).

There was also no information displayed informing the tenants of how to contact the owner to report problems.

A bathroom was found to have been constructed in a brick shed in the garden, which the tenants were expected to use. In addition to being outside, this also had ill-fitting doors and windows that did not close properly.

Read the full article at Landlord Today