Home » News » Lettings firm fined £10,000 for failing to address essential work
Regulation & Law

Lettings firm fined £10,000 for failing to address essential work

Judge says breach by firm was “deliberate and flagrant breach of the notice” to improve the property.

Robyn Hall

Telford-based Maybach Lettings has been hit with a £5,100 fine plus council costs of £4,250 and a £190 victim surcharge for failing to complete essential works at a privately rented home in the borough.

The property management company has a portfolio of over 130 properties in the Telford area.

Problems came to light when the firm failed to obtain a damp survey report at a property managed by them as part of work needed to address excess cold. It also ignored a number of requests to do so by Telford & Wrekin Council’s Private Sector Housing Officers.”

The company appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court last Friday, represented by director Mr Khiara Singh who pleaded guilty on the firm’s behalf to one charge of failing to comply with an improvement notice served under the Housing Act 2004.

The Shropshire Star reports that at a visit to the property in Trench, Telford on 27 October 2020, environmental health officers found that the living room window would not close due to a faulty handle.

They also discovered cracked, single-glazed, corroded and poorly maintained windows on the ground floor of the property.”

IMPROVEMENT NOTICE

In November 2020, the company was served with an improvement notice which required repairs and works to be carried out at the property and a damp survey report to be obtained.

However, despite assurances that the works would be carried out, further inspections by housing officers in March and September 2021 found the requests had been ignored.

Sentencing the company, District Judge Strongman stated that there had been ‘a deliberate and flagrant breach of the notice.’

Maybach Lettings Ltd was fined a total of £5100 and ordered to pay Telford & Wrekin Council’s full costs of £4,254.32 and a victim surcharge of £190.

The prosecution was brought to court by the council’s Private Sector Housing Team, supported by the Council’s in-house legal department.

August 17, 2022

What's your opinion?

Please note: This is a site for professional discussion. Comments will carry your full name and company.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.