Community service and huge fine for Portsmouth letting agency for breaking HMO rules

A Portsmouth-based letting agency has been slapped with a huge fine and its owner has been given community service by Portsmouth Crown Court for a number of unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) it was running under a rent-for-rent deal.

Suspecting the properties weren’t licensed and were overcrowded, officers from Portsmouth City Council attempted to visit them but were refused access by tenants, who had been instructed by the agency not to allow the officers access.

The Council had to get warrants from the magistrate’s court to force access, with a subsequent visit confirming the properties were unlicensed HMOs. It says the director of the agency then proceeded to harass the tenants seeking their eviction without going through the proper procedures.

Guilty plea

When the case came to court, the director of the letting agency pleaded guilty to multiple indictments under the Protection of Eviction Act 1977 as well as managing unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation, and failure to comply with Houses in Multiple Occupation Management Regulations.

He was given 200 hours of community service for the harassment and eviction offences and told to pay £114 victim surcharge.

The agency was fined £1,000 and told to pay costs of over £9,000 to the Council.

They were vulnerable and didn’t know their rights.”

For the offences relating to the unlicensed properties, the director was ordered to pay £19,150 and the agency £5,750.

In sentencing, the judge commented: “You were in a position of power, you held the keys to the roof over their head, they were vulnerable and didn’t know their rights… officers from the local authority were perfectly entitled to enter the property to ensure the occupants’ welfare, something you as a landlord should also have been doing.”

The homes are now being let and managed directly by the owners, and the tenants have been awarded the equivalent of two months’ rent as compensation.

Cllr Lee Hunt, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, said: “The Council will continue to prosecute rogue landlords and agents, who break HMO rules, to protect tenants and neighbours alike. Homes that aren’t correctly licensed or overcrowded will be found out, and we will use the full force of the law.”