A landlord who was a member of the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has been ordered to pay a £30,600 rent repayment order to the tenants living in her unlicensed and unsafe HMO.

The tribunal heard there were four tenants renting rooms in Rebecca Elizabeth Fong’s three-storey property on Camberwell New Road in Lambeth between August 2023 and August 2024.

They applied for a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) after they discovered the property was being operated as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) without a licence.

Serious deficiencies

Judge McKeown said the property had “serious deficiencies” relating to fire safety, including failing to provide a fire blanket, having only one fire door in the property and providing just a single battery-operated smoke alarm.

Judge McKeown also raised concerns about the front door.

“The front door locked with a key, meaning that, in the event of a fire, one of the occupants would have to locate the key and unlock the door,” she said, adding that leaving it unlocked “would have compromised their security”.

Little to no effort to keep up to date with legal requirements.”

The judge noted that Ms Fong had made “little to no effort” to keep up to date with legal requirements, despite being a member of the NRLA and the heightened focus on fire safety following the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017.

“Not a rogue landlord”

According to MyLondon, Ms Fong accepted she had been managing an unlicensed HMO but argued she should not have to repay the full amount. Her representative said she was not a “rogue landlord” and had “not buried her head in the sand”.

Two tenants were awarded £7,395 each and two others £7,905 each, while Ms Fong was also ordered to pay £341 towards the tenants’ hearing fees.

A spokesperson for the NRLA told the Neg it expects members to follow its code of practice and that any complaints about members’ conduct are investigated in line with its membership rules.