Landlord and lettings agency director fined £9,000 over freezing, damp house

A lettings agency director and landlord who owned a rental property in Colchester, Essex has been fined nearly £9,000 after the local authority discovered a single mother and her four children living in appalling conditions. Landlord Simon Weir, who is a director of local three-branch firm Michaels Property Consultants Ltd based in Colchester (pictured, right) which managed the house, was prosecuted after failing to carry out repairs to the property and, when the tenant complained about flooding in upstairs rooms and extreme cold to the local council, tried to evict her. During the court hearing, she revealed that her children would be taken to bed at 6pm because the the downstairs rooms were as so cold, and that she was afraid to use the upstairs lights because rain was pouring in through a loft hatch. She had been reporting defects within the property on Wimpole Road to Weir and his letting agency since late 2015 but, facing another winter in the property, she alerted Colchester Borough Council. It then served a Housing Act Improvement Notice on the property, requiring several problems to be resolved including the leaking roof, a defective chimney and work on insulating the property. The letting agency…