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£6,000 penalty for failure to obtain HMO licence and HMO management offences (9 May 2017)

Date: 09/05/2017
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, £6,000 penalty for failure to obtain HMO licence and HMO management offences

Bath & North East Somerset Council has prosecuted a landlord for failing to ensure he applied for a licence to operate a licensable rental property.

At Bath Magistrates’ Court, Richard Seccombe of Wells Road in Bath was fined a total of £4,900 and ordered to pay costs of £1,249.60, along with a victims’ surcharge of £170, after pleading guilty to nine offences.

Seccombe was charged with failing to license a House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) under the council’s Mandatory Licensing and Additional Licensing schemes.

He also pleaded guilty to seven offences relating to the Management of HMOs – including failing to maintain a safe means of escape from fire, failing to provide working smoke alarms, failing to provide a sufficient fire resistant door to the kitchen, failing to provide escape locks to bedrooms and the front door, broken glass in the back door, an unguarded deep hole in the garden with no hand rails to steps – and a cracked bedroom window.

The charges relate to a property at Wells Road, Bath – a three-storey house occupied by the landlord and up to four tenants

The property was identified by the council’s Housing Services as operating without a licence in September 2016.

The landlord had previously been convicted by the council for failure to comply with an improvement notice designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of his then tenants.

As a result of the current breaches – and in light of his previous conviction – the council took the decision to prosecute. Since being made aware of the need to be licensed, the landlord has put the property up for sale and evicted his tenants, said the council.

Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Homes and Planning, Councillor Liz Richardson, said:

“We are pleased with the outcome of this prosecution and the level of fine, which reflects the seriousness of the offence.

“Housing Services will always try to work in partnership with landlords to improve housing standards.

“In most cases, this works – but where it fails and landlords needlessly put the safety of their tenants at risk, we will consider taking strong enforcement action to send a clear message that operating properties outside of the law will not be tolerated in Bath and North East Somerset.”


Failure to licence a licensable HMO is an offence under the Housing Act 2004.

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