Landlord fined £11,000 for putting tenants' safety at risk

A landlord who put his tenants’ safety at risk by allowing his property to fall into serious disrepair has been hit with a £11,000 fine.

Sheffield City Council took action against Mohammed Fathy Mohamed Khalifa, who was convicted at Sheffield’s Magistrates’ Court last week, after he failed to act on notices issued about his rundown property in Grimesthorpe, Sheffield. 

Khalifa was fined £5,000 for allowing a family with two children to live at his Grimesthorpe home - and a further £6,000 to cover the cost of repair work carried out by the authority.

The Private Housing Standards team were called in to investigate after the children became unwell and concerns were raised about the condition of the house. Enforcement Officers found serious defects in the gas and electricity which could have resulted in serious harm to the family, as well as the boiler not working which left them with no heating or hot water for weeks.

The prosecutor explained that Khalifa was asked to carry out improvement work on a number of occasions. But despite numerous opportunities to co-operate, he chose not to, and refused to carry out essential work to keep the family safe, and the council opted to carry out work and the court agreed he should repay the cost of this on top of the fines for refusing to accept his landlord responsibilities.

Councillor Jayne Dunn, cabinet member for housing at Sheffield City Council, said: “Our priority was the safety of this family and I’m thankful that the children are now fully recovered.

“The landlord was clearly failing in his duties and I’m glad he is paying the price for being irresponsible.

“We are prosecuting more people than ever and we will continue until landlords get the message that we will not accept unlawful behaviour in Sheffield.  I hope the large number of good landlords in our city see that we are tackling the minority that tarnish the whole sector.”

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