Renting out dangerous properties in Cardiff has cost two landlords thousands of pounds.
Rowshanara Begum has been fined £20,000 at Cardiff Magistrates' Court for failing to comply with five Improvement Notices for work to a house she rents out in the Welsh capital.
And Lawford Cunningham, from Birmingham, has been fined £7,000 for failing to comply with legislation relating to the licensing and management of an HMO in Cardiff.
Back in December 2022 Begum was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs and charges of £2,190. It was made clear to Begum that the improvement works identified through the inspection had to be completed by March 2022, but these were never carried out. A further summons was issued on Begum this month and a further fine of £20,000 was handed down, along with a charge of £1,000 in costs and a further £2,000 surcharge.
In the second case Cunningham pleaded guilty to no fewer than 24 offences.
"When we take these matters to court, we do this to benefit the residents living at these properties, so that the faults identified are fixed and the properties are safe to live in. As one of these cases show, we do make the necessary checks to ensure that the work is completed, and if it hasn't been, we will look to prosecute the landlord again."
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At least the authorities have caught up with this criminal landlord. They are actually ‘doing their job’.
I wonder if they are so good at keeping their good landlords?
It is Wales, so unlikely.
Fully deserved to slapped. Make sure they pay it.
Surprised Sandy B has not been on wanting them flogged and dragged naked through the streets!
Give her time. She will be wanting the “ROUGE” landlords 😂tarred and feathered, while James Turner will be wanting lengthy prison time. 🤣
Another one side of the story article. The council will make improvement notices for the most trivial of things. We don’t know from this article what the notices were for. If the LL hasn’t got the funds to do the improvements then It will go to a higher fine as they bury their heads in the sand.
It’s a cash grab fund raising model for councils that can’t manage their budgets. A lot of LL’s will be hit with these. I know of one LL that did the improvement (originally caused by tenant stupidity) the council officer is refusing to acknowledge the works done or inspect the property. Straight to £10k fine that he is having to fight
So two rounds of fines. Has the works been done? What next? All this time the tenants have had to put up with whatever the issues are. It's no good to keep fining if the works don't get completed.
The council should do the work and bill the landlord. That would be cheaper for the landlord and better for the tenants.
These people deserve what they got, the trouble is it tars the rest of us with the same brush, resulting in more ludicrous rules and costs.
There is clear evidence that the council are not bothered about the tenants at all. Just winning in the court and getting a huge amount in fine is their mission, not improving the property for the tenants. Personal gain only. Correct way would be agree to do all the work and charge the LL. How was the damage to the property caused. Is there a check in inventory. I also believe that the council did not go and check the property until a complaint from the tenants or neighbours. Council do not ever go to see or monitor any properties but encourage HMO tenants to contact the council. Licensing probably works like that. They ask the LL's to place the council details on a notice board so the tenants can call the council. The council will only start actively visiting the property when they know suing will bring a lot of additional finance. It needs to be very lucrative and they decide what they will get and pocket it. They will not move the tenant with that money to find better accommodation for them. After all the tenants ' are suffering so that was the reason for bringing the action to court. They brag how much they won from the L. But nothing about how they used the money in helping the tenants or using the money to help accommodate other social tenants.
Well said, they don’t actually give a damn about tenants only that they can throw their weight around and bash us - unfortunately we are easy targets and that makes it lucrative for them.
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