A landlord has been ordered to pay a total of £42,250 for serious safety failings at his properties, pleading guilty to 20 safety offences at Manchester Magistrates Court on 6 July.
He was fined £33,750 and ordered to pay £8,500 in court costs. Out of the offences, 17 were for contraventions of housing law, while three were breaches of the Fire Safety Order.
Officers found that there was a failure to carry out a fire risk assessment. They also found that there had been a failure to provide a suitable alarm as well as fire door maintenance in communal areas. Out of 16 flats that were owned the authorities took action over six.
City council officers visited the flats, two of which were unoccupied, last August, and found problems including dangerous electrical wiring, a missing fire door and cables dangling from the ceiling where smoke alarms should have been.
In one property, there were no working lights in the basement and a tenant said she had to regularly visit the cellar, walking past live electric cables at shoulder height, to flick fuses back on.
The property was described to be in such bad condition that the council served an emergency prohibition order immediately. The landlord was then expected to close the premises and arrange new accommodation for his tenants. Instead, he kept the flats open and even moved more tenants into them.
The council also served notices insisting the landlord carried out improvements to each of the properties, which were in three buildings, but according to officials, ‘he still has not carried out much of this work’.
Chairman of Manchester Fire and Rescue authority, councillor Fred Walker, said: "We welcome the clear message from the courts that action will be taken against those businesses that neglect fire safety and thereby risk the safety of the public. The fire authority is focused on helping businesses operate safely and taking action when they don’t."
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