A rogue Bury landlord has been ordered to pay nearly £3,000 after being found guilty of several breaches relating to an unlicensed HMO in the area.
Abdul Raza Saddiqui, aged 50, of Parkhill Road, Bury, was fined a sizeable £1,200. He was also ordered to pay £2,452 costs as well as a £30 victim of crime surcharge after being found guilty of 12 housing offences.
The rental property, located on Seymour Road in Crumpsall, M8, failed various minimum safety standards. These included fire safety and gas safety, seriously compromising the safety of the tenants in the property and potentially endangering their lives should there have been a fire.
Council officers also discovered other breaches of management regulations in the property. These included a lack of working fire alarm, damaged fire doors, cluttered escape routes and broken heating facilities. There were also damaged kitchen units, as well as filthy and verminous common areas that rendered the property unfit for human habitiation due to the lack of hygiene.
Saddiqui pleaded guilty to eleven offences of breach of HMO regulations, and one offence of a breach of a condition of his HMO licence at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court,
Deputy leader of Manchester City Council, Councillor Bernard Priest, took a hard line on rogue landlords in Bury: ‘There’s no place for rogue landlords in Manchester. Landlords have a responsibility to provide their tenants good quality, safe housing and we take the issue of tenant safety extremely seriously. We will continue to pursue enforcement action to defend the rights of tenants and will not hesitate to take legal action against anyone whose property fails to meet the required standards.’
He continued: ‘Our message to landlords is simple – bring your property up to standard, make sure your tenants are safe and get a licence where the law requires one.’
Source: Residential Landlord