Fined landlord failed to meet safety standards (From York Press)

Fined Selby landlord failed to meet safety standards

8:45am Thursday 3rd May 2012 in Selby & Tadcaster

A LANDLORD who failed to bring a privately-let Selby property in line with council safety standards has been ordered to hand over more than £13,000.

Terry Alexander, was found guilty of five offences of failing to comply with improvement notices from Selby District Council relating to a property he let in Church Hill, Sherburn-in-Elmet.

The council inspected the house after it received complaints in February last year and found a number of issues, including damp in the bathroom and bedrooms, problems with sanitary fittings and guttering.

The inspection also found the property was not fitted with smoke detectors, an internal fire door was broken, and adequate safety inspections of the boiler, gas fire and gas cooker had not been carried out.

Alexander was issued with an improvement notice by the council, which ordered him to carry out repairs and rectify the problems, but during a repeat inspection in December, council officers found none of the works had been completed.

Selby Magistrates Court proved the matter in the absence of Alexander, who did not attend the court on Monday and found he failed to comply with each of the five categories of the improvement notice.

Alexander, who lives in Imperial Road, Fulham, was fined £2,500 for each of the categories, plus council costs of £540 and a victim surcharge of £15.

A spokesman for Selby District Council said: “We have a duty to protect private-sector tenants and this proves that we take our role seriously. Legal action is always a last resort, and throughout this case we tried to work with the landlord to reach a satisfactory conclusion but the work remained unfinished, which is why we had no choice but to bring the matter to court.”