A London-based property management firm has been ordered to pay around £17,000 after a block of flats in Bridlington where young families were living was found to be unsafe
The flats at the five-storey building, located near the seafront, were found to have had inadequate heating and insulation while suffering from damp and mould. There was a faulty fire alarm, the main entrance lacked door locks, and low-level windows opened without restriction.
The hazards represented a real danger to tenants, especially to the younger children who lived there, East Riding Council said. But Gedulah Ltd, which owned the properties, failed to act when ordered to make improvements.
This led to a prosecution at Beverley Magistrates’ Court. A representative from Gedulah, headed up by Miriam Schreiber, did not appear in court but pleaded guilty by email to two counts of failing to comply with the improvement notices.
It was found to have failed to do basic repairs or to put adequate management arrangements in place, leaving the building, at No.2 The Crescent, unsafe. Gedulah was ordered to pay a total of £12,377, comprising a fine of £4,000 for each improvement notice, costs of £2,377 and a victim surcharge of £2,000.
In a separate case earlier this year, My Space Housing Solutions, a social landlord that provides accommodation for vulnerable adults, was ordered to pay £5,753.70 in fines and costs after renting out a property with broken and inadequate heating. This left tenants exposed to excess cold.
Legal notices had been served on My Space, but the company failed to complete the works and instead rented the property out again.
John Manning, the chief executive of MySpace, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with improvement notices when appearing at Beverley Magistrates’ Court in April.
Chris Dunnachie, the council’s Private Sector Housing Manager, commented: “In both cases, officers have tried to work with each landlord to rectify the dangerous hazards in their rental properties; but their advice and then legal notices have been ignored,” he said.
“The council does, and will continue to, take robust action when the safety of tenants is put at risk due to serious hazards from the properties they are living in.”
