Newsham Park Estates Ltd has been fined £30,000 after breaching the Management of House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) Regulations. Liverpool City Council discovered during an inspection that an escape route had been locked using a padlock and blocked with a shipping container. The HMO on Belmont Drive in Kensington had no other safe secondary exit, obstructing tenant safety. The inspection also revealed nine fire doors in serious disrepair, holes in walls and floor structure compromising fire safety and compartmentation.
In March, Liverpool Magistrate’s Court fined the management firm £4,500 for the locked gate, £4,500 for the shipping container, £10,800 for the defective fire doors and an additional £8,100 for compromised fire safety in the walls and floors. With the costs and victim surcharges added, the total amount to be paid by the company was £32,694. The property has since been reinspected and all issues remedied.
Louise Harford, Interim Director of Housing at the Liverpool City Council, highlighted that landlords must know their legal responsibilities and meet them as shown in this case, whereby investigations were conducted, and action was taken immediately after finding clear evidence of neglected tenant safety. She urged tenants to report potential hazards to authorities so that landlords could be held accountable.
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