Landlord fined £35,000 for ‘reckless failure’ following Bootle fire

A landlord who failed to license their property has been fined £35,000 after being ‘highly culpable’ for a fire.

Sefton Council’s legal team prosecuted the landlord for failing to license the Bootle property, after it was gutted by a huge fire last year.

According to the local authority, the property wasn’t licensed between March 2018 and December 2022, when the fire took place.

A spokesperson for Sefton Council explained: “During sentencing, the magistrates said a reckless failure to apply for licensing over a number of years, made the landlord highly culpable.

“They also said that if the property had been licensed, there was a greater chance that safety issues such as a complete lack of smoke detectors would have been dealt with.”

Fine: The court sentenced the landlord to a fine of £35,000, the council’s costs of £721.12 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing said: “This is a positive result for the Council and acts as a reminder to landlords that failing to obtain a licence under our Selective and Additional (HMO) Licensing schemes can be very costly.

“Specific areas of the Borough are covered by our Selective Licensing Scheme and two Additional (HMO) Licensing Schemes, and any landlords affected need to apply for licence by the end of August, or face enforcement by court action or a Civil Penalty fine.”

Licensing scheme: Almost 4,000 rented properties in Sefton are covered by the licensing schemes which, since their introduction in 2018, the Council has used to deal with 3,000 serious health and safety hazards. These have included problems with fire safety, electrical hazards, damp & mould and excess cold.

Since 2018, Sefton Council’s Housing Standards Team has served 79 Civil Penalty Fines for the offences of renting a property without the required licence or failure to comply with licensing conditions.