NEWS
Fines and prosecutions Fine for landlord over fire risk Airbnb property
ADRIAN KNOTT was found to have ‘misled’ Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) over the fire safety of a large property he was renting out via the holiday letting service. In January, DSFRS prosecuted Mr Knott after he had continued to rent out the £1.25m property to large groups, despite having ‘failed to install proper safety measures’. The case heard he had ‘put dozens of guests at risk from fire’ in the property in Torquay, having continued to let out the large house ‘to up to 23 visitors’ while knowing that ‘it was unsafe’. He was also said to have
‘fobbed off’ attempts by DSFRS to inspect it ‘because he knew it would lead to the house […] being shut down and to him losing valuable bookings’. The property – Woodend Villa – had been split into two parts ‘often rented together’ to large groups. Mr Knott lived in another part of the house and started renting it out in August 2017, but was told by the council that fire safety was ‘now supervised’ by DSFRS, which asked him to commission a fire risk assessment (FRA). DSFRS also attempted to
organise an inspection, but prosecutor David Sapiecha stated that Mr Knott ‘made excuses’ to delay the visit, including that he was abroad or hosting a family party, before he commissioned his own FRA in June 2018. This had described the safety arrangements as ‘intolerable’, and highlighted issues with fire doors, compartmentation in room separations, detector and alarm systems, and escape routes.
Despite this, he continued letting the property, although he had promised DSFRS that he would stop doing so until an inspection. However, a spot check in July 2018 after a tip off found 14 people staying there. They were given an hour to
leave and had to continue their weekend in a ‘hastily booked’ hotel. Mr Knott was served with a prohibition notice requiring the guests to leave as officers found only three detectors or alarms in the property, which were not linked. In turn, there were no alarms ‘loud enough to wake sleeping guests’, and ‘no provisions to slow down a fire to enable them to get out safely’, while ‘no proper’ escape routes meant that ‘those trying to escape a fire would get lost in dead ends and panic’, particularly if under the influence of alcohol. Mr Knott refused to give DSFRS a list of past and future bookings and claimed this would breach data regulations, though Mr Sapieca noted that ‘this was clearly a building from which substantial income could be made’, and that it ‘seems to have been a hive of activity’, with paying guests ‘a reason to keep the bookings’. DSFRS believed ‘there was an intentional breach and a flagrant disregard for the law when he was in touch with [them]’, with the property said to make up to £4,000 per weekend. Defending Mr Knott, David
Morgan said that Mr Knott had continued to let the house ‘because he did not want to disappoint customers rather than because he wanted to keep the money’. One group was refunded £1,000 and the group removed by DSFRS was given a full refund as a sign that ‘his main
20 JUNE 2020
www.frmjournal.com
concern was not financial’. Mr Knott also claimed he had not tried to delay a DSFRS visit, but that he ‘had been on holiday in Russia with his wife’. Additionally, Mr Morgan
argued, ‘there had never been any actual fire and nobody was actually hurt at any stage’. Mr Knott had already planned to ‘make the property safe before the prohibition notice. The house has since been ‘made safe by extensive works’ to install an interlocking fire alarm systems, as well as creating escape routes and adding fire doors, ‘at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds’. Before sentencing, Mr Morgan said that Mr Knott had ‘never been in any kind of trouble before’, but his business as a mortgage broker ‘could be affected by this conviction’. Mr Knott admitted four counts of failing to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [FSO], and Judge Peter Johnson stated that he would receive a suspended jail sentence and a fine, although he ‘asked for more details’ of Mr Knott’s finances ‘before deciding the level of sentence’. Devon Live reported on his
sentencing, where Mr Knott was fined £24,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,218, as well as being ordered to do 160 hours of unpaid community work by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court. The news outlet
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
