Fines and prosecutions


YASH MANAN was said to have put tenants’ lives ‘at risk’ due to a ‘catalogue of failings’ relating to fire safety in properties in Derby. Derby Telegraph reported on


the prosecution of Mr Manan, a ‘well-known’ landlord in the city, due to his Normanton block of flats having ‘no working fire alarm’, as well as other issues. Despite a warning from


Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS), he failed to fit an alarm and when a fire started at the block in December 2017, ‘it was only noticed by one of the tenants when they saw smoke coming under the door of their flat’. DFRS prosecuted Mr Manan at


Derby Crown Court,where it was reported that the escape route from the block – which contained five flats – was ‘piled up with domestic waste’, additionally posing a fire risk ‘as it was combustible’. He had also never undertaken a fire risk assessment at the block, despite receiving a warning letter from DFRS ‘five years before the blaze broke out’, while fire doors fitted ‘would not have provided the necessary protection’ for residents. Prosecutor Laura Hancock said that a 2012 DFRS inspection had highlighted a ‘number of breaches’ of fire safety regulations and a warning letter had been sent to Mr Manan asking him to ‘address’ the issues, including ‘inadequate’ fire doors, the lack of fire alarm system


NEWS Landlord’s ‘catalogue of failings’ results in prosecution


As a result, said Miss Hancock, ‘this meant that should there have been a fire, only one tenant would have known about it and if they had not topped up the meter it would not have sounded in the first place’. At court, Mr Manan’s solicitor Georgina Goring mentioned his age, lack of relevant previous convictions and remediation of the issues – as well as fire safety certificates being held at his properties now – in mitigation. She also commented that Mr


and the ‘inadequate’ escape route. Despite this, the fire, caused by a burning candle in one of the flats, led to DFRS attending and later inspecting the property. Miss Hancock said: ‘Smoke from


the fire had travelled through the property and went under the door of one of the tenants’ flats, who rang 999’. DFRS’s inspection ‘the following day’ found no working fire alarm and an escape route blocked by combustible domestic waste. The DFRS warning letter told Mr


Manan to make the changes by 10 January 2018, but on 15 January fire inspector Adam Hinds attended the property to find that ‘nothing had been done’. Visiting Mr Manan at his place of work, he was asked to revisit the flats ‘later that day’, only to find an alarm fitted to one of the pay as you go meters ‘and not to the mains’.


Manan was ‘making appointments to see his doctor amid concerns he has early onset dementia’, and is ‘no longer a director of the company’, with any custodial sentences likely to ‘have a dramatic effect on his health and his family’. Mr Manan pleaded guilty to five breaches of fire safety regulations, and was given a 12 month jail term suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £16,927 costs as well as carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work. Judge Shaun Smith stated


on sentencing: ‘In my view, a combination of these [fire regulation] breaches would have placed residents and guests at a very high risk of serious injury or death. You were fully aware of the failures and you failed to address them. There was a lack of regard for your responsibilities as a landlord. This has come about completely by your own actions, or should I say, inactions.’


Another ‘rogue’ landlord prosecuted ‘numerous’ fire and electrical safety hazards, alongside ‘risk of entry by intruders’, with the issues deemed ‘an imminent risk’ to tenant safety. In April, the council reinspected


DUDLEY COUNCIL has prosecuted Latif Rehman because of breaches of an emergency prohibition order relating to a house in multiple occupation (HMO). Dudley News reported on the


case brought by the council against Mr Rehman at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court, which resulted in his prosecution for three breaches of an emergency prohibition order relating to an HMO in Netherton. Council officers inspected


the three storey, four bedroom HMO last February following a tenant complaint and found


the HMO, but found that ‘insufficient works’ had been undertaken to rectify the problems, most notably that fire doors ‘still failed to comply with regulations’, that property access was ‘not properly controlled’ and that damp was ‘still present’. The council’s private sector housing team brought the case


against Mr Rehman, who was fined £151,070 for ‘failing to rectify’ any of the discovered issues. This broke down into £50,000 for each of the three offences, as well as £1,000 in costs and a £170 victim surcharge. The council was also considering applying for a rent repayment order and banning order against Mr Rehman. Dudley News noted also that he had been prosecuted two years previously and had been ordered to pay more than £340,000 ‘after illegally converting houses into bedsits’


www.frmjournal.com MARCH 2020 15


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