Buy to Let Landlords Jailed

A buy to let landlord was sentenced to 1 year in prison for failing to pay £20,000 in fines. Christopher Mincham was accused of renting out a property, which did not satisfy safety standards and presented a fire hazard. Eventually, in 2004 two men perished in fire in the property rented out by Mincham. Havant Borough Council closed the property because of its dangerous condition (no fire alarm), however, the landlord was secretly filmed when showing the property to potential tenants. The landlord appealed against the convictions and failed to appear in the court several times, but he was finally arrested in his house Beach Road, Hayling Island just after the court came up with the jail sentence. Another landlord from Oxfordshire was ordered to pay £3,840 to his former tenants for renting out substandard accommodation. The charges included lack of smoke alarms, disrepair, no documentation for gas boiler, no water supply, as well as a failure to apply for an HMO license. Finally, Zahoor Ahmed, Bradford landlord, was found guilty and was ordered to pay an £800 fine £600 court costs for renting out a property with substantial safety issues after a notice from the Bradford Magistrates. The property lacked fire doors, and involved other hazardous conditions such as an electrical hazard, a missing stair handrail and loose floorboards. The above-mentioned cases demonstrate that landlords need to pay particular attention to the condition of the property, which is being rented out.