The case marks the second time in a month that Camden Council has been successful at court in achieving fines in the multiple 10s of thousands of pounds using the mandatory HMO licensing regime.

Earlier in June another property management company in the borough was ordered to pay £49,000 in fines and costs for breaches of the 2006 HMO management regulations.

This latest case involved 3 private rented sector property management companies and one landlord. The unlicensed HMO in Kilburn was owned by one company that let it via a second company to a third company of which the guilty landlord was the sole director. Camden Council officers inspected the property in July 2021 after obtaining a warrant of entry. They found the property to be an unlicensed HMO occupied by 5 tenants and which had "multiple serious fire safety issues" in evidence including partitioned walls in the kitchen and lounge which were used to create two additional bedrooms that had no adequate fire escape routes, fire detection installations or fire resistant doors.

Both the companies and the landlord had pleaded not guilty to HMO management offences under regulations 3 and 4 of the 2006 HMO management regulations. The landlord and the third management company were also hit with additional charges for failing to comply with statutory requests for information served on them by the council. The Magistrates found the four parties guilty of the offences they were charged with and the company of which the landlord was the sole director was ordered to pay the largest portion of the fines - £44,190 - with the landlord being ordered to pay £9,930.

The landlord, a Mr Rasool, was already subject to a banning order obtained by the council in January 2022 after which he had been ordered to pay, in May 2022, £95,000 in fines and costs.

Camden Council supported the tenants in formally terminating their tenancies.

Cllr. Meric Apak, Cabinet Member for Better Homes, said "We are investing significantly in our own council housing ensuring that each of our homes have appropriate fire doors, emergency lighting, fire alarms and fire stopping. By working towards this high standard of fire safety, we can rightly hold private landlords and management companies accountable to the same standards ...."

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