Houses in Multiple Occupation – A Cautionary Tale for Errant Landlords

Pressure on the housing market has led to the conversion of many redundant office buildings into flats and the number of such projects is likely to be greatly increased by shifting work patterns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. A Court of Appeal ruling, however, powerfully signalled that…

Jan 28, 2021

The case concerned an office block that had been converted into 47 flats. After a housing officer visited, the local authority employed its powers under the Housing Act 2004 to serve a number of improvement notices on the company that owned the block’s freehold. The notices, amongst other things, required the company to remedy fire safety and electrical hazards and to install double glazing and central heating in some of the flats which were said to be excessively cold.

After some of the notices were not complied with, the council imposed civil penalties on the company totalling £140,000. The company’s director and majority shareholder received identical penalties on the basis that he had consented to or connived in the company’s failures. In addition, each of them received penalties of £96,600 in respect of breaches of the Licensing and Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Additional Provisions) (England) Regulations 2007.

After the council served a prohibition order barring the building’s use as residential premises, the company’s rental income dried up and it entered administration. The company’s and the director’s appeal to the Upper Tribunal was subsequently rejected, save in respect of the amount of the penalties. The company’s overall penalties were reduced to £75,000 and the director’s to £99,000.

Dismissing the director’s appeal against that outcome, the Court rejected his plea that he had suffered double punishment, both as an individual and as a shareholder in the company. His penalties reflected his responsibility for the conduct of the company’s affairs, his personal knowledge of the condition of the building and his responsibility for the occurrence of similar problems at another property. The penalties, whether viewed individually or in aggregate, could not be impugned as excessive or unjust.

Aircraft Dismantler Injured in Gas Explosion Wins Right to Full Compensation

If you suffer an accident at work, personal injury lawyers can be relied upon to do all in their power to ensure you are fully compensated. That was certainly so in the case of a workman who was dreadfully injured in an explosion whilst dismantling a redundant aircraft. The man was working on an airfield where three large planes – two 747s and a DC-8 – were being taken apart at the end of their operational lives. He was using an angle grinder to slice through a panel on the DC-8 when the blade…

Whistleblower Treated as ‘Complainer’ Receives Substantial Compensation

Whistleblowers perform a vital role in the public interest and managers who persist in viewing their activities merely as inconvenient belly-aching expose themselves to condemnation by Employment Tribunals (ETs). That was certainly so in the case of a warehouse worker whose health and safety concerns were ignored. The man reported a number of health and safety issues to his managers. Amongst other things, he noticed that cardboard and pallets were being stored in a way that prevented access to…

Dismissal for Failure to Disclose Earlier Dismissal Not Unfair

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has rejected a man’s appeal against a decision that he had not been unfairly dismissed for failing to disclose a previous dismissal and a subsequent three-month employment gap on his job application. The man had started working for the Home Office in 2002. In 2016 he was dismissed for gross misconduct. He brought Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings and a conciliation settlement was reached, the terms of which did not alter the basis of his dismissal. In…