HMO landlord pays £16,000 for fire safety breaches
A landlord has been ordered to pay over £16,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to breaches of fire safety legislation following a prosecution brought by the London Fire Brigade.
Jagjit Singh Rai pleaded guilty to seven contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. These included no suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, no appropriate firefighting equipment, and five counts of having no suitable maintenance arrangements of facilities, equipment and devices.
London Fire Brigade said Mr Rai managed a house of multiple occupation (HMO) above a Costcutters store in Hayes, Middlesex. On 16 May 2009 firefighters were called to a fire at the store. Crews noticed that no smoke alarm had sounded in the HMO despite the presence of smoke. Fire safety inspectors subsequently visited the address and found a number of breaches of the Order, which included no suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment of the premises.
Sentencing took place at Uxbridge magistrates’ court on 13 September 2010 when Mr Rai was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,505.
