24th
Aug 2021
Court documents shows Redbridge Council to have a taken decision to deliberately ignore its own policy when fining landlords “secretly and informally”.
In the 2019 court case a senior officer stated the council undertook a policy when trying to resolve landlords’ issues “informally” before fining them was disregarded “for a few weeks” that year.
The Ilford Recorder submitted a Freedom of Information request that uncovered the council in 2019 had launched a concerted campaign targeting agents and landlords and within the first six months had issued more than 100 fines.
Tribunal judge Peter Korn’s ruling on July 4, 2019, stated that Redbridge council’s action not to follow its own policy gave him enough reason to invalidate the £5,000 fine handed out to a lettings agent that year.
However the council has failed to supply any information of exactly how many more fines they had handed out to landlords without following the necessary policy protocols, and whether it has reappraised or decided to cancel any other fines due to the legal ruling.
In his ruling, Judge Korn wrote: “The published policy states officers will always try to resolve issues informally in the first instance, but that did not happen in this case.
“The council accepts that it has deviated from its own policy but states that there is no legal obligation to follow policy.
“However, we do not accept that it was appropriate or reasonable. The reversal in policy did not have the approval of cabinet and had not been published.
“The later reversal of this secretive, informal policy after only a few weeks does suggest that the enforcement team realised either that the change in policy was not a reasonable one, or that in order to change the policy they needed to go through a proper process.”
Tizero an Ilford property agent which was issued with the £5,000 fine because of its flat being inside the jurisdiction of the authority’s council selective scheme was unlicensed.
The council’s licensing scheme was first introduced in 2017 was applicable to all agents and landlords letting out ‘residences’ in certain areas of the borough such as the Ilford town centre, had to apply for a five-year licence which now costs over £600.
The council’s scheme aimed to allow its housing team to check landlords’ properties are ‘fit for purpose’ and to stamp out ‘rogue’ landlords’ practises of making tenants suffer appalling conditions.
Regarding Tizero Ltd.’s case, Judge Korn ruled that it was not “a particularly serious case” which had no reasons for the council to ignore its own policy by simply issuing a fine without any form of mediation.
He also noted that Tizero’s director Michael Labinso was “merely helping his mother to manage the property and did not know that it needed to be licensed”.
He wrote: “Whilst it is important not to lose sight of the fact that an offence was committed, the circumstances are such that the offence was at the very mildest end of the scale.
“The council had discovered no other issues in relation to the property and had no evidence of any prejudice to the tenant and yet it served a notice of intent to impose a very significant financial penalty.
“Had the council first gone through a proper process it could then have been entirely appropriate… to impose a financial penalty.”
Redbridge Council as requested on August 9th to ratify when and why the policy was ‘overlooked’ and the exact number of fines and recipients that were issued within the given timescale of a ‘few weeks’, as of yet it has failed to respond.
Richard Merrick of PIMS, says:” As usual this beggars belief that a council has been found to openly disregard its own policy to resolve issues with landlords by handing out fines willy-nilly.
“I am sure this is not the only council taking such action and it does seem in many cases councils can get away with ‘cowboy’ practises and support renters against landlords who fall into arrears by their own making.”
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