A 'Career Rogue' landlord has been successfully prosecuted for a fourth time for failing to provide fit for human habitation conditions in one of his rental properties.

The Yorkshire based landlord has been ordered to pay £25,324.60 in fines and costs for a highly dangerous property in Beeston and must pay up within two months.

The landlord has denied charges of making vulnerable tenants remain at risk to sub-standard housing conditions for a considerable length of time.

The judge was told of a number of issues which included, exposed electrical cables, broken fire doors and fire alarms, rotten windows, the tenants were left without heating or hot water, and for one tenant no washing facilities for over six months.

The landlord had previously been found guilty for offences at the same house in February 2018 and was ordered to pay £8,655 in fines and costs. He had failed to follow out the necessary work to comply with improvement notices served by the local authority.

The landlord had also been fined twice in the last two years for substandard housing conditions in his Beeston properties.

The fines the landlord has received from four prosecutions added up to a total of £59,217.

Councillor Debra Coupar says: “It was unacceptable to expect vulnerable people at this property in Beeston to live day to day in appalling conditions, resulting in considerable distress for the tenants, due to the behaviour of this landlord.

“Landlords have a responsibility in law, and to their tenants, to ensure that they adhere to and comply fully with the housing regulations including proper and timely management. In this particular case, like previous occasions, this landlord fell considerably short of the standard expected, which is why we pursued this action through the courts that resulted in the court ordering him to pay over £20,000.

“The safety of our residents remains our top priority and I want to send out the clear message that we will seek to use a range of enforcement tools if, as in this case, legislation has been disregarded by a landlord and a resident is living in a property that is substandard.”