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£5,900 Fine for City Letting Agents

Released on 6 Oct 2008

Oxford City Council has successfully prosecuted a Letting Agents for operating a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) without a licence and for poor management of a HMO.

The Letting Agents, RMA Properties Ltd., pleaded guilty to the offences at Oxford Magistrates' Court on 2 October 2008. The court fined RMA Properties Ltd. £5,500 and awarded the City Council £400 costs making a total of £5,900.

In passing sentence the Court indicated that it gave the company credit for a timely guilty plea. It felt that the company had not deliberately set out to breach the HMO management regulations, but that there was no excuse for failing to licence the property as a HMO.

Environemental Health officers visited the property at 19 Crown Street, Oxford in April 2008, as part of the on-going proactive programme to identify licensable HMOs. At the time of the visit, the property was found to require a HMO licence under the mandatory scheme and a number of offences were also found under the HMO management regulations.

The breaches of the management regulations were in relation to fire safety, disrepair to the windows, electrical safety and the condition of the gardens.

The property was occupied by five unrelated persons and is three storeys in height and therefore required a mandatory HMO licence to operate.

All HMOs (irrespective of size) must comply with the HMO management regulations, so as to ensure that occupiers of HMOs live in accommodation which is safe, in good repair and well managed. HMOs which are three or more storeys in height and occupied by five or more unrelated persons require a licence from the local authority to operate.

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