London-based landlord fined £18,000 after Bridlington block of flats where young families were living found to be unsafe

The flats at the five-storey building, which is just a stone’s throw from the seafront in Bridlington, were found to have had inadequate heating and insulation while suffering from damp and mould. There was a faulty fire alarm, the main entrance lacked door locks, and low-level windows opened without restriction.

The hazards represented a real danger to tenants, especially to the younger children who lived there, East Riding Council said. But the landlord, Gedulah Ltd, failed to act when told to make improvements.

This led to a prosecution at Beverley Magistrates’ Court. Gedulah, which employed a Manchester-based company to manage the properties, did not appear in court but pleaded guilty by email to two counts of failing to comply with the improvement notices.

It was found to have failed to do basic repairs or to put adequate management arrangements in place, leaving the building, at No.2 The Crescent, unsafe. Gedulah was ordered to pay a total of £12,377, comprising a fine of £4,000 for each improvement notice, costs of £2,377 and a victim surcharge of £2,000.

In a separate case earlier this year, My Space Housing Solutions, a social landlord that provides accommodation for vulnerable adults, was ordered to pay £5,753.70 in fines and costs after renting out a property with broken and inadequate heating. This left tenants exposed to excess cold.

Legal notices had been served on My Space, but the company failed to complete the works and instead rented the property out again. John Manning, the chief executive of MySpace pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with improvement notices when appearing at Beverley Magistrates’ Court in April.

Mr Manning said the company was experiencing financial challenges and the managers who had previously dealt with the issues had been dismissed. The magistrates acknowledged the guilty plea but said the company had been negligent in its failure to address the significant risks to its tenants, due to serious shortcomings in the company’s systems and processes.

Following the prosecutions, Chris Dunnachie, the council’s Private Sector Housing Manager, warned that the authority would continue to take robust action if the safety of tenants was put at risk. “In both cases, officers have tried to work with each landlord to rectify the dangerous hazards in their rental properties; but their advice and then legal notices have been ignored,” he said.

“The council does, and will continue to, take robust action when the safety of tenants is put at risk due to serious hazards from the properties they are living in.”