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Landlord fined £10,000 for breaking fire safety laws

A Clapham landlord who allowed tenants to continue living in his property despite London Fire Brigade fire safety inspectors issuing a notice preventing him from doing so due to serious fire safety concerns has been fined £10,000.

Panayiotis Chrysostomou pleading guilty at the Inner London Crown Court to breaking fire safety regulations by failing to comply with the prohibition notice placed on the building on Clapham High Street.

Following a re-inspection tenants were still living in the first three storeys of the four floor property and almost nothing had been done to improve fire safety.

Mark Andrews, Deputy Head of Fire Safety Regulation, said: “This property was a potential death trap. The lack of smoke alarms, absence of any fire doors, as well as the blocked escape route would have put the lives of those people living in these bedsits in serious danger if a fire had broken out.

“Landlords have a clear responsibility under fire safety laws to ensure that people living in their premises are safe from the risk of fire and this fine should send a stark warning that if we find landlords are ignoring those responsibilities we won’t hesitate to prosecute.”

The inspectors had been called out to the property, which was divided into eight bedsits, after firefighters raised concerns after being called to a blaze in a neighbouring building.

Serious fire risks were found including:

  • no smoke alarms,
  • no emergency lighting and no fire doors
  • poorly managed cooking equipment in each bedsit,
  • a single escape route blocked by furniture and that the
  • electrics that were unmaintained throughout
  • no fire risk assessment.

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