A rogue landlord has been handed a suspended jail sentence and electronically tagged for four months after she failed to maintain gas appliances at her rental property.
Dawn Holliday refused to undertake gas safety checks even after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took enforcement action against her. Holiday claimed to have no money for maintenance at the property, leaving the tenants with a very temperamental boiler that banged and often left them without heating or hot water, as well as a condemned cooker, for several years.
An HSE investigation found that the landlord was receiving full rent for the property on First Avenue in Eastchurch, Kent, when the enforcement action was taken.
Holliday ignored the improvement notice served on her to undertake gas safety checks, along with further requests from HSE. She also claimed the tenants had moved out and had not been paying rent – but the investigation found this claim to be untrue.
At Sevenoaks Magistrates Court, Holliday, 62, of Golden Leas Holiday Park, Plough Road, Minster on Sea, admitted three charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act and Gas Safety (Installation & Use) and was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months. She also has an electronically monitored curfew and will have to pay HSE £750 in costs. She must undertake the gas safety inspection by 6th December 2024.
HSE inspector Joanne Williams says: “Ms Holliday chose to flagrantly ignore the support, guidance and warnings from HSE to assist her in compliance with the law and continued placing her tenants at serious risk of injury or even death.”
* This week’s Gas Safety Week has the theme Checking - Every Check Counts, which for landlords means checking they comply with their legal gas responsibilities and that both they and their tenants know what to do in a gas emergency. For advice and to find or check an engineer visit GasSafeRegister.co.uk or call 0800 408 5500.
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