A buy to let landlord whose tenants only discovered that the fire alarm in their home wasn’t working when a fire failed to set it off is facing a bill of more than £14,000.

Azmat Anwar of 8 Brudenell Mount, Headingley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to six breaches of her House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) licence, including allowing seven people to live there when it was only licensed for six.
She was fined £12,000 for six licence breaches and ordered to pay £2,013 in costs at Leeds Magistrates Court recently.

The tenants, of 20 Brudenell Mount, contacted Leeds City Council’s HMO team after a fire in the house failed to set off the fire alarm.

The council’s HMO team investigated and found multiple breaches of the house’s licence, including:

• seven people living there when it was only licensed for six
• the basement room had been turned into a bedroom, which the landlord had failed to notify the council about
• the window to the basement bedroom was locked with a metal grill, obstructing a route of escape in case of a fire
• the fire alarm system was not working.

The tenants claimed that the landlord had been made aware of these issues but had made no attempt to resolve them.

In January, a letter from Anwar claimed that her brother, Mohammed Khalil Anwar, was managing the property on her behalf, though she had failed to notify Leeds City Council of a change in circumstances, as she was the named as manager on the licence.

She accepted that there were seven tenants in the house but claimed that the basement had always been a bedroom. Anwar said she had only applied for six people because of the size of the kitchen, which had been extended in the summer of 2009. However, she had not notified the council of the structural changes to the kitchen and bringing the basement room into use.

She claimed she knew that the fire alarm needed repairing but was ill and had tried to contact two people to inspect it but was unable to reach them.

A further inspection in January confirmed that the alarm system had been repaired. However, the security grille and escape window to the basement bedroom had not been replaced or altered, and no variation to the licence had been applied for to formalise the change in occupancy levels, management arrangements and changes to the property layout.

Cllr Les Carter, Leeds City Council’s executive board member for housing, said: “It beggars belief the danger that these tenants were placed in. Something as vital as a fire alarm should be repaired immediately and I’m pleased the tenants contacted us when they did.

“We have these HMO licences for a reason – to ensure that these large rented properties are fit for people to live in. Licence conditions must be complied with and the vast majority of landlords do follow the rules, but the council will come down hard on anyone who thinks the rules do not apply to them.”

Anwar was fined £7,000 for allowing more people to live at the property than it was licensed for and £1,000 for each of the remaining five offences, including failure to maintain fire alarm and obstructing a route of escape in the event of a fire.

She was also ordered to pay £2013.89 costs and a £15 victim surcharge, making a total bill of £14,148.89.