A record fine of £6,000 has been imposed by St.Helens Magistrates on a landlord for not dealing with housing hazards at his rented property.

Paul O’Shaughnessy, of Grange Road, Haydock, rented a house in the same town to a young mother and her two children.

St.Helens Council’s Environmental Health Officers first inspected the property on 12 November 2008 and found serious hazards that posed a threat to the health and safety of the tenant.

This including extreme cold due to lack of loft insulation, penetrating dampness, slip and trip hazards, lack of handrail to the stairs and excessively low headroom on the stairs and lack of gas safety certificate.

Despite initially agreeing to carry out works the landlord failed to do so and after repeated attempts to resolve the situation informally the Council served Improvement Notices on the landlord requiring works to address the hazards and sub-standard conditions that existed.

Over three months later the landlord had failed to comply with the Notices. The tenant was forced to live in sub-standard, unsafe and unhealthy conditions for an extended period of time.

Among the defects were a hole in the roof which allowed rainwater to drip on to the children’s bed and the heating and hot water boiler was broken which the Council had to take further enforcement action over to get repaired.

The initial hearing was adjourned on 15 December 2009 due to the landlord failing to attend. The case was then heard in his absence on 12 January 2010) at which time Magistrates found him guilty of four separate level 5 offences of non-compliance with Housing Act Improvement Notices at St Helens Magistrates' Court.

He was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £1,169 costs and victim surcharge. £7,169 is a record financial penalty against a St Helens landlord for offences under the Housing Act 2004.

The Principal Environmental Health Officer who brought the case said that this was the second private sector landlord to be prosecuted within the last four weeks.

The Council's Regeneration, Housing, Culture & Leisure Scrutiny Committee's Private Landlords Task Group has concluded its review of the issues surrounding the private rented sector and will shortly be reporting on their findings and recommendations.