Archive for the ‘Law & Ethics’ Category
HMO Prosecutions
Another Landlord receives £8k fine for student house offences
A LANDLORD who rented out a property to students for more than 13 years will have to pay out more than £10,000 for failing to maintain it properly.
Peter Teifion Jones, of Newton Road, Mumbles,Swansea pleaded guilty to a string of offences relating to poor management of an eight- bedroom property at 34 Bryn Road, Brynmill, Swansea
In total, Jones pleaded guilty to 12 charges and has been fined £8,500, and ordered to pay costs of £2,287 plus a £15 victim surcharge.
The court case followed a visit from Swansea Council environmental health officers to the house of multiple occupation (HMO) in July 2009. They found the property to be in a poor state.
By law, landlords of HMOs in Swansea have to be licensed with the council.
The licence requires the landlord to maintain the HMO to a certain standard and ensure the personal safety of tenants.
Officers gave Jones until November 2009 to carry out improvements. However, he failed to do so and legal action was taken.
In sentencing, magistrates said they took into account Jones’s guilty plea and mitigation presented by his solicitor, but said they took a very serious view of his management failings which included failing to maintain fire alarms and equipment and means of escape in case of fire.
Councillor John Hague, Swansea’s cabinet member for environment said: “This is an excellent result. The level of fine shows the seriousness of these offences.
“Landlords who rent out property have a duty to manage them well to protect the health and safety of the tenants.”
Charges included failure to comply with an improvement notice, to maintain a means of escape in good order and repair, to maintain fire fighting equipment and alarms in good working order and to ensure stair covering was in good repair.
The remaining charges were failure to maintain common parts in good and clean decorative repair and in a safe and working condition, to maintain fixtures, fittings or appliances in good and safe repair and clean working order, to ensure the garden was kept in a safe and tidy condition, to maintain a boundary wall in good and safe repair, to maintain the internal structure of living accommodation in good repair, failure to complete a logbook and produce documents for inspection as dictated in the licence conditions.
Mr Hague added: “While Swansea Council is keen to work with good landlords we will continue to use our legal powers with those who fall below the standards required.
Planning Permission for HMO's
The Government are to implement new planning laws for HMO’s from April 2010
Landlords beware of changes, you may get caught!!
Local powers for councils to protect communities and improve standards in the private rented sector
Housing and Planning Minister John Healey has announced new local powers to control the spread of high concentrations of shared rented homes and to tackle pockets of unsafe and substandard accommodation run by bad landlords.
Mr Healey confirmed new powers for local councils to manage the unplanned spread of Houses in Multiple Occupation (or an HMO) in towns and cities. The cluster of too many shared houses can sometimes cause problems, especially if too many properties in one area are let to short term residents with little stake in the local community. Tenants can also suffer from poor conditions and management of the properties by landlords.
A Government consultation on how to tackle this long-standing issue closed last year. It attracted around 900 responses, published today, from local authorities, residents associations, universities, individuals, MPs, councillors, and campaign groups. The large majority of those who responded supported a change to the so-called Use Classes Order, which defines how a property can be legally used, and the introduction of a definition of what constitutes a HMO.
Mr Healey responded to the consultation by confirming changes to the planning rules, giving local authorities the powers to manage the development of HMOs in their area, in turn helping stem the growth of large pockets of shared homes – which can change the balance and nature of communities. The Minister said that he would legislate so the new rules would come into force by April this year. The changes mean that landlords will need to apply for planning permission in order to establish a new HMO with a change of use, for example when the use of a property is altered from a family home to a shared house, with three or more tenants who are not related.
The Minister also published plans for councils, giving them extra flexibility to license landlords, requiring safe and quality rented accommodation in neighbourhoods where large numbers of substandard properties can be a magnet for community problems.
In a consultation published today, John Healey proposes to give a general consent for councils to introduce licensing schemes, without seeking permission from central Government, in hotspot areas where landlords do not maintain or manage their properties properly. A general consent would ensure that decisions on the quality of rented homes are made by those who are aware of the local issues and needs of the community. In the future, tenants will see improved standards and councils will be better able to deal with the worst landlords that drag down the neighbourhood.
Mr Healey also confirmed that detailed work is now underway for a new National Landlords Register, to help raise standards of private rented accommodation further. For the first time it will give landlords and tenants easy access to clear advice and support. It will also be the way in which landlords and tenants can be kept informed of basic rights and responsibilities.
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Aug. 21–The Air Line Pilots Association on Monday asked the National Mediation Board for an election to decide if SkyWest Airlines pilots want to be represented by the nation’s largest airline pilot union.
ALPA decided to seek an election after receiving enough interest from SkyWest pilots in joining the union, ALPA said in a letter mailed to about 2,700 aviators.
It isn’t clear how many pilots have signed cards authorizing the union to request a collective bargaining vote. On Monday, ALPA spokesman Pete Janhunen refused to reveal the number because the union doesn’t want to tip its hand to the company.
Over the past year, ALPA has said it had obtained authorization cards from more than half of St. George-based SkyWest’s pilots. But it declined to approach the mediation board until at least 70 percent had indicated their support for a vote.
“We think we are going to win the election. ALPA doesn’t play to lose. Our senior leadership and the [SkyWest pilots] organizing committee agree that the time is right to file the cards” with the mediation board, Janhunen said.
SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said the airline would not comment because it had not been informed by the union. In the past, the airline has said it is opposed to a pilots union.
“We haven’t been notified of anything of this nature, so I can’t really speak to the topic,” Snow said.
SkyWest pilots are the largest nonunion group of commercial aviators in the country, according to ALPA.
The rapidly growing regional airline flies passengers for Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Midwest Airlines. It has hired about 2,000 workers this year, including hundreds of pilots, and has plans to hire more to keep up with growth.
In the letter to pilots, ALPA said the mediation board will hold the election after it compares the authorization cards with company employment records to verify the showing of pilot interest in an election. The board also will put together a list of eligible voters. That should take 60 days.
The board will then mail confidential telephone voting instructions to the pilots, who likely will have 30 days to cast their ballots.
Janhunen said pilots will vote on two questions — whether they want a union to represent them and whether that union should be ALPA. Simple majority votes are required, he said.
ALPA hasn’t detected widespread dissatisfaction with SkyWest, Janhunen said. Instead, SkyWest’s rapid growth has made pilots feel uncertain about their jobs, he said.
“Usually, in this kind of case, [pilots] realize they don’t have an enforceable [labor] contract, they don’t have an agreement that guarantees any aspect of their careers,” he said. “There comes a point for pilots when scraps from the master’s table are no longer a sufficient diet.”
The union’s reluctance to pursue a vote until now may be based on past failures by pilots to affiliate with a union. An effort in 2004 failed when only a third of eligible pilots voted for an in-house association to act as their bargaining agent. An organizing drive by ALPA in 1999 also failed.
In May, a federal judge barred SkyWest from interfering with organizing activities by the SkyWest Pilots ALPA Organizing Committee. The association won a restraining order blocking the airline from preventing pilots from posting and handing out literature and wearing ALPA insignia on pins while on duty.
