20, Hamilton Road, Manchester M13 0PB MAN/00BN/HNB/2021/0001
REASONS
[20]“Relevant housing offence” 20.1 The Tribunal was satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that the evidence of breaches of the Regulations as identified at the 1st inspection on 7 August 2020, was conduct amounting to an offence under s234 of the Act, a “relevant housing offence” for the purposes of s249A of the Act, permitting the imposition of a financial penalty.[21]Procedural requirements 21.1 The Tribunal was satisfied that, in respect of the Notice of Intent and the Final Notice, the Respondent had complied with the procedural requirements as required under Schedule 13A to the Act, as follows:(1) the offence under s234 of the Act was continuing as at the date of the Notice of Intent;(2) the Notice of Intent and the Final Notice contained the information as required under paragraphs 3 and 8 of Schedule 13A to the Act; and,(3) the Notice of Intent contained information about the right to make representations.[22]Application of the Policy22.1 Culpability and harm and severity of offence: having regard to the Policy:(1) the Tribunal agreed with the Respondent’s determinations in respect of harm (medium) and culpability (high) for the reasons stated in the Final Notice; and(2) the Tribunal noted that the Applicant had not availed himself of the opportunity to make any representations in response to the Notice of Intent.22.2 Financial benefit: (1) The Tribunal noted that it had been open to the Applicant to provide such information to the Tribunal as he considered relevant regarding his financial circumstances but that he had not done so; (2) there was no evidence before the Tribunal of any financial hardship/inability to pay the financial penalty on the part of the Applicant, nor of a mortgage on the Property;(3) in the circumstances, the Tribunal was satisfied that there was insufficient evidence regarding the Applicant’s financial circumstances to justify any reduction in the amount of the financial penalty.22.3 Aggravating factors: (1) In accordance with paragraph 10(3)(b) of Schedule 13A of the 2004 Act, the Tribunal determined that it was appropriate to have regard to the Applicant’s previous conviction as an aggravating factor which increased the amount of the financial penalty by £1000.22.4 Mitigating factors: (1) The Tribunal considered whether it was appropriate to exercise the discretion in paragraph 5.5 of the Policy to effect a reduction in the financial penalty. In view of the delay of 7 days by the Applicant in ensuring that there was a fully-operational fire alarm system at the Property and the further delay of more than 4 months in completing all necessary remedial works, the Tribunal did not consider that it could be said that the Applicant had undertaken those works in “a timely and appropriate manner”. In the circumstances, any exercise of this discretion was considered inappropriate. (2) For the same reasons, the Tribunal concluded that it was not appropriate to take into account the completion of the remedial works as a mitigating factor. C Wood Tribunal Judge 28 October 2021