Anthony Gold

Get in touch

020 7940 4060

  • People
  • Insights
  • What to Expect
  • Contact Us
Anthony Gold
  • Services
    • Housing And Property Disputes
      • Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Services For Commercial Landlords, Tenants And Agents
      • Services For Residential Landlords And Agents
      • Housing And Tenancy Issues
      • Judicial Review
    • Injury And Medical Claims
      • Life Changing Injuries
      • Medical Claims
      • Personal Injury
      • Child Abuse
    • Family And Relationships
      • Starting Relationships
      • Ending Relationships
      • After Relationships End
      • Useful Contacts
      • Religious & Cultural Issues
      • Family Law FAQs
      • Family Dispute Resolution
      • Modern Families And Surrogacy Arrangements
    • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
      • Business Agreements
      • Business Disagreements
      • Commercial Property
      • Commercial Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Residential Property
    • Wills, Estates & Court Of Protection
      • Wills, Trusts And Estates
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Capacity And Court Of Protection
    • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
      • Personal Claims
      • Professional Negligence
      • Business Disagreements
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Employment
    • People
    • Insights
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Get in touch

    020 7940 4060

  • Housing and Property Disputes
  • Injury and Medical Claims
  • Family and Relationships
  • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
  • Wills, Estates & Court of Protection
  • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
  • Property disputes
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Challenging the decisions of councils and public bodies
  • Rights of way, boundaries, covenants and easements
  • Party wall disputes
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Services for commercial landlords, tenants and agents
  • Breach of covenant
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Lease renewals
  • Services for residential landlords and agents
  • Regulatory issues
  • Repossession
  • Agents (including letting agreements)
  • Housing and tenancy issues
  • Repairs
  • Repossession and eviction
  • Rehousing and homelessness
  • Judicial review
  • Life changing injuries
  • Brain injury
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Amputation
  • Psychiatric injury
  • Fatal injuries and inquests
  • Medical claims
  • Surgical claims
  • Non-Surgical Claims
  • Birth injury
  • Child health and paediatrics
  • GP and primary care treatment
  • Private healthcare
  • Personal injury
  • Road traffic accidents
  • Accidents abroad
  • Accidents at work
  • Faulty products
  • Public liability and other accidents
  • Child abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Starting relationships
  • Pre nuptial agreements
  • Pre civil partnership and same sex relationship agreements
  • Cohabitation and living together agreements
  • Property ownership agreements
  • Ending relationships
  • Divorce and separation
  • Ending a civil partnership
  • Ending cohabitation
  • Agreeing child arrangements
  • Agreeing finance and assets
  • International arrangements
  • After relationships end
  • Abduction and leave to remove children
  • Changing and challenging parenting agreements
  • Changing and challenging financial agreements
  • Grandparents’ rights
  • Useful Contacts
  • Financial planners
  • Referral to Pension Actuaries and Pension on Divorce Experts (PODEs)
  • Tax Specialists
  • Financial Neutrals
  • Counselling
  • Conveyancing
  • Wills
  • Religious & cultural issues
  • Jewish family law
  • Islamic family law
  • Family Law FAQs
  • Children FAQs
  • Cohabitation Agreement FAQs
  • No-Fault Divorce and Separation FAQs
  • Financial Issues FAQs
  • Pre-Marital Contracts FAQs
  • Family Dispute Resolution
  • Roundtable Meetings
  • One Solicitor Solution
  • Mediation
  • Collaborative Practice
  • Arbitration
  • Second Opinions
  • Private FDR’s
  • Early Neutral Evaluation (‘ENE’)
  • Modern Families and Surrogacy Arrangements
  • Domestic Surrogacy
  • International Surrogacy
  • Business agreements
  • Business advice
  • Employment
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Supplier contracts
  • Business disagreements
  • Commercial property
  • Commercial Sale and Purchases
  • Commercial loans and mortgages
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Commercial advice for landlords and tenants
  • Planning advice
  • Mortgage debentures and securities
  • Commercial property disputes
  • Breach of covenant
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Lease renewals
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Residential property
  • Residential Sale and Purchases
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Remortgages
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Ownership matters and transfers
  • Wills, trusts and estates
  • Making a will
  • Applying for probate
  • Distributing the estate
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Trust advice
  • Tax planning and advice
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Appointing a deputy
  • Removing a deputy
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Gifts and legacies
  • Managing assets under a deputyship
  • Care issues
  • Removing lasting and enduring power of attorney
  • Special educational needs
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Personal claims
  • Debt recovery
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Building disputes
  • Professional negligence
  • Professional Negligence
  • Property Fraud
  • Investment Fraud
  • Business disagreements
  • Building disputes
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Claims against directors
  • Contract disputes
  • Debt recovery
  • Directors personal liabilities
  • Employment
  • Professional negligence
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Employment
  • Employment
  • Unfair or Wrongful Dismissal
  • Settlement Agreements
Anthony Gold > Blog > Property Licensing : The right way to assess financial penalties
Tamanna Begum

Tamanna Begum

tamanna.begum@anthonygold.co.uk

Share
  • December 16, 2021
  • Blog
  • By  Tamanna Begum 
  • 0 comments

Property Licensing : The right way to assess financial penalties


In the case of Raja -v- Salford City Council, the Upper Tribunal (“UT”) held that First tier Tribunals (“FtT”) are required to make their own assessment in determining financial penalties and should not limit themselves to solely reviewing the  council’s decision to impose the penalty.

Summary of Facts

Salford City Council sought to impose a financial penalty of £22,500 against a landlord (“AR”) for a failure to license the property under the Council’s selective licensing scheme. AR brought an appeal to the FtT against the Council’s Notice on the basis that:

  • He had not received the correspondence from the Council regarding the requirement to licence the property because he was abroad;
  • There were no tenants occupying the property during the time of the relevant offence; and
  • In any event, he could not afford the financial penalty as he was in receipt of social welfare benefits.

At first instance, the FtT upheld the Council’s decision with issuing the final notice and held that the landlord should have arranged a property manager if he was going to be out of the country.

In addition, Council Tax records indicated that the property was tenanted during the period of the offence and in relation to affordability of the fine, it was held that AR had not previously informed the Council about his financial circumstances.

AR subsequently brought a further appeal by citing similar grounds but this time, he introduced the following to his argument:

  • He did not have a tenancy agreement with the tenants and the property was let to a third party individual, “WA”, who sub-let the property to the sub-tenants;
  • He did not receive the Council’s letters and when he was later notified he did not understand why he had to apply for a licence;
  • He did not have adequate representation and was not fluent in English and the Council therefore should have ensured he understood what was required of him; and
  • The financial penalty was excessive and unfair.

The FtT refused to review its decision and permission to  appeal noting that he had not raised the issue about the property being let to WA at the first hearing, he should have obtained legal representation and, there was no evidence to prove his financial circumstances.

Upper Tribunal’s decision

The matter progressed to the UT and was heard by HHJ David Hodge QC.

While the UT mostly agreed with the FtT’s decision, it was held that the Tribunal had not given proper justification as to how the fine was calculated. In reaching his decision, HHJ David Hodge QC held:

“The FTT’s decision contains no statement of how the Council had calculated the financial penalty it had imposed of £22,500. There is no indication of how that penalty was assessed: of how the Council had assessed the levels of culpability and harm so as to arrive at any penalty score, of the band of penalties appropriate to the resulting penalty score, or of how any personal mitigating or aggravating features were identified and factored into the Council’s calculation. There was no reasoned or articulated calculation by the FTT. There is no indication that the FTT had made their own determination of the appropriate amount of the financial penalty to be imposed on Mr Raja or of how “the evidence” had factored into the Council’s figure of £22,500, which the FTT proceeded to endorse.”

The FtT was therefore required to make its own decision on the level of penalty in light of the available evidence and had failed to consider the various factors which the Council’s assessment of the penalty ought to have considered, including an assessment of proportionality of the offence and the penalty imposed and any mitigating and aggravating circumstances put forward by the Appellant. The UT therefore allowed this part of the appeal to progress on the basis that the FtT had failed to make its own assessment of the appropriate amount of the penalty.

Implication of this decision

The UT’s decision suggests that FtT’s must make their own enquiries about the adequacy of the fine in light of all information they have available at hand. This indicates that they must therefore satisfy themselves that the proposed fine is proportionate to the level of offence and harm caused to the tenants and must provide their own opinion on the level of fine that could be imposed rather than favouring the fine proposed by the Council without a justifiable reason.

However, this decision appears to conflict with an earlier UT decision in the case of  Waltham Forest LBC v (1) Marshall (2) Ustek [2020] UKUT 0035 (LC) as in that case the UT determined that Tribunals were required to give particular weight to a Council’s decision and their respective policies, and it could only depart from a Council’s decision if it was “wrong” and in very limited circumstances.

In AR’s case, while the UT did decide that the FtT should be bound to make its own decisions, it did not state that the Tribunal could disregard the Council’s guidance entirely. Quite often, the Council’s guidance does state the appropriate band of penalties and gives reasons for the Council’s decision to impose a penalty against a landlord.

This decision is beneficial for landlords as Tribunals are now required to consider all circumstances including a landlord’s personal circumstances before arriving to a final decision in respect of a financial penalty. It is likely that Tribunals will continue to consider the Council’s policy going forward but they may also ensure to take into account the factors identified by HHJ David Hodge QC so as to justify or disagree with a proposed level of fine.

Anthony Gold Solicitors are specialists in HMO law and assist private residential landlords and letting agents in a wide range of property licensing disputes. Should you wish to speak to a member of our team for further information, please contact us on 020 7940 4000 and we will see how we can assist.

* Disclaimer: The information on the Anthony Gold website is for general information only and reflects the position at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be treated as such. It is provided without any representations or warranties, express or implied.*

Tamanna Begum

Tamanna Begum

tamanna.begum@anthonygold.co.uk

Get in touch

Call, email or use a contact form – whichever suits you. We’ll let you know the best person to help you get started.

Call or Email

020 7940 4060

mail@anthonygold.co.uk

No comments

Add your comment

We need your name and email address to make sure you’re a real person. We won’t share your email address with anyone else or send you spam. Please complete fields marked with *.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code

Related Services

  • Breach of covenant

  • Building disputes

  • Challenging the decisions of councils and public bodies

  • Repossession

  • Repossession and eviction

  • Repairs

  • Commercial advice for landlords and tenants

  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession

  • Rights of way, boundaries, covenants and easements

  • Building disputes

  • Repairs to leaseholds

About the author

  • Tamanna Begum

Meet the team

  • Housing and Property Disputes

You might also like...

  • Standard Breathing Spaces – Q&A for Residential Landlords

  • Can a tenant recover more than twelve months' rent in a rent repayment order?

  • Possession Claims Update - Further extension to eviction ban until the end of March 2021

Contact Us

Request a Call Back

About Us

  • Accessibility
  • Compliance
  • Responsible Business
  • Equality & Diversity
  • History
  • Our Beliefs
  • List of LLP members

Careers

  • Trainee Solicitors
  • Vacancies

Social Media

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View our YouTube channel

Online Payments

  • Payment page through Worldpay

Accredited by

Lexel Parctice
76000Award

Copyright © Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC433560 and is authorised and regulated by the by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with registration Number 810601