Property Letting Company Prosecuted and Fined for Breaching Fire Safety

A property letting company and its former director have been prosecuted for breaching fire safety legislation following a fire in a basement flat in Harrogate in December 2012.

An inspection of the premises by fire safety officers identified deficiencies in the required fire protection measures. There was no fire alarm or detection system in the property, which also lacked self-closing fire doors. The company had also failed to asses the fire risk to the premises. 

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority decided to prosecute Rava Properties Limited and its former director Nigel Rudd because of the seriousness of the fire protection deficiencies and their associated risks. 

Rava Properties Limited and Mr Rudd pleaded guilty to two contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at a hearing in Harrogate Magistrates Court on 2 July 2014. 

Rava Properties Limited was fined a total of £6000 and ordered to pay in full prosecution costs of £1498.16p. Mr Rudd was fined  £6000.     

In sentencing, Magistrates stated that: “These were two serious offences. Firstly in not having conducted a fire risk assessment (breach of article 9). And secondly in failing to provide adequate general fire precautions (breach of article 8). There was a vulnerable victim in the basement flat who had limited access to the outside and a young family in the upstairs flat. The defendants’ experience of letting property should have ensured that there were appropriate safety measures in the property.” 

Prosecutor Karen Galloway said: “The decision to prosecute is only taken in the most serious cases and it is not a decision taken lightly. The Responsible Person is always in a position of authority, their lack of actions should have been foreseeable to prevent, in the event of fire, persons being put at risk of death or injury. The contraventions in this case were serious.”