Improvements have been made to the living conditions and health and safety of tenants in private rented homes thanks to a project delivered by Bradford Council.
The Council was successful in its bid for DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) Funding in January this year to the sum of £45,000, which has paid for the work which has been carried out via the Rogue Landlord Project.
This funding has allowed officers to carry out extensive enforcement inspections of rented flats above commercial premises on three of the main routes into the city - Manchester Road, Leeds Road and Great Horton Road.
West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue provided 1,000 single point smoke alarms, and the Project’s main aims were to identify high risk properties where a fire was likely to result in serious harm or death due to lack of fire precaution measures and safe escape routes.
During the Rogue Landlord Project 180 properties were inspected with hazards found at 133 rented properties. Most of these hazards were addressed through informal action but in 20 cases formal Housing Act Notices, including three emergency prohibition orders were served.
There were ten separate cases where properties were found to have a fire risk high enough to justify Emergency Prohibition Orders.
In the majority of these cases either the tenants moved out the same day and works were completed, or the property was owner occupied, so advice, information and smoke detectors were provided for the occupants.
Councillor Val Slater, Deputy Leader of the Council, said: “Bradford Council’s Housing Standards Team has received over 1,000 service requests since the start of this year. Many of these were from tenants and led to inspections by Environmental Health Officers.
“The Housing Standards Team works informally to bring up the standard of private rented accommodation within the district, but if necessary, will take those rogue landlords and managing agents who repeatedly fail to uphold their legal obligations under the Housing Act 2004 to court.
“On a daily basis the team takes referrals from tenants and partner agencies to ensure landlords, managing agents and property owners carry out their legal obligations with regard to the health, safety and welfare of tenants.
“After the DCLG project was completed, one of our officers in the Housing Standards Team has continued to work on inspecting flats above commercial properties as this work is so important and potentially is saving lives.”
In the last year the team has completed ten prosecutions for those who failed to comply with Houses in Multiple Occupation regulations and Improvement Notices.
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