A landlord, who failed to provide Peterborough City Council with information relating to a property he was renting, was fined £2,000 by Peterborough Magistrates yesterday.

Officers from the private sector enforcement team at the city council visited 88 Russell Street, in Peterborough, following several complaints and quickly established it was a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

Under national definitions a HMO needs to be licensed if the house is three or more storeys high and is occupied by five or more people forming three or more households. However, the city council operates a stronger licensing definition based on its own pre-existing criteria.

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Under the city council criteria a HMO is defined as any house occupied by three or more people who form two or more households. This means that a three-bedroom house divided into separate rooms for three unrelated tenants, or a couple and one other unrelated tenant, would need to be licensed.

The landlord Marek Cap was served in October 2007 with a legal notice requesting information relevant to the property but failed to reply. A subsequent reminder also went unanswered. As a result, the matter was referred to Peterborough Magistrates' Court with Mr Cap facing a charge of failing to provide the city council with information under section 236 of the Housing Act 2004.

Mr Cap failed to attend court or enter a plea and was fined £2,000 in his absence. He was also ordered to pay costs of £445.32 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Councillor John Holdich, Cabinet member for Housing, Regeneration and Economic Development at the city council, said: "I must congratulate our team on their swift action in dealing with this particular problem. Unchecked HMOs can result in people living in terrible conditions which cannot be right in this day and age, as well as causing problems for people living nearby.

"We will continue to crackdown on any unscrupulous landlords."

(CD/JM)