A landlord firm with rental 300 properties has been fined more than £42,000 after tenants were found sleeping on the floor in a house with dead rats, faeces and urine.

Durham County Council took legal action against Carter Property Services in Sedgefield - owned by portfolio landlord Glyn Carter, 59 - after officers received multiple reports of its selective licence not being followed.

Peterlee Magistrates Court heard that 13 conditions of the licence had been breached across eight properties in Shotton, South Hetton, Blackhall Colliery, Peterlee and Seaham.

Under the conditions, landlords must carry out property inspections every six months but at one property in Shotton, a tenant reported there hadn’t been an inspection in the four years they had lived there.

Officers told the court that Carter had also failed to provide a valid gas safety certificate for four of the properties.

Paramedics

Magistrates heard that at one property in Peterlee, paramedics reported that three tenants had been sleeping on the floor surrounded by waste which included dead rats and mice. They described the house as being caked in faeces and urine, with a strong smell of ammonia. The house had not been inspected in two years while the gas safety certificate was almost four years overdue.

Carter Property Services was found guilty of 13 charges of breaching its selective licence and given a £5,000 penalty for each property, totalling £40,000. It was also ordered to pay £500 costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge.

Failed

“This is a case in which a landlord has failed in its duty to tenants by allowing them to live in poor, unsafe conditions,” says Tony Hanson, corporate director for regeneration, economy and growth.

“This case demonstrates how we will use our powers within the selective licensing scheme to take effective enforcement against landlords who are not maintaining their properties and putting their tenants at risk.”

The council is consulting on proposals to introduce a new selective licensing scheme when the current one expires in March 2027.

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