A letting agent who was fined more than £7,000 for letting a room in an unlicensed HMO on a ‘let only’ basis has had the decision overturned.
An Upper Tribunal ruled that Kartal Cetin, a director of Essex-based Discover Residential Ltd, should not have to pay the fine as he wasn’t involved in continually managing the property.
Epping Forest District Council had fined Cetin £7,064 after his firm let rooms in an HMO at Borders Lane, Loughton, to two tenants. He appealed to the first tier property tribunal but it ruled he had committed the offence and only reduced the penalty to £3,532.
However, the tribunal judge agreed that the agent had only received one month’s rent payment from each tenant at the start of the tenancy and there was no finding that the tenants were in occupation at that time.
Cetin argued that, as a letting agent engaged on ‘let only’ terms, he was not managing the property and so could not be liable for the offence.
Judge Martin Rodger KC agreed that a payment made to an agent whose only function is to let the property and who then had no involvement in the continuing management, was not a payment under the scope of the law.
He added: “The purpose of the definition…is not served by including an agent who has nothing to do with continuing management. The imposition of the statutory obligations on such a person (in addition to the owner) would be redundant and might even be counterproductive. It would create ambiguity as it would be very difficult to know for how long the status would continue after the single transaction which created it.”
Property lawyer at Spector Constant & Williams, David Smith, says: “The case will provide relief to agents instructed on a ‘let only’ basis, and will make those arrangements more attractive for HMOs.”
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