A building owner found guilty of failing to meet a deadline to remove unsafe cladding has been ordered to pay a total of £60,000.
Chaplair Limited was successfully prosecuted on 18 October by Newham Council over delays in repairing a building in east London.
On Tuesday (October 31) the company was fined £30,000, ordered to pay £30,000 in costs and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £190, at a sentencing hearing at the Crown Court of First Instance of the City of London.
In imposing the fine, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram said the lining was very dangerous and the priest had not taken the risk it posed seriously enough.
He acknowledged, however, that the failure came as a result of “evolving” government policy and at a difficult time as the country emerged from the Covid pandemic.
In a statement, Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said the council pursued the case “to make it very clear to building owners in Newham that there can be no exceptions for the safety of our residents who live in its properties and that the issue of safe coating remains paramount.” .
Fiaz added: “The outcome of this legal case raises the crucial importance of safety standards in the homes people live in and is a warning to all housing providers that, where necessary and necessary, Newham Council will use all the powers available under existing legislation to make homes safe.”
Newham Council’s legal victory marked the first time a local authority had successfully prosecuted a building owner for failing to remove flammable cladding, using its powers under the Housing Act 2004.
During the prosecution, Ikram said Chaplair “did not satisfy me that he had a reasonable excuse for not complying with the improvement notice”.
The council issued the company with the notice in September 2020 to remove dangerous cladding from Lumiere House, a nine-storey block of flats in east London containing 71 flats.
Inspectors found that work had not even started in March 2021, the deadline given to the priest to remove the cladding.
The priest has been contacted for comment.
