Landlord is banned from renting out property

A LANDLORD who broke residential lettings rules has been banned from operating in a landmark legal ruling.

Julie Stoddern, of North Roskear, Camborne, is the first person in Cornwall to be issued with such a Banning Order after Cornwall Council applied under new legislation.

The order, made by a tribunal last week, prohibits Stoddern from engaging in residential lettings for five years.

She will be entered into the national ‘Rogue Landlords Database’, which currently has around 50 people on it.

Stoddern was prosecuted by the Council and convicted at Truro Magistrates’ Court in November 2020. She was ordered to pay a fine of £2,500 for each of two offences, costs of £5,515 and a victim surcharge of £190.

Those offences related to the breach of a Prohibition Order, allowing the property in question to be overcrowded and failure to hold a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence.

Stoddern has now been convicted of offences under the Housing Act 2004 on three separate occasions over an eight-year period. Cornwall Council submitted an application to the First-Tier Tribunal Property Chamber for a Banning Order to be made.

Following a hearing on March 3, the tribunal decided to issue an immediate Banning Order.

The order bans Stoddern from letting houses, letting agency work or property management work.

The offences came to the attention of the Council during the first national lockdown due to concerns that the house risked increasing community Covid transmission.