Landlord Michael Billings was sentenced to jail last month after contravening fire and Health and Safety regulations. It was revealed that the landlord, who is estimated to own around 600 properties nationwide with many being in Norfolk, had been convicted twice earlier of breaking the same laws. In all Billings pleaded guilty to 14 serious breaches of fire and health and safety regulations.
The case centred around a fire at one of the properties owned by the defendant in April 2009 with one victim suffering 80% burns to her body and three other people having to escape the inferno through windows. The badly burned victim, Miss Scalli amazed surgeons by making a recovery as her survival chances were put at 1% after she had been rescued from the blaze by the Fire Brigade, whose inspectors have still been unable to pinpoint the exact cause of the fire. Health and Safety officials described Billings as a “slum landlord with Health and Safety Executive inspector John Claxton describing the case as “The most horrific case I have dealt with in 31 years in the job”
When passing down sentence Judge Downes told the defendant “You have been stupid and neglectful in the extreme. The effect on all of the victims must have been terrifying. What this case proves is that fire regulations are of the greatest importance. The regulations are designed to prevent what happened in this case”
The case illustrates once more the onus of responsibility that falls on a landlord in keeping his properties up to the standard demanded by law and that it is simply not a case of acquiring landlord insurance, finding a tenant and collecting the rent. Responsible landlords will once more feel let down by the rogue element in their ranks.