HBC: Property owner fined £1,600 for dilapidated house

An Accrington property owner, Halima Shadia Rashid, was ordered to pay £1600 in fines and costs by Hyndburn magistrates recently, after failing to comply with a notice requiring her to take steps to bring her property at 4 Arnold St Accrington, up to a reasonable standard.

Officers visited the property and found that lower ground floor window at the front was boarded and the front first floor window was smashed, also that the paint work at the front of the house was in need of repainting. Officers were in touch with Ms Rashid on several occasions requesting that she arrange to have work carried out to bring the property into a state of repair, but the work wasn’t done and so the Council was left with no option but to take Ms Rashid to court.

Ms Rashid did not attend court and was found guilty in her absence of failing to comply with a Town & Country Planning Act s 215 Notice served in respect of 4 Arnold St Accrington, requiring her to take certain specified steps to bring the property up to a reasonable standard.

Cllr Clare Cleary, Cabinet Member for Housing, said; “The Council always gives the owners of properties like this the chance to bring them up to standard, but our requests, plus a Section 215 notice were ignored, landing this owner in court with substantial fines and costs to pay.”