A Rugby landlord banned from letting

A Rugby landlord, Dean Dunkley, has been banned from letting residential property after being found guilty of several offences that were described as putting the lives of his tenants at risk.


Mr Dunkley has been duelling with Rugby Borough Council’s housing enforcement team over a number of years regarding the management of a unlicensed House in Multiple Occupation.


Last year he was fined £5000 after pleading guilty to 25 offences under the Housing Act 2004, but failed to take heed of his legal requirements to make improvements at his HMO property.


A subsequent inspection of Mr Dunkley's ten bedroom HMO found it still failed on a number of safety issues -

• faulty fire doors.
• broken electric sockets.
• holes in windows.
• a fridge blocking an emergency exit. 
• no fire detection in a communal kitchen.
• broken emergency lighting.
• no door to the toilet.

Nuneaton Justice Centre heard this second batch of offences in the landlord's absence. They found the landlord guilty of all 19 charges, and thus,

Mr Dunkley was fined a total of £39,000, including £2,264 costs and a £170 victim surcharge and was handed a Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from letting or managing a residential property in the borough until May 2019.

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