Landlord is fined for having no working smoke detectors at house where tenant died
After local builders raised the alarm, firefighters forced their way into Mohammed’s house in Nansen Road, Sparkhill, on November 18th last year.
Prosecuting on behalf of Birmingham City Council, Simon Mortimer said
“They found the body of Taj Sakander in an upstairs room where he had been sleeping after working a night shift, but despite paramedics battling to revive him, he tragically died from smoke inhalation”.
“Firefighters discovered that despite the house having two potentially life-saving smoke detectors which could have raised the alarm, neither were fitted with batteries.
He added “We have what may appear on the surface to be a minor breach of the regulations but the consequences of which were horrendous.”
None of the other tenants were in the house at the time of the fire, which is believed to have started by an electrical fault.
Mohammed was advised by a lettings agency to rent out each of the rooms separately, making it a multiple-occupancy building, which would fall under the Housing Act 2004 rules that require landlords to carry out checks on smoke detectors.
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