Rob represented a landlord who had been fined £16,625 by East Riding of Yorkshire Council for failure to comply with r.3 of the Electrical Safety Standards on the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 in respect of regular electrical safety testing and remedial work. The failure to test was not disputed, but the amount of the fine was contested at a hearing before the First-Tier Tribunal, on the basis that the Council had applied the wrong policy and approach to calculating the level of a fine.
Following the evidence, including Rob’s cross-examination of the Council’s officers, the Tribunal found that the Council had applied the wrong policy, had conflated seriousness with harm/culpability and had made calculation errors in their matrix. The Tribunal varied the Council’s fine from £16,625 down to £2,500.