A Tandridge landlord has been hit with £5,000 in fixed penalties after failing to deal with housing safety risks and letting a property without a valid Energy Performance Certificate. The case is a reminder that councils do not need a headline prosecution to make non-compliance expensive, especially where improvement notices are ignored.
Safety failures still trigger fast council action
Tandridge District Council said its environmental health team issued two fixed penalty notices to landlord Ashaf Talukder following an investigation into a flat occupied by three people. Officers found serious hazards, served an improvement notice in October 2025 and later concluded that several issues remained unresolved.
According to the council, the remaining problems included inadequate fire precautions, poor electrical condition, unsafe windows and the absence of a fully functioning kitchen. It then imposed a £3,000 penalty linked to the unresolved health and safety issues, alongside a further £2,000 penalty for letting the property without a valid EPC.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s report on a Rotherham case where basic hazards led to landlord prosecution. The latest action points to the same pattern: councils are willing to pursue ordinary compliance failures where landlords do not engage early or finish the required work.
EPC breaches are becoming part of wider enforcement
What stands out here is that the EPC issue did not sit in isolation. It formed part of a broader compliance picture involving safety, repairs and landlord engagement. Landlords should note that many still treat EPCs as an administrative box-tick rather than part of a wider risk profile. Once a council is already inspecting a property, gaps in paperwork become much more costly.
The practical warning is blunt. A property with only partial remedial work completed can be nearly as risky as one where nothing was done, because it shows the landlord knew there was a problem and still failed to close it out. Councils are likely to take a harder line on that than on a first contact where a landlord cooperates quickly.
Tandridge said it will work with landlords who engage, but will act formally where serious hazards remain. Landlords can read the council’s statement on the £5,000 housing safety and EPC penalties.
What this means for landlords
- If you receive an improvement notice: finish every required repair and keep evidence, not just the easiest jobs first.
- If your property needs an EPC: treat expiry dates as a live compliance deadline, especially before any council inspection.
- Watch for: combined enforcement where safety defects and paperwork failures are pursued together.
- If you’re self-managing: review fire precautions, windows, electrics and kitchen standards before a complaint reaches the council.
- Bottom line: partial compliance is not a defence – once hazards are identified, councils expect the full job to be done.
Editor’s view
Cases like this matter because they are ordinary. There was no giant rogue landlord operation here, just the kind of unresolved defects and admin failure that creep into smaller portfolios. That is exactly why landlords should pay attention.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 14 May 2026
Sources: Tandridge District Council
Related reading: Propertymark seeks fairer sentencing for landlord offences
