[2024] UKUT 24 (LC)

This appeal is concerned with the validity of two notices of intent to impose financial penalties under section 249A, Housing Act 2004 (the 2024 Act) given by the appellant, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council to the respondent, Mrs Hongmei Wang. The notices informed Mrs Wang of the Council’s proposal to impose financial penalties and invited her to make representations. Mrs Wang made no representations and the Council proceeded to impose penalties of £21,000. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (the FTT) subsequently allowed Mrs Wang’s respondent’s appeal against those penalties on the grounds that the information given in the notices of intent had been insufficient to enable her to make meaningful representations and that the notices were therefore invalid.

With the permission of this Tribunal the Council now appeals against that decision.

The appeal raises two issues concerning the requirement in paragraph 3(b) of Schedule 13A, 2004 Act that a notice of intent to impose a financial penalty under section 249A must “set out … the reasons for proposing to impose the financial penalty”.

The first issue concerns the information which must be set out in a notice of intent for it to satisfy the statutory requirement, and whether it was satisfied in this case. It is suggested by the appellant that on the first part of that issue the Tribunal has previously given inconsistent guidance.

The second issue is whether the effect of providing an inadequate statement of reasons in a notice of intent is that the notice and any subsequent final penalty notice are void, or whether the consequences of serving such a notice must be determined having regard to the circumstances as a whole, including whether an authority’s reasons for proposing the financial penalty are clear enough from other material and whether the appellant has had a proper opportunity to respond to them.

At the hearing of the appeal the Council was represented by Ms Tara O’Leary, to whom I am grateful. The respondent had been represented by solicitors before the FTT but represented herself in the appeal proceedings. She notified the Tribunal on the morning of the hearing that she would not be attending.