[2024] UKUT 93 (LC)

Section 249A of the Housing Act 2004 enables a local housing authority to impose a financial penalty, often referred to as a civil penalty or financial penalty, upon a person if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he or she has committed any of the housing offences listed in that section, as an alternative to prosecution. Among the offences listed are the offence under section 30 of the 2004 Act of failure to comply with an improvement notice. Paragraph 10 of Schedule 13A to the 2004 Act makes provision for appeal to the First-tier Tribunal against the decision to impose a civil penalty and the amount of that penalty. The appeal is a re-hearing and the FTT is to make its own decision whether to impose a penalty and about the amount of the penalty.

In making that decision the FTT must give special regard to the local housing authority’s enforcement policy and will normally follow it. But it is not bound by that policy, and may depart from it but must give reasons for doing so (London Borough of Waltham Forest v Marshall [2020] UKUT 35 (LC)).