[2024] UKUT 140 (LC)

Mr Abdallah has owned a flat at 29 Gillies Street since 2007. Until 1 October 2016 the flat did not need to be licensed but, with effect from that date, the Council designated the area in which it is located as subject to a scheme of selective licensing within Part 3 of the 2004 Act. Mr Abdallah wished to continue to let the flat, so he applied promptly for a licence and was granted one on 17 January 2017. In his application for the licence Mr Abdallah gave his address as 6 Primrose Lane at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, where he was stationed as a member of the Armed Forces.

The licence was granted subject to a number of conditions, including the mandatory conditions listed in Schedule 4, 2004 Act which are required to be contained in any licence granted under Parts 2 or 3 of the Act. These include conditions requiring the licence holder to supply an authority, on demand, with a declaration as to the safety of electrical appliances and furniture made available in the house, and a declaration as to the condition and position of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms.

Amongst the other conditions imposed by the Council (but not mandated by the 2004 Act) the licence required Mr Abdallah to inform the Council of any new tenancy within 14 days of its commencement and to supply information regarding the tenants. It also required him to inform the Council’s licensing team within 10 working days of any changes in his own circumstances, including any change of address.

On 18 June 2017 Mr Abdallah moved from 6 Primrose Lane to a new address in Sleaford, at 14 Cheviot Close. He did not notify the Council’s licensing team (or anyone else at the Council) of that change, despite communicating with them at that time in relation to another matter by email (to which he received no response).

On 1 February 2018 Mr Abdallah completed an online notification informing the Council of the identity of new tenants of the flat; he included his new address at Cheviot Close in that notification. The purpose of this information was to enable the Council’s council tax department to collect any tax due from the residents of the property, and the information was not shared by the council tax department with the selective licensing team.

The selective licence was granted for a period of 5 years, but it was not until 2021 that the Council asked Mr Abdallah (and all other licence holders on its selective licence database) to provide the information referred to in the various licence conditions. On 15 April a letter was sent to all licence holders requesting the provision of information by 13 May 2021. In Mr Abdallah’s case that request was addressed to him at Primrose Lane, a property at which he had not lived for more than 3 years.

A postal redirection service which Mr Abdallah had arranged when he moved from his first address had expired by the time the request for information was sent out, and the FTT was satisfied that he had not received it at that time. He first became aware of the request in December 2022 as a result of the Council’s imposition of a financial penalty for non-compliance with the request.

After receiving no response the Council wrote a second time to Mr Abdallah on 20 July 2021, again by ordinary post addressed to Primrose Lane, warning him that enforcement action might be taken if he failed to provide the required information. That letter was also not received by Mr Abdallah.

The Council decided that Mr Abdallah had committed an offence under section 95(2)(b), 2004 Act by failing to comply with the conditions of his licence requiring production of information on demand. On 5 November 2021 it sent a notice of intent to impose a financial penalty addressed to him at 6 Primrose Lane. Yet again, this communication was not received and Mr Abdallah made no representations in response to it.

Having heard nothing from Mr Abdallah, the Council proceeded to impose a financial penalty of £654.66. Before sending the required final notice, its staff checked the records of the council tax department and became aware that Mr Abdallah’s current address was 14 Cheviot Close. The final notice imposing the financial penalty was sent to him at that address. It received an immediate response and on 16 December 2022 Mr Abdallah appealed to the FTT against the financial penalty; he also provided the information requested by the Council in April the previous year.

Before explaining what the FTT decided it will be convenient to refer to the statutory provisions concerning the service of documents which the FTT had to consider.