• Chaplair Ltd given £30,000 fine and told to pay £30,000 costs for delay in cladding removal after successful prosecution by Newham Council
A firm which delayed removing dangerous cladding from a residential building in Newham has been ordered to pay more than £60,000 in fines and costs.
During a hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday (Tuesday 31 October), Chaplair Ltd was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000 along with a £190 victim surcharge for failing to meet a deadline to remove dangerous cladding from its Lumiere building at 544 Romford Road, London E7.
It comes after Newham Council became the first local authority to use its powers under the Housing Act 2004 to successfully prosecute a building owner for delays in dealing with flammable cladding.
Imposing the fine, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram, at City of London Magistrates Court, said that the cladding on the Lumiere building was highly dangerous and that Chaplair Ltd had not taken the risk it posed seriously enough. He acknowledged that the failure came in the wake of “evolving” government policy and at a difficult time as the country emerged from the Covid pandemic.
The Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE said:
“We welcome today’s ruling and we pursued this case to make it abundantly clear to building owners in Newham that there can be no exceptions to the safety of our residents living in their properties and the issue of safe cladding remains paramount.
“The outcome of this legal case raises the crucial importance of safety standards in the homes people live and is a warning to all housing providers that where appropriate and necessary Newham Council will use all the powers available under existing legislation to make homes safe.”
Chaplair Ltd had previously been found guilty by Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram on Wednesday 18 October for failing to remove dangerous cladding on the Lumiere building by the 31 March 2021 deadline imposed in an improvement notice issued by the Council in September 2020.
Work eventually began in May 2021, with dangerous cladding removed by February 2022, and through its legal action, the Council successfully argued that there was no reasonable excuse for the delay.