Hampshire Fire – Prosecution
Successful prosecution of property management firm
Solitaire Property Management Limited has been fined £1,500 plus costs of £2,000 after pleading guilty to two offences at Southampton Magistrates Court relating to charges of the company’s failure to comply with fire safety law.
Solitaire Property Management Limited failed to respond to a number of requests for information relating to a premises in Ocean Village, Southampton, under Article 27 of the Fire Safety Order.
The successful prosecution was taken forward by Hampshire County Council solicitors for two breaches and Solitaire Property Management received a fine of £750 per offence and were ordered to pay £1,000 to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority and £1,000 to Hampshire County Council.
The Service wishes to thank the enforcement support team, in particular Chris George and Malcolm Lucas, for the professional investigation of this case and also the protection fire safety officers for the collection of evidence to support the successful prosecution.
We will continue to use the Service’s powers where necessary in order to improve the standards of safety throughout the county. The Service believes that this successful prosecution, together with the scale of the fine, gives a clear message to members of the business community in Hampshire of the need to respond to requests for information.
Cllr David Simpson, a member of Hampshire Fire & Rescue Authority, says: It is essential to ensure buildings are as safe as possible and for companies to liaise with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services to help safeguard the lives of all our residents. This incident was in Southampton and I am pleased to say I know of no local problems. Long may that continue.
1 Comment
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David,
I was very pleased to find this report on your website and have highlighted this matter on our dedicated website, focused on highlighting The Truth About Solitaire Property Management.
Solitaire / Peverel Property Management, do contribute to the website and having reported the above on our site, they have replied with the following:-
“Hi everyone,
I think it’s worth providing some background information to the prosecution in question so we can clear up any misunderstanding. This issue was not, in fact, about standards of fire safety at Ocean Village, so I’d just like to reassure everyone concerned.
Back in March this year, the Hampshire Fire Authority sent three letters to the Solitaire office in Barnet. They were simply requesting confirmation of the name of the owner/freeholder of the Ocean Village property and their address. Due to an administration error that we freely admit, this was not brought to the Property Manager’s attention when it should have been.
When a Fire Officer rang Solitaire in August about the lack of a response, the Regional Property Manager got involved and immediately supplied the relevant information. We also apologised to the Hampshire Fire Authority for the poor administration.
The prosecution brought by the HFA came under the terms of the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety 2005 legislation – which translates as a failure to supply information to the Fire Authority “when asked.” But I’d like to highlight that such fines are paid by the companies concerned, and the residents of Ocean Village were never going to be affected by this judgement in any way.
This prosecution was not about standards of fire safety at Ocean Village, nor about failing to have a Fire Risk Assessment (which the property has had). It was simply because information was not supplied when it was requested.
As we have said in previous postings, Solitaire has suffered from operational shortcomings that needed to be addressed. Poor office administration at the Barnet office was a key issue, but the transfer of all customer service and administration support teams to Luton from this week is designed to correct such issues and deliver a better standard of customer service.
Our website – http://www.solitairepm.co.uk – has been updated with the new Luton address details. However, the customer services telephone number and email address are unchanged.
I’d like to urge anyone with concerns about Health and Safety issues to get in contact with me – similarly for anyone wishing for further clarification.
I hope I’ve been able to clear this up!
Thanks
Andy
Solitaire Online Feedback Manager”
Would it be possible for you to confirm whether the claim’s that Solitaire’s Online Feedback Manager – Andy has said are true? As his reply does seem a little contradictory, in regards to the prosecution?
I’d also like to bring to your attention a No.10 Downing Street Petition (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/flatownerhelp/), that is calling for the regulation of the Property Management / Retirement / Service Industry