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Inside Out: rogue landlord caught on camera illegally renting out flats
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Rogue landlord Christopher Mincham has been caught on camera illegally renting out flats which have been closed by the authorities.
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Two men died in a fire in his building on Hayling Island in 2004, but despite the deaths Mr Mincham has refused to install a properly working fire alarm. Havant Borough Council closed number 39 Norfolk Crescent in July because of the danger to tenants.
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But just under a month later, Â鶹Éç South's Inside Out programme secretly filmed Mr Mincham showing prospective tenants around the dangerous flats, in a programme to be broadcast on Monday 2 October at 7.30pm on Â鶹Éç ONE South.
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Now the council has vowed to stop Mr Mincham from continuing to flout the law and putting lives in danger.
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Councillor David Collins, the council's executive member for the environment, says: "Showing people around to rent a property that has a closure order on it is wrong.
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"As such, our other partners - the fire service particularly and the police - will be consulted and the relevant action will be taken.
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"We have tried our very best to make the property safe and as such Mr Mincham has resisted us all down the line, in so much as he hasn't put a fire alarm system in yet."
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In August 2004, tenants Tony Handley, 37, and Nigel Claridge, 57, died when a fire broke out on a landing in the seafront flats which did not have a working fire alarm.
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Returning an open verdict at their inquests in January this year, coroner David Horsley heavily criticised the continued lack of fire safety precautions and called for the flats to be closed.
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He said that conditions in the flats were still the same as when the fire broke out and that Mr Mincham had failed to co-operate with the authorities in carrying out the needed safety work.
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Inside Out took a leading independent fire safety expert around the building while it was still open to give his verdict.
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Colin Todd, managing director of an independent fire safety consultancy, found there was still no working fire alarm and that a large amount of combustible material had been left lying around.
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"It falls far short of what we would expect for houses of multiple occupation," he said.
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"Statistically, if you spend one night in an HMO you are about nine times more likely to die from fire than if you spent one night in a single family dwelling - and therefore there is a need to provide additional fire precautions in an HMO over and above what you would expect in a normal single family dwelling."
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Tenant David Leeming, who had moved in last November, says of the broken fire alarm:
"Obviously it does not work. There's no fire protection."
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Havant Borough Council had been trying to close the building down since the inquest but a legal challenge by Mr Mincham - a disgraced former Conservative councillor who has had numerous run-ins with the courts and the authorities - delayed the closure by six months.
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Finally, in July, the closure notice was served and Mr Mincham was banned from renting out the flats.
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But weeks later an advert appeared in the local paper, the Portsmouth News, offering a flat to rent that appeared to be suspiciously like one of his.
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Inside Out's undercover reporters found the flat was indeed in number 39, where the numbers on the door had been switched to 93.
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Mr Mincham offered to let out the flat despite the closure order - and despite the fact that a working fire alarm had still not been installed.
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On seeing the Â鶹Éç's footage, the council vowed to make sure Mr Mincham is stopped from putting any more lives in danger in the future.
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Mr Mincham, whose flats at number 35 Norfolk Crescent have also now been closed, insisted that his properties were in good condition and that he has been persecuted by the council.
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He also accused Inside Out of stealing a fire alarm and deliberately scattering clothing around the building to make it look more dramatic.
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Inside Out, Monday 2 October, 7.30pm, Â鶹Éç ONE South
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JR
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