A letting agent has been taken to court, fined and ordered to pay costs for failing to register and license.
It is thought this could be the first prosecution of an agent under the Rent Smart Wales scheme, which makes it mandatory for landlords to be registered and for all letting agents to obtain licences.
Yvette Phillips, trading as R Miles Scurlock in Milford Haven, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates Court.
The court heard that Phillips was operating as both an unregistered landlord and an unlicensed agent.
After failing to submit a licence application or to register her rental property, she was issued with a fixed penalty notice in June.
She did not pay the penalty, and still did not submit a licence application or register her properties.
She was sent a formal notice warning her that she would be prosecuted but still took no action.
In August, she was told that a prosecution was being instigated.
In mitigation, she told Cardiff magistrates that she would co-operate with Rent Smart Wales and be fully compliant within a fortnight.
She was fined £4,600 and ordered to pay costs of £671 plus a £170 victim surcharge.
The Rent Smart Wales scheme, which has previously prosecuted landlords, is thought to provide a template for Westminster in drawing up similar requirements for English letting agents and landlords.
Comments (2)
Last thing English rental market needs is a version of the failed Welsh scheme.
No excuses. There are rules and laws to be followed. Yet hundreds of agents are seemingly exempt from any form of censure or action despite having no ICO, AML registration and failing to have redress for several years. Hang your heads in shame regulators, hang your heads in shame.