Our client was a non-for-profit organisation working with the homeless with its primary work being placement of homeless single men in bed sit accommodation. As part of this role, our client contracts with landlords of multiple occupancy buildings to place clients and to manage payment for the accommodation by collecting and paying on housing benefit payments for each individual.
A serious fire occurred at one of the properties contracting with our client resulting in personal injury. As a result of the fire itself and the subsequent Fire Authority investigation it became clear that fire safety provision was wholly inadequate.
The Fire Authority has a duty to investigate and to take a prosecution where they find a failure to adhere Fire Safety provisions. We were instructed to advise the client as to the extent of their possible liability, to liaise with the Fire Authority and to assist them with the investigation process and possible prosecution.
We obtained disclosure of information held by the Fire Authority in order to advise our client in advance of an interview under the Police and Criminal Evidence procedure. There was little doubt that there had been a breach of safety regulations. The question was who was the ‘responsible person’ for the purposes of a prosecution. From discussions and perusal of our client’s documents it was clear to us that the responsibility lay with the landlord alone and, during the interview, our client was able to put the relevant information forward for the Fire Authority to draw that same conclusion.
The result was that our client’s interview became evidence against the landlord rather than part of a prosecution of the client as no proceedings were taken against it. As part of the outcome, we were able to draw our client’s attention to improvements that could be made in procedures and documentation that would mean its involvement in any future incident could be kept to a minimum. More importantly, we were able to advise how it could require higher standards of fire safety from landlords to safeguard clients and how this could be enforced.