Home from Home Property Management Ltd and director Edward Ottley, which manages properties at 2 to 100 Wolsey Street, Ipswich, that used Grenfell-style cladding found guilty of spate of fire safety breaches
A Suffolk property management company and its director have been found guilty of a spate of fire safety legislation breaches.
Home from Home Property Management Ltd, which manages the properties at 2 to 100 Wolsey Street, Ipswich, and company director Edward Ottley were found guilty of eight non-compliance offences at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
In a two-week trial, the court heard it was identified in July 2017 the Ipswich premises had aluminium composite material, similar to material found to be the cause of the blaze at Grenfell Tower.
It follows a prosecution against the business brought by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).
A spokesperson for SFRS said: “The actions by Home from Home regarding the existence of the cladding has prolonged the potential risk of harm to residents had a fire occurred.
“This is a clear message to all managing agents that fire safety is important, and as an enforcing authority Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service will not hesitate in prosecuting where lives are placed at risk.”
A fire risk assessment of the building had taken place but it did not factor in the high fire risk of the cladding.
It was established that Home from Home had commissioned a fire risk assessor but had given inaccurate information about the level of risk. When this became clear the assessor invalidated their risk assessment.
Officers from SFRS attended the properties in 2019 and found that this had not been reviewed and updated as required by legislation under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
A new assessor was appointed in August 2021 who backed up SFRS’ findings of the risk to residents from the cladding.
They then worked with Home from Home to ensure there is no longer a significant risk to life as well as working to remove the cladding with government support.
Sentencing is scheduled to take place at Ipswich Crown Court in July.
