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Fail to comply with an Improvement Notice; fail to comply with a Prohibition Order

Housing Act 2004 section 30(1), section 32(1) · Magistrates

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Sentencing framework

This guideline is designed for organisations that fail to comply with housing regulations. It establishes a framework for assessing culpability and harm, determining fines based on the organisation's turnover, and adjusting sentences for aggravating and mitigating factors. The court must ensure fines are proportionate and reflect the seriousness of the offence.

Maximum sentence

Unlimited fine

Court

Magistrates

Offence range

£100 – £2,400,000 fine

Aggravating factors

  • ·Previous convictions
  • ·Poor record of compliance
  • ·Cost-cutting at the expense of safety
  • ·Deliberate concealment of illegal nature of activity
  • ·Blame wrongly placed on others
  • ·Steps taken to prevent the victim reporting or obtaining assistance
  • ·Intentionally sought to deceive the local authority/court
  • ·Involvement of others through coercion, intimidation or exploitation
  • ·Vulnerable tenants
  • ·Failure to comply with current court orders
  • ·Failure to respond to warnings, advice or concerns expressed by others

Mitigating factors

  • ·No previous convictions or no relevant/recent convictions
  • ·No previous civil or regulatory enforcement action
  • ·Steps taken voluntarily to remedy problem
  • ·Offender cooperated with investigation and made early admissions
  • ·Little or no actual gain to organisation from offending
  • ·Lapse of time since apprehension not arising from offender's conduct

Always read the full guideline

This is a one-page summary. For any live case, sentencing exercise, or legal advice the authoritative source is the Sentencing Council's own definitive guideline — including the category bands, step-by-step sentencing approach, and all statutory factors not captured here.

Open the full guideline on sentencingcouncil.org.uk

Source: Sentencing Council · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-28. Not legal advice — see a regulated adviser for any live case.