A County Durham landlord has been prosecuted after a mother and her two children were left living in a damp-riddled home with no heating or hot water. Kristoffer Jon Dalziel, 34, sole director of Dalziel Ventures LTD, was fined £26,000 and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge, bringing his total to £28,500.
Damp, mould and electrical issues
The property in Annfield Plain was "blighted" by a range of issues including mould, no heating and electrical problems. The vulnerable household, which also included a new-born baby and a disabled child, informed Durham County Council of the broken boiler. Dalziel was contacted and agreed to carry out repairs.
An informal inspection took place in December 2025 by the council's Selective Licensing team, and a report was sent to Dalziel notifying him of the many problems and informing him that improvements needed to be made within one month. An email response from Dalziel then advised that his contractor was 'unwilling to proceed' due to the issues.
Formal action and court hearing
The council says that it attempted to 'facilitate constructive communication' to help the landlord progress the works, with Dalziel asked to confirm when this would start. It was then that further serious welfare concerns were raised, with the tenant's disabled child being hospitalised, and the council were told that work would start in January 2026.
The repairs failed to be carried out, with communication from Dalziel becoming 'limited and ineffective', and a lack of evidence that multiple contractors had refused to attend, as he claimed. The council then made a formal inspection in February 2026, with multiple hazards evident, including excess cold, damp and mould, carbon monoxide, and electrical issues, with no repairs having taken place.
Dalziel was then served with a Section 11 and Section 12 Housing Act 2004 Improvement Notice, listing the hazards found and providing remedial actions to remove them, with the work to fix the heating set to be completed by the end of March 2026, and the other remaining improvements were to be made by April this year.
Penalties and council response
He then informed the council that the tenant was moving out, although no confirmed move had been arranged, after a warning of potential legal consequences if the work remained outstanding, in early March. Works had still not been completed when a further inspection took place later in the month, with Dalziel not in contact at that time.
He was interviewed, and accepted that he had been given the opportunity to fix the issues before the formal enforcement action was taken, as well as admitting that he had never attended the property after becoming landlord, having just viewed it before he made the purchase.
In a hearing at Peterlee Magistrates' Court, it was said that the repairs were not carried out, and it was claimed that this was due to the tenant not allowing entry, but this was denied. Dalziel had also failed to obtain a selective licence for this property, and two others in Stanley, after this scheme was introduced in April 2022.
He was then found guilty, and hit with a court imposed £7,000 penalty for each of the three properties, and £5,000 for breaching the improvement notice. He was fined £26,000, and ordered to pay £500 in costs, and £2,000 as a victim surcharge, bringing his total to £28,500.
Ted Murphy, the building safety and standards manager at the council, said: "The landlords lack of action in this case is shocking. This case and conviction demonstrate the continuing need to regulate the sector and selective licensing can be an effective tool to improve standards."
"It also allows us to take effective enforcement against landlords that are non-compliant or criminal and put tenants at risk."
