Fifty landlords running nearly 250 private homes to rent have been warned they must carry out immediate repairs or face the courts.
Hereford and Worcestershire fire service has cracked down on landlords after inspecting hundreds of houses in multiple occupation, mostly let to students.
The firefighters are halfway through a £60,000 inspection programme aimed at identifying shabby shared homes in the counties.
So far, 47 landlords owning 234 homes, including 157 flats, have had warnings to carry out repairs or face court action.
In 51 cases, the landlords were handed enforcement notices because firefighters considered their homes were too dangerous for tenants.
The fire service says the notices potentially protect 100 tenants from risk of death.
Meanwhile, a landlord Allison Aris, 50, of Thornton Heath, Surrey, was fined £6,665 and ordered to pay £1,870 costs after pleading guilty to four housing offences at Croydon Magistrates Court.
The magistrates were told a house in multiple occupation she rented out was filthy and failed fire safety standards.
Magistrates in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, fined Akintude Akinyemi, 49, of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, £11,276 with £6,000 costs after pleading guilty to 18 charges of failing to properly manage a house in multiple occupation.
The charges included having no licence, breaches of fire safety rules and failing to maintain the property.
In Peterborough, magistrates ordered Mohammed Tanveer to pay £12,000 in compensation, fines and costs after he pleaded guilty to illegally evicting a tenant, letting a home despite a rental ban and failing to co-operate with council requests for information about the property.
The court was told that Tanveer changed the locks while a tenant was at work and relet the property to another tenant despite a council prohibition to stop renting out the property due to fire and safety hazards.
He also failed to provide paperwork to show who owned the property.
