Courts have handed out fines of tens of thousands of pounds to landlords flouting housing law in recent weeks.
Letting agent Orange Living Ltd, trading as Loc8me, in Loughborough was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £3,690, at Leicester Magistrates Court.
The firm pleaded guilty to renting out four unlicensed houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) for at least 10 years.
The offences were uncovered when tenants worried about fire safety contacted Charnwood Council.
Shortly after, a fire broke out in the attic of one HMO, prompting a council investigation.
Another property company renting out an unlicensed HMO was also in courts, this time before Mansfield magistrates.
Larkman Properties Ltd admitted five HMO offences, including letting without a licence.
The firm was fined £7,000 and ordered to pay £2,604 costs.
Ignoring a prohibition order led to landlord Jonathan Hoeypicking up a £1,350 fine with £943 costs.
Magistrates in Boston, Lincolnshire, heard housing officers from South Holland Council banned Hoey from renting out an HMO due to serious health and safety concerns.
They returned two months later to inspect the property and found tenants still living there, prompting the prosecution.
In Cambridge, landlord Noelle Salameh was served an improvement notice to put right defects to a scruffy and overcrowded HMO in the city.
Magistrates were told the home had no electricity, heating or hot water and poor fire safety precautions.
Salameh was handed a list of improvements to make, but failed to carry them out.
She was fined £2,478 and ordered to pay costs of £1,478 after admitting several housing offences.
Magistrates in Lincoln handed down fines and costs totalling £43,443 to landlord Julie Churchill for renting out an overcrowded and unsafe HMO.
The court heard seven tenants shared four bedrooms and that the fire safety at the property in the city were inadequate.
