Section 24 – Property factor enforcement order: offences
83.Subsection (1) makes it an offence for a person to fail to comply with a property factor enforcement order without reasonable excuse.
84.Subsection (2) sets out particular situations where a person will be considered to have a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (1), although this does not prevent other circumstances also being considered to constitute a reasonable excuse (subsection (3)).
85.Subsection (4) provides that a property factor may not be found guilty of the offence under subsection (1) unless a homeowner housing committee (which made the property factor enforcement order) has decided that the property factor has failed to comply with it. However, such a decision does not establish any presumption that the property factor has committed an offence. This is because to be found guilty of an offence it would have to be shown, beyond reasonable doubt, that the property factor had failed to comply with the property factor enforcement order, whereas the homeowner housing committee would only have to be satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the property factor had failed to comply with a property factor enforcement order to make a decision to that effect.
86.Under subsection (5), the penalty for the offence under subsection (1) is a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.