A couple have been ordered to pay almost £15,000 after illegally renting out a house to a family whose 13-year-old son died in a fire.
Army cadet Kuzivakwashe Matope, known as Kuzi, 13, died in hospital a week after a fire engulfed his family’s rented home near Croydon.
An investigation by Croydon council found the landlords of the home in Camden Gardens had not been granted a licence to rent the property — and there were no working fire alarms.
Landlords Innocent Mukarati, 50, and his wife Clementia, 47, pleaded guilty at Croydon magistrates’ court to failing to hold a licence and were ordered to pay a total of £14,858.84.
Since 2015, all private rental properties in Croydon require a licence involving stringent safety checks.
Mr Mukarati and his wife will be added to City Hall’s rogue landlord database.
An inquest into the cause of Kuzi’s death will reopen later this year. Kuzi’s father Patrick said: “It is heart-breaking to look back. Kuzivakwashe was a son we loved so much.”
