How trading standards inspections work, your rights during an inspection and what happens if you’re not following the rules.
If you don’t meet trading standards rules you could be taken to court and fined. In very serious cases you could go to prison.
We follow the Regulatory Services Enforcement Policy (PDF, 394.17KB) . Where appropriate, we aim to educate and advise businesses to help them follow the rules instead of resorting to prosecution.
We can issue financial penalties for breaches of some rules by letting agents and landlords. We follow our financial penalties policy for letting agents and landlords (PDF, 810KB).
If we have issued you with a penalty, you can either pay online by payment card or pay by bank transfer (see penalty notice for instructions).