A landlord has been fined £500 for renting out a house with no heating, no water and no electricity – but lots of holes.

Catherine Taleb’s house in Ravenscliffe, Bradford, lacked all basic amenities and its walls and floors were peppered with holes, the city’s magistrates heard yesterday.

There were doors missing, the toilets were not plumbed in, there was no kitchen sink or anywhere to prepare food, windows were smashed and boarded up, there was exposed wiring and refuse was strewn in the garden.

Magistrates were told how a prohibition order had been put on the property in Ranelagh Avenue after a visit by environmental health officers. It forbade anyone living in the house until it had been made fit for habitation.

But when officers made a return visit they found a man living there who said it was like “living in a shell”, although some work had been done.

Mrs Taleb, 54, of Dudley Hill Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty by letter to breaching the prohibition order. As well as the £500 fine she was ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge and £869 legal and investigative costs.

Also in court yesterday was her husband, Brahim Taleb, of Silverhill Drive, Bradford. He pleaded not guilty to breaching the prohibition order.

He told magistrates that although he and his wife owned the house and other properties as part of their property-managing business BCT Properties, he knew nothing about the prohibition order on Ranelagh Avenue.

He said he had separated from his wife, had been suffering severe depression, had kept away from the business and took no money from the property.

He will re-appear for trial on June 21.