Episode 3 How Safe Is Your House?

household accidents across the UK and three million others end up in

A The scale of some of the potentially fatal hazards in our

homes is shocking. And the actions of the dodgy and deceitful few who

put lives in dangerer is scandalous. Every one of us is at risk, so take

a look around and ask yourself... How safe is your house? You might

not know it, but dangers exist in all our homes. In this series we

reveal where you're most at risk and how to stay safe. With the help of

Mark Miller, we will hunt down the dangerous tradesmen whose hazardous

work leaves households all over the UK in lethal condition. This is

beyond a joke. Water and electrics don't mix. I have never seen

anything quite as bad as this. Go, go, go. I'm Angellica bell. I'll be

with all the agencies in the UK on the frontline of the battle to keep

our homes safe 24/7. If you buy from an unregulated website, you could be

buying from a drug dealer. We reveal the deadly dangers that lurk in your

home. I items that I found have the potential to end life.

Tonight, we tackle one of the landlords whose actions put the

health of families all over the UK at serious risk. They come down with

blue lips, in the morning, it was heart breaking. Makes me feel like

I'm failing, as a We come mum. Face to face with the invisible killer

that exists in all our homes. They could turn into a death You just

trap. Don't realise the danger. But first, we've come to the outskirts

of Leeds in West Yorkshire to meet a couple whose builder left them with

a lethal home and a bill of thousands of pounds to make it safe

again. Matt, Mark, nice to meet you. Come

on in. Matt and his wife live in this detached house with their son

Lucas and like millions of us wanted to extend and improve their family

home. What did you want your builder to do? We wanted him to convert the

loft into another bedroom, replacing the boiler and fitting the kitchen.

loft into another bedroom, replacing the boiler and fitting Did you have

any previous -- did you have previous experience of this builder?

We had used him br. He laid the wooden floor in a house and

converted the garage into a At what playroom. Point time-wise did you

give up hope that he would be helping you and at what state was

the loft in? It was four-and-a-half months after he started. The floor

was in, the stairs were in and the steel beams were in, but it was a

mess. By the time their builder walked off the job, Matt and Carley

had handed over almost the entire ?14,850 the job was budgeted to

cost. It was everything they had in the bank, but things were about to

get much worse. Had you got any idea of just how dangerous your home had

become? No. What did do you? We got another builder in. He walked up the

stairs into the loft, did that thing that tradesmen do, when they whistle

through their teeth and told us that he wasn't sure that the loft itself

was safe as it had been left. One of the main issues was that the loft

floor was dangerously unsafe. During their sight visit, building control

made this clear to the builder and as Mark is finding out, the second

builder, brought in to fix the problems, also believed it posed a

severe risk to the family. This is very nice. It is now. What were the

problems and darchingers on this build? The floor was not

structurally sound. It was that bad. What had happened, he had lid new

timbers over the existing ceiling and boarded it. That's dangerous.

That's about as dangerous as it gets. There was a steel beam here,

when common knowledge amongst builders, the beam should have been

down at floor level here. This steel is doing nothing and the weight of

the rafters is being transferred into the floorment It's a ceiling,

the original ceiling of the house. He's pushed the weight of the house

onto the original ceiling. Get a load of snow on there and boom, it's

gone. Lucas sleeps under here. This could have come Yeah it down? Could,

That's pretty yeah. Dangerous. The hazardous work that Matt and

Carley's original builder carried out in the loft is appalling, but

it's not the only serious danger this family were exposed to. Matt

and Carl yay sure me that their builder claims that he vets all the

people that work for him. I've got a gas report here and I can assure

you, the guy who fitted the gas in this house has not been vetted,

because he is not registered with gas safe. That's pretty serious

stuff. Gas safe registration is an industry standard, but it's also an

indication of competence. That's correct. In this report, basically,

I have eight defects on the work that's been done in the house. They

are two of them are a risk to life and the property. We're talking

about a young couple, with a very young child, and they

about a young couple, with a very young child, and were at risk as a

result of the trader that this builder brought in? They were

seriously at risk. Matt, Carley and Lucas were exposed to the threat of

carbon monoxide poisoning, but it wasn't just their health at stake.

They also had to pay a heavy financial price. What has it cost

you to put right the job that the original builder did? Another

?17,000 on top of what we gave the first builder. We spent just over

?32,000 in total. This is your dream to create a beautiful house, bring

your child up in a nice place. Suddenly, somebody can come into

your life and ruin it with bad workmanship. It just makes us feel

so disgusting that we let this person into our house and just ruin

it and make it unsafe. What course of action have you taken against

him? We've taken out a County Court judgment against him. We're looking

into the possibility of bailiffs, as well. Matt and Carley's dream of an

improved and extended family home was left in tatters by their

builder. We're going to confront him to try and get some answers about

why he left their house in such a dangerous state and make sure he

doesn't do the same thing to anyone else. Across the UK, there are

approximately 30 million people living in rented accommodation.

Whilst the majority of homes are safe, many are living in dangerously

substandard conditions. It's the job of housing officers to deal with the

growing problem of rogue landlords renting out hazardous homes. In

Peterborough I meet a couple living in a seriously unsafe house.

Hello. You must be Martin. I'm Peter from the Council. Martin and Sam

live in this two-bed semi with their two young daughters. And there are a

number of problems in the house that their landlord is doing nothing

about. The main things are the radiators. None of them really work

properly. Occasion ally maybe. The gas fire is the only thing that

works properly. We have the boiler that leaks. Damp in the bedroom.

Debris is coming through the ceiling. Peter needs to carry out a

survey of their home. There are 29 categories of potential housing

hazards to assess. Three quarter of a million of us live with serious

category one issues, like inadequate heating, lack of fire alarms and

poor security, which pose a severe threat to our health or safety Tell

me how you came to rent this property. We were in a hostel. We

were evicted from our previous house. The landlord wanted to sell

it. All we had was the room. We had to have all our stuff in that room.

There were three single beds and a travel cot. When the first house

came up, we just leapt on it. Didn't we? Yes. We wanted a nice home for

the Even thop girls. It was in such bad condition. When we first moved

in it was coming into summer. You couldn't feel the cold. The damp we

could see, the landlord told us it had been dealt with. How do you live

in a cold house? It's really hard. The girls have had numerous colds

and you have to put vests and tights, pajamas on top of that, plus

a onesie. If we don't do that, they come down with blue lips in the

morning. It's heart breaking. It really is. How does that make you

feel? Like I'm failing, I think, a bit, a as a mum. -- as a mum. As

part of a mum and dad's role, you're meant to protect your child. During

winter, it's best to keep the temperature in your house above 18

Celsius, as cold can cause life-threatening health problems,

such as pneumonia and even heart attacks. The lack of heating in the

couple's house is putting the health of the whole family at risk. Martin

and Sam are desperate to hear if Peter is going to do anything about

the conditions in their home. The house is sadly lacking adequate

heating. Our next course of action will be to take what we call

statutory action against your landlord. We set a start date and

finish date by which the landlord has to comply with that legal

notice. This is a landlord that Peter has had problems with in the

past. And because the lack of heating in the family's home is such

a serious issue, Peter's given him just seven days to fix it. If he

doesn't comply, I'll be putting recommendations forward to prosecute

him. We owe it to the good landlords in the city of Peterborough to take

that sort of action. We've got a zero tolerance on it. It's just not

acceptable to have a landlord just thinking he can get away with doing

repairs. It is their duty to keep their properties in good repair. We

shouldn't have to do that. They should know that and do it. One week

later, the deadline for the land p Lord to carry -- landlord to carry

out the work is approaching. We have children in the house that are more

likely to suffer ill health, if we don't have heating in at this time

of year, we know what the consequences could be. It's crunch

time. I'll be back with Peter soon, as he continues to crack down on one

of the rogue landlords that threaten the health and safety of so many of

us and tries to make Martin and Sam's home safe to live in.

Last year, 70 people were killed in the UK by faulty household

electrics, and hundreds of thousands more were injured. Experts recommend

getting our electrics checked every time we move home or every five

years. But how many of us actually do it? Good question. I don't know

the last time I had my electrics checked. A couple of years ago, I

think. I don't think I have had it checked actually! We had the house

rewired when we moved into it. But that's probably, you know, two or

three decades ago. For most of us, getting our electrics checked isn't

top of the to-do list. But as a mother and grandmother, Jane knows

dodgy electrics can have devastating consequences. First, I was a very

sociable person. Loved being with people, loved parties. Fred was

away. Faulty wiring in an appliance nearby had earthed itself through

the pipes, I think, and into the bath. There was no earth to make it

safe. So when she got in the bath and touched the taps, she would have

had apparently a huge electric shock and I'm told, was killed

immediately. In the morning, Milly couldn't hear mummy. She went to

look for mummy and found her. She said she realised that mummy was

dead. She was only five. There was an earth wire, but because it hadn't

been checked, it runs outside and then a spike into the ground, it had

corroded. So it was on sometimes and not at others. If it had been

earthed, then she wouldn't have died. This is just heart breaking,

but it has to be said because other - you know, you wouldn't want

anybody else to lose somebody so precious. The story is heart

breaking and highlights that getting your electrics checked needs to be a

priority. One family who haven't are quality control technician Richard

and his wife, Sonia, who live with their two-year-old daughter Isobel,

just outside When we Hull. Bought the house we assumed that the

electrics would be all right, that it was outside -- outof sight, out

of mind. We had a problem with the electrics, when we tried to plug the

Hoover in, when I pushed the plug it, in sparks. If you plug something

in here when there's stuff on in the dining room, it will blow a fuse in

the circuit board. I don't know how dangerous the electrics are in this

house. I don't feel it's dangerous to the point of death, or anything

daft, but I do feel that it does need addressing. Most of us share

Richard and Sonia's out of sight, out of mind attitude to the

electrics in our homes and like them, have no idea whether they are

dangerous or not. To find out more about how safe their house is, we

arrange for electrical -- an electrical inspector to have a look.

I have a metal switch here. There's no earth in this lighting circuit,

that's a big concern. As well as the unearthed light circuit connected to

metal light fittings, unearthed light circuit connected to

metal light other discoveries included dangerous sockets, dodgy

wiring, Anderson exposed junction box. His overall verdict was scary.

The items that I found have the potential to end life. It doesn't

take much at all to kill you. Ape order and Sonia are living in a

death -- Richard and Sonia are living in a death trap. These

problems exist in homes across the UK. Many of us just don't know it.

Darren has reported his findings to them and to demonstrate the

potentially fatal power of electricity, we're all living with,

we've brought them to a specially-rigged studio in Bristol.

Welcome. Nice to meet you both. How are you feeling about what you have

heard? It is a worry. We live with these things every day. It is more

than a worry. Open, live circuits. Unearthed light switches and you

touch them as well. They look fancy. But they could be an absolute death

trap. You just don't realise the danger. It is always good to seek

advice from professionals. To highlight the risks that faulty

electrics opposed to all of us when making the invisible visible, I am

asking Sonia to touch a deadly electrical fault. The special

chainmail suit will keep her safe because it is a better conductor of

electricity than we are, so electricity will flow through it

rather than through her, but she will still experience it's

frightening power. How are you feeling?

The electrical balk shows the deadly force that is lurking behind our

walls. Because we can't see it, most of us don't worry about it until it

is too late. What did it actually feel like? It

was terrifying. When it first went on and it came to me, you know...

The whole purpose of this was to underline to you two just how

dangerous electricity can be in the home. As it's changed your

perspective? -- has it changed? Until you do something like this,

you don't know how intense it really is. Having experienced its killer

power and heard Darren's verdict about the dangers in her home,

Richard and Sonia have called in experts. We were naive to think it

is safe. It makes you realise how important it is to get little things

done. It looks like we got to the couple just in time. When somebody

put the floorboard down, they have nailed through the live conductor

and a nail was live when we lifted the floor. Yes, it could have killed

somebody because there was no RCD protection. The RCD is a switch

designed to trip when electricity flows out of the house through

anything other than the earth wire. Put simply, it is a life-saver. I

feel like we have moved into a new house, even though it is the same

house. I feel a lot saved. -- safer. In Peterborough, the rogue

landlord that Peter is dealing with has failed to sort out the freezing

conditions in Martin and Sam's home. The landlord has had his seven days

to fix the heating and he has not complied with the legal requirement

of the notice. So what I shall be doing is to recommend prosecution

proceedings on the basis that he has not complied with a legal notice.

Across the UK, 1 million of us say our help has been affected by

landlords not carrying out repairs in our homes, -- health. Peter and

his colleagues are cracking down on them and taking action to make sure

the places we live in our safe. How are you? We are back with a special

delivery. The landlord is facing a fine of ?2500 for ignoring the

notice served on him and he will still have to sort out a permanent

heating solution and paid for the temporary heaters. It is a result

for Martin and Sam but Peter's survey of their home turned up more

problems that need to be dealt with. What have you found in the kitchen?

Anything specific that stands out? The kitchen door has seen better

days. It is not very good or secure. This is the only means of securing

the door. The original locking system is no longer there. It is

almost free access. Upstairs there are other problems. This ceiling is

breaking down. It has been breaking down over a long period of time and

it gets progressively worse and the ceiling cannot hold any longer and

it is breaking down. Look at the pillow. If you were sleeping, that

would be in your face. How serious is that? It is breaking down in its

integrity. Like Sam and Martin, millions of people rent their homes

and have problems with damp and leaking windows but there are a

dozen other issues that the landlord has to fixed to make the house fit

and save to live in. It is not a lot to ask a landlord to repair a house

that he should have repaired in the first place. It is only making

somewhere suitable to live in and that is his obligation in the first

place. We are not asking for the world. The landlord has been

dragging his heels about fixing the other issues in this home, but

several weeks after being issued with two more legal notices to fix

them, he finally seems to be taking the problem seriously. We are having

a meeting with the landlord and Peter here. Basically just to

discuss what needs to be done and why it has not been done and when it

is going to be done. How are you feeling about it? Quite happy. Since

I have been here, the landlord has never been in this house. I don't

know if he was before we moved in but I don't think he has ever seen

the state of the house. If he is coming in today, I can show him

round, show him the problems, so he actually knows what we are living

in. So far the landlord has shown very little intention of fixing the

issues in Martin and Sam's home and a meeting could start to move things

forward. Later in the day, Peter has bad news. The landlord said he will

not be coming. He did not explain any more than that, he just said he

would not come and that was it. I am really disappointed. Shall I meet

you at the house? Fine. This is another blow for Martin and Sam.

They just want a safe family home for themselves and their girls. They

have put themselves out and he has not bothered to show up. Martin had

to cancel a job this morning that he was supposed to do because the

landlord was coming. How long has the landlord got before this

situation gets more serious? It is already serious. We are at the

formal notice stage, taking statutory action. It is already

serious. He has seven weeks now to get the work completed. Do you think

it will be sorted? I don't think so, not on time. Seven weeks later,

Martin was right. The landlord solved very few problems. The

council moved in and fixed the back door to make their home safe and

secure as well as the damp in the bedroom and the other issues needed

to bring the home up to a liveable standard and the landlord is being

prosecuted. He will have to foot the bill of ?10,000 for the work they

carried out. As well as facing fines of ?7,500.

In Leeds, we are on the trail of a builder who walked away from a job

leaving Matt and Kali with a seriously hazardous home, and a bill

of thousands of pounds to sort out the dangerous mess that he left

behind. Just coming up to 6:30am and the good news is that we think we

have managed to track down this builder. Obviously we have several

questions to ask him. Let's get going. The builder left their home

in a terrible condition with a dangerous loft floor, illegal and

lethal gasworks, and a county court judgement against them for over

?17,000. We are going to confront him and make sure he thinks twice

about leaving anyone else's home in such an dangerous condition. We are

heading towards his house now and we have had surveillance on the job

before today. On that occasion he left home at 8:30am. We just have to

stay came out until he comes out. Hopefully I will get some answers.

-- stake him out. This guy lives 100 metres down the street. We are

clocking the house the whole time, watching out for a twitch of the

curtains, which we have just had. When he emerges from the front door,

we will judge a 2p and hopefully get answers to these questions. -- judge

a point to pounce. It is time to get some answers and find out why this

builder turned this home into a hazardous building site. It is

8:30am, bang on the moment he left for work last time. These could be

workmates. Two blokes. Yes, they are going with him. We are just waiting.

Go, go, go. Good morning, boys. Mark Clemmit,

BBC television. I want to ask you a few questions if I can about some

work that you have done. Can you tell us why you left their home in

such a dangerous state, please? You didn't? You didn't? Why the county

court judgement against you? You need to answer these questions.

After we caught him on the way to work, the builder got in touch and

told us that extra uncontracted jobs meant that he had to leave the

project but he would not tell us what they were. He also claimed his

work on the loft floor was signed off by building control and the

lethal gasworks was nothing to do with him, as he asked the engineer

for his safety ID number. We spoke to building control who revealed

that they had not signed off the loft floor, and despite his claims

that all the trades men he uses are vetted, one quick phone call

revealed that the engineer who worked on this house was not gas

safe registered. The builder is also facing serious consequences because

a High Court officer has been brought in to enforce the county

court judgement. The builder is contesting this but they have heard

nothing from him and if he does not pay up, he could be made bankrupt.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

A train carrying bodies of Malaysian plane victims has begun moving out

of rebel-held Ukraine. Earlier pro-Russian forces allowed

Dutch forensic experts on board. Here a memorial service has been

held for two Newcastle supporters. The drugs trial of

Tulisa Contostavlos has collapsed. The judge said there were