Episode 12 The Housing Enforcers

The law says everyone has the right to a safe place to live.

I worry about the fire risk here.

But for thousands of people across Britain,

the reality can be more hovel than home.

How many months ago was it we had this place cleaned?

The whole of that bit goes black with mould.

Hello?

In the battle between tenants and landlords...

-It's your fault, not the dogs' fault. I don't care.

-This is what you get.

..it's local housing officers...

What's causing that smell?

..who are on the front line.

The son's come out with baseball bats and knives, on occasions.

'I'm Matt Allwright.'

A lot of this problem is caused by the dogs.

That's your responsibility.

'And I'm back on the job, once again joining the ranks

'of the housing enforcers.'

It's got that mouse smell.

'They're tackling problem properties...'

It feels like an accident waiting to happen.

'..dealing with the consequences of nightmare neighbours...'

So, I need to tell you that you're committing an offence

under the Housing Act.

'..and doing their best to help those in need.'

He was a good old boy.

'Today, I'm on the hunt for overcrowded properties

'in east London.'

None of them really seem to know the others' date of birth

or full name.

If they're family, they're not close family.

The housing team come to the rescue of a pregnant teenager

who's found herself homeless.

I didn't plan it. I didn't want this.

Didn't want a baby till I was later on.

I think I'm a bit young still.

'And it isn't the sea I'm sniffing in this Clacton bedroom.'

I'm going to say it, no-one else is saying it, it smells like pee.

Right now, Britain is in the middle of a housing crisis.

If you want to buy a property, typically,

you'll need to have saved almost three years' salary as a deposit

and that'll get you a mortgage that'll make your eyes water.

No wonder we've now got more people renting

than at any time in the last 60 years.

Protecting those renters are the country's housing enforcers.

And in this programme, that's what I'll be training to become.

With around 35,000 privately rented homes,

safeguarding tenants' welfare is a huge task

for the housing team in the London Borough of Newham.

To help them monitor standards, the council was the first in the country

to introduce a pioneering scheme

where all rented properties have to be licensed.

It's the job of senior private sector housing officer Julia Bull

to weed out criminal landlords who are flouting the law.

Today, she's carrying out raids on a number of unlicensed properties

she thinks are being rented out.

I've come along to lend a hand.

What do you know about the place we're about to go into?

Well, the intelligence tells us

that it's possibly a property that's rented that hasn't got

a property licence. So, we're going to go in and check and to verify that

and see whether there is people living there

and if they are, then we'll take some details.

'And the housing team have a few tricks up their sleeves

'to help them catch out unscrupulous landlords.'

So, what's the intelligence, where does that come from?

We have databases that we use.

Council tax,

housing benefit,

we look at 192.com,

those kind of things, just to see...

Electoral register, just to see the kind of movement of people

in and out of the property.

'Once a suspicious address has been identified, getting access

'to check exactly who's living there can still be a problem.'

'So, we've got reinforcements to make sure it runs smoothly.'

Hello, sir. Do you rent the whole house or do you rent one room?

-We rent two rooms.

-You rent two rooms.

-And how many bedrooms are there here?

-Three.

-Three bedrooms.

Can we come in and have a chat because it's a bit cold out here?

-This lady from the council needs to have a look.

-Hi.

I need to just get some details.

-My children go to school...

-We'll be as quick as we can.

'We're not even over the threshold

'and it's clear this place IS being rented out unlawfully.'

'The occupant is happy to talk to us but doesn't want to be identified.'

This gentleman is living here with his family

and there's also another party, I think one other person, living here.

It's not his house. He's renting it.

What's your occupation?

-And how many children have you got here?

-Children?

-How many children?

-Three children.

-Three children.

-And you share the house with another lady that you don't know?

-Yeah.

-Yep.

-And do you know who the landlord is?

-I don't know.

-Do you have a contract or anything?

-No.

'The state of the property itself isn't too bad

'but with a family of five and another woman living here,

'it's seriously overcrowded.'

So, you can see, one bed

and cooking facilities over there.

The TV...

Just everything that you'd need for life.

'It's been a successful hit.

'Although it's unclear whether any subletting has been taking place,

'we CAN confirm the house is being rented without a licence.

'And the council won't be wasting any time

'getting the situation resolved.'

So, we need to go back to the landlord now and say,

"We've been to the property, we've got evidence to show it's rented.

"You need to obtain a property licence."

Because the property is not in a poor condition

and it's not particularly overcrowded, it's not too bad,

we'll probably offer him a formal caution rather than going to court.

If he refuses the formal caution, then we'll go to court.

'But once we're outside, Julia isn't convinced we've had the full story.

'She thinks the occupant we first spoke with

'might be as much at fault for the cramped conditions as his landlord.'

My gut feeling is that he's probably the only person on the tenancy

and he's probably subletting the other rooms.

-That's probably why he was a bit cagey, possibly.

-Yeah.

But we'll go and find out.

But it's not unusual for people to crowd themselves into rooms

and then split the rent because of, obviously,

the cost of renting is quite high, especially for a man

that's a cleaner with three children to look after.

And it was a bit difficult to piece together,

but it seemed like he was working night shifts and then his children

would go to school during the day and then that's when he'd sleep.

-Yes.

-So, they're kind of hot-bedding.

'On further investigation,

'it's clear that the property isn't being sublet.

'But it's a familiar situation with low-income families being

'priced out of the property market.'

A single house like this for a family, which is

-what it's designed for, is actually too expensive...

-It's unattainable.

-..for most of the families that would want to live in it.

-Yes.

So you get these arrangements,

these kind of ad hoc arrangements, which fly a bit under the radar.

Yes.

'Julia needs to speak to the landlord to get a better idea

'of what exactly the situation is here.

'So, we're moving on to the next property on her hit list.

'We don't have to travel far to find it.'

Funnily enough, we're going just down the road, where there's

another property that's suspected not to have a licence

and is being rented out, we think.

-Hello.

-Morning. Hello, sir.

-We're just from the council, are you renting this property?

-Yeah.

'So, we've got another unlicensed rental property on our hands.

'This time the occupants don't want us to film them.'

Well, that's a tricky one to get your head round.

There's a gentleman at the top who says that the other rooms,

of which there are two, three, possibly,

are all occupied by his brothers and sisters.

However, they all have locks on their own doors and none of them

really seem to know the others' date of birth or full name.

Yeah, I'd be very interested to see what Julia makes of this one.

If they're family, they're not close family,

despite the fact they all live together.

'Join us later when we'll be solving the mystery

'of whether this place really is home to The Brady Bunch.'

They said, "We're all brothers and sisters."

Then they sort of retreated to a slightly different position.

'And the reality of what housing officers here are battling

'starts to hit home.'

Is this what life's like for you in Newham?

That you can come out and knock on the door and if you get

-in you're going to find somewhere that's a wrong 'un, basically?

-Yeah.

It's bad enough not having a place to call your own

in any circumstances, but imagine being eight months pregnant

without a roof over your head.

That's the reality for 19-year-old Gemma Smith-Tennant in Salford.

Gemma's been homeless

since the hostel she'd been staying in closed unexpectedly.

So, she's been sofa-surfing at friends' houses for weeks.

And a recent stay at her mum's didn't work out.

Fortunately for Gemma, being pregnant and homeless makes her

a priority for Salford Borough Council and they've moved quickly.

-That's an airing cupboard.

-Yeah.

Need to tell you that this is your cooker.

It's temporary accommodation officer Wendy Greenhalgh's job to provide

emergency shelter for Gemma until they can find more suitable

permanent accommodation for her and her very imminent arrival.

-This is your bedroom.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Um, the door has got a lock on it.

Ideally, these properties should be for two people,

-so it should be shared.

-Yeah.

You'd have your own room and everything else would be shared

but we don't, because of your pregnancy,

-we don't plan to put anyone else here in with you, OK?

-Oh, right.

Finding herself pregnant and homeless was a shock for Gemma.

I didn't plan it. I didn't want this. If I could...

Well, I can't change it, I wouldn't change it.

But I'd have waited till I was about, at least 29.

So, we've got a bit of a food parcel here for you, Gemma.

So, there's just tins, that's some long-life milk, some bits of tins

and pasta and stuff that you can make easily and warm up.

We've put your bedroom stuff in the bedroom, haven't we?

And you've got some towels in there.

Gemma was hoping that she'd be able to live back at home with her

mum and the baby, but after a trial run, she's had to move back out.

And then you went into the hostel

-and you thought everything was going to be all right from there?

-Yeah. And then it closed down!

I was gutted cos, like, I was settled and everything.

Gemma's story isn't uncommon.

There is a high incidence of unplanned pregnancy amongst

young women living in temporary accommodation.

Providing homeless people with accommodation

comes at a public cost.

So, there are the keys.

And Wendy has to remind Gemma of her responsibilities.

Because you're full duty homeless,

as you know, if you get an offer of accommodation that you refuse,

-OK, it's called the discharge of homeless duty offer.

-Yeah.

Which means that we've then, effectively, done our job

and if you refuse it without a valid reason,

we wouldn't provide you with anything else and at that point, then,

you'd be given notice to leave here. OK?

Gemma's situation is quite common in terms of people

that are sanctioned on benefits that have no money or, obviously,

pregnant people then go from one benefit to another. And it doesn't

happen instantly, it crosses over and there is a gap in the middle.

We do have limited funds available for food and stuff like that,

for people who are moving into properties with nothing.

Whether or not the state should step in to such an extent with cases

like Gemma is up for debate, but one thing is clear - it's good for her

baby's sake, at least, that she has the support of people like Wendy.

Feels a lot safer.

Cos I've got a lock on my door and it's mine

and I know no-one can get in.

As her due date approaches, the council are urgently

trying to find Gemma a permanent place to live.

Will she have a real home to bring her baby back to?

She's going to really struggle to get everything for baby.

It isn't as easy as it, you know, everybody seems to make out.

In east London, I've been hitting the streets of Newham with

senior private sector housing officer, Julia Bull.

Every rental property in the borough has to be licensed

by the council, so we've been banging on doors

to identify landlords who are flouting the law.

Hello, sir. Do you rent the whole house?

We've already come across a bit of a whodunnit

at one overcrowded and unlicensed rental property.

And the mystery is deepened at a second property,

where at first it seems as though this is a family home.

-Hello.

-Morning.

-Do you want to take this one...?

Hello, sir, yeah. We're just from the council.

-You are renting this property, sir, yeah?

-Yeah.

Although they didn't want to be filmed,

once inside, Julia's powers of detection have unearthed the truth.

-None of them are related to each other...

-No, you see this...

..like they first said they were, so...

They said they were all brothers and sisters and then they

retreated to a slightly different position where they said,

-"In our country, we are all brothers and sisters..."

-Yes.

-"..even though we are not related."

-Yes.

That terminology is used quite a lot and when we come

across that, we try and infiltrate a little bit further

because they come from the same area

-so they class themselves as brothers or family.

-Yeah.

But obviously, in the eyes of the law, it's blood related.

'Which makes the situation here even more worrying.'

In terms of the law, then, we go from being one family, occupying

a house which requires a certain kind of licence and regulation,

to a house of multiple occupancy which requires that higher level of regulation.

Absolutely, and more frequent inspections

and a higher level of fire protection and that sort of thing,

because there is a greater risk with houses that are multiply occupied,

as opposed to singly occupied, because there's more people

coming and going, cooking at different times, coming in and out.

And a conversation with one of the occupants has shown that's not

just a hypothetical risk.

It's already happened.

-Talking to the lady downstairs, they'd just had a fire...

-Yes.

..because one of them put the fat on

and the others didn't know about it.

-It's a right old mess in there, isn't it?

-Yes.

The landlady comes here quite frequently, so she obviously knows.

-"Auntie."

-Yeah, she obviously knows what's going on, so, er...

-Yeah.

We'll come down quite heavily on this one.

There really are no excuses for this sort of thing.

The council have requested additional documentation from the landlords.

Once this is in place, they will then decide whether to prosecute.

Because Newham is full of people who maybe don't earn very much,

these family houses are being divided up into small portions,

as small as they will go, and then sublet

and that's just not what they were designed for.

And that's what the council, that's what we are trying to fight against

and combat by doing these checks.

And there are plenty more suspicious addresses

on Julia's hit list that need checking.

Hi there. This property has come up as being rented

and the landlord hasn't got a property licence for it.

So can we just come in and have a chat with you?

Fantastic, thank you.

The 18-year-old occupant doesn't want to be identified,

but he's happy to show us around.

And how much rent are you paying?

-Your mum? OK. Does your mum live here?

-Yes.

-Where does...

-Which room does she stay in?

-That room.

-She stays in there, OK.

And what's your mum's name?

And your sister. OK.

He sleeps in the living room, while his mum

and 15-year-old sister share one of two bedrooms.

Hello? Hello?

'It's not just the three of them living in the cramped flat.'

Well, you can see it's occupied.

There's a fridge, stuff like that, as well as a kitchen.

They've locks on the door, so, two rooms now.

After a bit more detective work,

it seems the second bedroom is home to an unrelated woman

and possibly her boyfriend, too, bringing the total to five.

In the kitchen, environmental health officer Vincent White

is clear about why overcrowding like this is a recipe for disaster.

-OK, so we've got five people living in here.

-Yeah.

-The kitchen is absolutely tiny.

-Yeah.

We've ended up with a washing machine,

which you can just about get to,

and then next to it, the cooker.

And they've been put on the slant to try and squeeze them

all into this kitchen, which is far too small anyway.

Yeah, that's right.

And it's really not serving anybody terribly well.

Every property we've inspected today has fallen well short

of meeting the council's standards.

And Vincent's quite clear why it happens.

Is this what life's like for you in Newham?

That you can come out and knock on a door and if you get in,

-you're going to find somewhere that's a wrong 'un, basically.

-Yep.

What we're battling up against is clever landlords with resources

and the know-how how to maximise their profit.

It's been a hard day

and sometimes it's felt like we're swimming against the tide.

But it's also clear why Newham Council feels that rental

properties should be registered and inspected.

Damp, cold, dangerous, overcrowded, probably.

It's a Newham special.

It just seems like every door that we're going through in Newham

with these guys, it's providing us with somewhere

that's just unacceptable to live.

And yet, these are people that don't seem to have a choice,

because that's what there is, that's what they can afford.

Welcome to Clacton. Sunshine, sandy beaches and safe sea bathing.

The perfect place for a summer's day.

But we are in the middle of winter and it's not much fun for tenant

Kayleigh Farrah, who's living in a damp house without a working boiler.

I'm with housing officer Grant Fenton-Jones and we've arranged

to meet Kayleigh and her landlord's letting agent at the property.

Got a few issues here. Apparently... a problem with the heating?

Boiler doesn't work, been condemned.

Right, walls damp, rising damp, radiators leaking

and a strange smell in one of the bedrooms. Is that right?

-Yeah, you can smell the...smell.

-Right, OK.

At the moment, we're not sleeping in it.

The boiler's been condemned, has it?

It was condemned before we even moved in here,

but the landlord said he was going to get it fixed.

Importantly, you've got hot water though?

-Er, we've got the immersion heater.

-Yeah.

Around one in three of us in the UK finds it hard to keep

our houses warm, and this place is definitely feeling the cold.

The boiler's over there. The leaflet won't come off at the moment.

So, "Immediately dangerous, gas valve..."

But this is the key one, here. The gas valve leak.

The gas valve... You've got a gas leak.

We've actually got a leak on... this here.

-That is your gas valve.

-Right.

-OK, yes.

-See where the button is?

-Yeah.

-So the engineer who has been using...

-So there's no gas coming into this at all?

No, he's capped it off at source, so there's no way that that's usable.

'If a gas boiler is considered even potentially dangerous,

'the law demands that it must be disconnected straightaway.'

My immediate reaction, Tony, is if there's a...

The boiler's being decommissioned like this,

why not just put a new boiler in?

Well, that was his original plan, he was made redundant,

so he couldn't afford to do it, basically.

Just for me to understand, Tony, when something like this,

which is a real main constituent part of the house and making it

work, when that stops working, does the rent come down at all?

Well, you're on reduced rent anyway, aren't you?

Because from day one, the rent was sort of less

-than the market rent because of the problems.

-Right.

And that was something...

-Did you understand about this when you moved in, then?

-Yeah, we did.

We was under the understanding that we'd move in and we were told

after he's got a couple of months' rent, then he would do it.

We were on the understanding of that.

We head upstairs to see the effect that the broken boiler is

having on the rest of the house.

First stop, the spare bedroom occasionally used by

Kayleigh's nephews.

Are they here often, are they?

On the weekends they're here, but at the moment we've had to stop

because obviously the mould and that and they are actually becoming ill,

-so...

-So this is a room you can't use at the moment?

No, and I can't use my room either.

This happened, like, when we first actually moved in,

when we, like, started putting stuff in, it just started doing it.

I'm looking at that and thinking that there's a problem on that

corner, whether it's guttering or the roofing, you know,

the tiles have slipped or something like that.

You are right in what you say, but it could be another reason for it.

And it's an easy one, really. It's to do with the boiler.

-It's just damp, it's just cold in here.

-Yeah.

So, because we've got no heating in this house,

then this is a cold room, it's exposed to the outside, so you get

condensation in here on that outside wall

and then it just lifts the paper up because it's damp underneath.

Coming up, there's a nasty whiff in the bedroom.

-I'm going to say it, no-one else is saying it, it smells like pee.

-Yeah.

In Salford, things are looking up for 19-year-old Gemma.

Pregnant and with nowhere to live,

she was considered a priority for the council and placed in

temporary accommodation whilst they sorted out a permanent new home.

If you get an offer of accommodation that you refuse,

then you'd be given notice to leave here.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Housing officer Vicky Fitton has been working hard

to find Gemma somewhere to live.

For the last four months, Gemma's sofa-surfed.

She has presented as homeless and investigations have been carried out.

Parents have been spoken to and due to circumstances at home,

Gemma isn't able to go back home.

Until the baby arrives, Gemma has to live on income support

of £57.35 a week.

She's going to really struggle to get...everything for baby.

Pay, gas, electric, council tax, water, TV licence.

It isn't as easy as, you know, everybody seems to make out.

With the baby due any time now, Vicky's meeting Gemma

at the house that, hopefully, will soon be a family home.

-Wow! What do you think?

-Looks nice, doesn't it?

-Yeah!

Gemma only got in touch with the council about her situation

a fortnight ago, when things were becoming desperate.

So they've had to move fast.

To shortlist for a two-bedroomed property, you need to be at least

32 weeks pregnant. At that point,

it's deemed that if Gemma was to go into labour

at that point, the chances are the baby would survive.

Anything below that, then she'd only probably...

Well, she'd only get a one-bedroom property.

Because Gemma has no income or savings,

she's been provided with a selection of goods to stock the house.

Gemma's getting the full furniture pack, because baby's imminent.

She's got a cooker, a fridge-freezer, beds, cot, storage wardrobes

and chairs and a sofa. Bedding, cutlery, crockery...

The council argues that this level of help at the start

of a tenancy makes it less likely that problems such as rent arrears

will happen in the future.

-Would you like the sofa in this room, love?

-Yeah, please.

-They make you work for your money, don't they?

-They do, they do.

VICKY LAUGHS

-Hello?

-Gemma's new landlord, Simon,

has come to check that she's settling in OK.

Because the urgency in getting Gemma a property where

she can access medical support and the midwives

and things like that, it's all been pretty quick,

so Simon's been really good

and let Gemma move in and he's just coming around now

and having a look at what jobs need doing, which he can do around Gemma.

I think that's everything. If you can think of anything else, write it down, yeah? Don't forget.

There's no point in getting him in and out, in and out, in and out.

Let's get everything done, dusted and then it's sorted. Right, you off?

-I am indeed.

-Aw, cheers, Simon. Thank you, thank you very much.

-Hope you have a good day.

-See you later.

Terry will be in contact to do all those jobs...

Yeah, I've got a list, yeah. I've got a list ready for him.

-That's brilliant, thanks for popping by.

-OK, no problem at all. Thank you.

-Cheers, Simon. Bye-bye!

For Vicky, getting Gemma settled in is just the first stage.

She'll also give advice on budgeting and paying bills,

so she's a reliable tenant for Simon.

It's the nicer part of the job, you know, seeing results,

seeing somebody's journey, you know, from presenting, getting

placed in temporary accommodation, then finding somewhere suitable.

-Right, so I'll see you at 11 o'clock tomorrow.

-All right.

-See you later.

See you later.

If you need something, Vicky's the one to go to, because she gets it done.

She's like, no messing about.

Very happy, yeah. That's one down, that's one down that the...

There's not as much pressure on me to get out of temporary accommodation.

Affordable housing is reaching a crisis point in the UK.

But Gemma can relax

and now look forward to her son's imminent arrival.

Just at the nick of time, really.

I've got all the baby stuff and everything now.

So all the baby's sorted.

Just got to do all the decorating,

that's the only thing that's left to do.

I'm delighted to report that Gemma gave birth to a healthy baby boy

and she's now back in her new home, being looked after by her mum.

Back by the sea in Clacton,

we've been inspecting a house that's anything but shipshape.

-Boiler doesn't work, been condemned.

-Right.

Walls damp, rising damp, radiators leaking and a strange smell in

one of the bedrooms.

'Which we can't put off any longer.

'The time has come to have a sniff around Kayleigh's bedroom.'

This is my room.

We haven't been sleeping in this room for a few weeks now

because, obviously, the smell...

-You can't get to sleep...

-It's a really strong smell.

-Right.

We've been told it's from the radiator, so obviously I've pulled that up.

We've tried bleach, we've tried Shake 'n' Vac...

That's like ammonia.

I've got a feeling, looking at the patching on that underlay, that...

HE SNIFFS

And the smell, that something has in the past...

'Everybody's being terribly polite. This calls for a bit of directness.'

I'm going to say it, no-one else is saying it, it smells like pee.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And that doesn't make any sense.

I'm sure it's pee.

-And you've sniffed a lot of...

-Yeah.

-..smells in your time.

-I have.

I mean, the way you got down there to sniff the floorboards.

Shows he's committed.

'It's bad enough inside.

'What kind of state is the exterior in?'

They've been converted, haven't they?

And now there's a massive bit of rot come in on that corner there.

'It's clear to me that most of the issues in this house

'could be solved in one step.'

What needs to be fixed in this house is the boiler.

It's a big sum of money,

but it's got to come from somewhere, otherwise this property is...

You're going to move out eventually cos you'll be fed up with it because you'll be freezing...

'Time to evaluate what we've seen and come up with a solution.'

There's, like, one big problem with that property but what you've got is

an agreement with the tenant in the first place that

that was acceptable, which seems to have now spiralled out of control.

Well, basically, I mean...

They've moved in and they've taken the rent

with the proviso that the heating's going to be...

The boiler and the heating's going to be installed before the winter months

come along, which in principle is OK.

We're talking about safety.

We're not talking about inconvenience or, you know,

a matter of reducing the rent.

Now we're getting to the point where the people in that house

could be exposed to excess cold over the next couple of months.

Without a shadow of a doubt.

Obviously we'll have to do something.

We will do. We'll take it up with the landlord immediately.

I mean, the boiler will have to be replaced at some point

so it's either spend that money now or spend that money

and a whole lot more in another 12 months or two years. OK.

-Grant, thank you so much.

-That's all right.

A new boiler was installed soon after we filmed,

but it wasn't fitted correctly

and was condemned by a gas safety engineer AGAIN.

Kayleigh and her family have now moved out

and there'll be no new tenants at this address

until the heating is sorted once and for all.

That's it for today.

Join me next time on the front line with Britain's housing officers.