Episode 11 The Housing Enforcers

Hello, can you just let me in?

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

I wouldn't keep my dog there is the honest truth.

'But for thousands of people across the UK the reality can be

'more hovel than home.'

The house is falling to bits. There's nothing I can do.

In the battle for decent housing...

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

I don't know how the people are coping, to be quite honest.

..it's local housing officers who are on the front line.

If somebody had died here you'd be standing in a Coroner's Court.

'I'm Matt Allwright, and I'm back with The Housing Enforcers.'

-15 people in this house?

-15 people total, living in here.

'I'll be with them as they tackle problem properties

'and slum conditions...'

-It really does look shanty town.

-Yeah, it is not up to standard.

'..as they deal with dodgy landlords, nightmare neighbours

'and everything in between...'

Oh, my God, straight away there's the smell of dog muck.

You never know what you're going to find.

'..to help those in need of a happy and healthy home.'

'Today, police and council officers join forces to investigate

'a landlord's unlawful bedsits.'

You don't get fridges like this in a busy communal kitchen.

'And housing officers discover one problem after another

'at an elderly couple's home.'

-No way we can put anything in that one...

-No.

Every year, more of us rent the homes that we live in

and every year rents go up.

For those of us chasing cheaper housing, that can mean

enduring living conditions so bad that they break the law.

I'm working alongside the men and women

whose job it is to uphold those laws.

They are The Housing Enforcers.

Here in Dudley, I'm joining housing officer Ian Bowen.

Today he's on a mission to investigate three houses

all owned by the same landlord.

They've been split up into unlawful bedsits, with tiny kitchens

which pose a risk to tenants' safety,

so he's been ordered to turn them back into shared properties.

But there are fears he hasn't done the work properly

and is still breaching planning permission.

The council is taking this pretty seriously.

It's a big operation, with the local police here too.

Talk me through exactly why we're here in the first place.

We've had a call from the Planning Department.

They're taking enforcement action with regards to the property.

It's been subdivided into more flats than is allowed.

And does he know we're coming, is he going to be there?

He's arranged to meet the planners.

-So there could be a few of us in there today?

-Yes.

So they're coming back today to have a look to see whether

the landlord has put it back to comply with the planning permission.

The first house officers are inspecting should now have

just one flat on each floor, instead of several bedsits.

To comply with council safety rules, the landlord's been ordered

to remove kitchen equipment from individual bedsits, leaving

each tenant with their own bedroom, but sharing a communal kitchen.

Ian and Carl from the council's Planning Department

are here to see if the landlord has done the work in a way that

protects the safety of the tenants.

Although as we make our way to the upstairs flat,

things don't look too promising.

So, you've got no handrails on the stairs at all,

and it leads straight down to a very sudden end,

hitting a big fire door, an external door at the end.

And nice, hard, uncarpeted steps on the way down -

you could really do yourself some damage.

'And the facilities don't improve much once inside.'

HE CHUCKLES

Look at that. That's a new design that I haven't seen before.

'If the landlord has done what's been asked, none of the bedrooms

'in this building should now have any cooking facilities.

'Fortunately we're able to check,

'as one of the tenants lets us look around.'

Talk us through your flat.

That's my bedroom, that's my wardrobe, that's my living room,

that was my kitchen, and that's my bathroom.

OK, so that was your kitchen. You've got your own fridge here.

-Yeah, that's all mine.

-Do you have a sink and everything?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in there.

They took it out and we've got to use the communal kitchen next door.

OK, so why was that? Do you know?

Er... Not really, no.

-Thank you so much for letting us in.

-It's all right, mate.

'From what I can see, it looks like the landlord hasn't removed

'kitchens from the bedsits. He's just taken out the sinks.

'But it's cooking that poses the biggest fire risk

'in these tiny rooms.

'With a fully functioning shared kitchen,

'that danger should be reduced.'

So here we have a kitchen which doesn't have

the feel of a regularly used shared kitchen.

For instance, I don't know about you

but at home, my kettle isn't held together with Blu-Tack.

My fridge, let's see...

..definitely doesn't look like that.

'And you'll wait a long time for your soup

'to heat up on this hob. It's not working.'

It's on number six. That's not going to cook your tea.

So it's not working as a kitchen, clearly no-one's using it,

and we've just got a dead space.

'This is why inspections like this are so important.

'Landlords need to obey the rules or else tenants can get a raw deal,

'being forced to pay for facilities that are substandard or unsafe.

'The flat downstairs is also supposed to have

'a new, shared kitchen.'

You don't get fridges like this in a busy communal kitchen.

'So the kitchens have been removed from the bedrooms,

'but the housing team is not convinced they've been

'properly replaced by the facilities that we've seen.

'This visit has definitely opened my eyes,

'but coming up, things get even worse.'

These shouldn't be here at all, these shouldn't be separate units.

The owner's known this for a long time.

Here in Swale, the council are looking not to just deal with

the problems of today's housing,

they're looking to the future too.

A local study suggests this region is set to see a significant

increase in the number of older residents.

An ageing population is clearly going to present

very specific challenges.

Housing Officer Susan Hughes works with the council's

Staying Put agency.

The Staying Put service are there to actually help

vulnerable and elderly and disabled clients to remain in their own home.

Everybody wants to stay in their own home, and it is quite important.

But as they get older, repairs get harder and they quite often

just ignore it - rather than sort out the problem they will ignore it.

They also need adaptations more -

rails up the stairs, that sort of thing -

and if it's left their house will get into disrepair,

clients can fall, hurt themselves...

Lots of things can happen.

Susan's on her way to what on the face of it

looks like a routine appointment to help deal with some

maintenance issues at a client's home.

But something small can sometimes be a symptom of a much larger problem.

We're going over to see a couple that live in Faversham.

So this couple own their home,

and they've lived in it all their married life.

They've been with us before, they've had a few issues that we've had to

help with them - mainly clutter and a few little minor repairs -

and we've had our handyperson out do a lot of jobs,

but they called us again because they have a hole in the floor.

Our handyperson went out and it's a bit too big for him

to actually sort out, so I'm going out to have a look

and I'm going to get a builder out there.

Rose, whose husband has been battling a brain infection,

has called for some help after another visitor to her home

put her foot through the floor.

The nurse came to give my husband his insulin

and she went through it.

I wasn't here but I would have liked to have seen the look on her face!

I have been keeping out of its way, otherwise I'd be down it.

Sadly for Rose, the hole around the fireplace was just

one in a long line of recent mishaps.

Rose has just returned from hospital after suffering a nasty fall.

I got out of bed to go to the bathroom,

went in the bathroom -

the next minute I was tumbling down the stairs.

I fractured it, fractured the humerus.

It's clearly a delicate situation.

With Rose's recent tumble and her husband's serious illness,

Susan needs to be assured the couple are safe in their own home.

Fortunately, she's got Phil the builder in tow

to look at the repairs.

-How are you?

-All right, thank you.

-I've brought a builder...

-As right as expected.

-Yeah.

I've brought a builder to come and have a look, and if you can show me

this hole in the floor to see what can be done, OK?

You lead the way, all right? See what there is.

Oh, right.

Well, it's not in an AWKWARD place, that is one thing.

I don't think it's too major. We'll see what Phil says anyway.

What we'll have to do is move you out the way for a while and do some

exploratory digging out here,

take some boards up to see exactly what's happened.

But it's nothing to worry about, your house isn't going to fall down.

We'll come back with a bit of boarding over it for you,

so you don't trip over it. Just be aware it's there.

We don't want you having an accident, so...

The repair seems very straightforward,

but Susan's more concerned about whether the hole in the floor

is part of a wider problem with the couple's living conditions.

Two years ago the council spent three days clearing out

huge piles of clutter from the downstairs room.

It's not as cluttered as it was, you're keeping it under control.

What about the other rooms, are they all OK? Yeah?

Well, at the moment, I'm not going up the stairs.

I'm a bit...

-Are you sleeping downstairs as well?

-I'm sleeping here.

That's not very good, sleeping in a chair.

How do you manage that?

Can't you get another bed put in the front room?

-No.

-Cos that's where your husband sleeps.

You don't want another bed put in there?

I don't think there's room.

Rose's recent fall has left her too shaken to go back upstairs,

but her downstairs sleeping arrangements

are clearly less than ideal.

While Rose's husband is out having a medical check-up,

Susan wants to see if she can get an extra bed in his room.

Can I just have a look at your front room?

I am still worried about you sleeping in a chair.

Right. Oh, OK...

There could be space if things were moved around, don't you think?

We could move that over a little bit.

Why are all those things here?

Is it really important that there's a table there?

You'll have to ask my husband that because I don't know the reason.

Right. Cos if you moved that table,

you would fit in a little bed, wouldn't you?

You may have to get another bed, but at least you're sleeping in a bed,

it's awful that you're not.

I think we need again someone here just to help move a few bits...

If we put the chairs upstairs somewhere?

-Yeah...

-Is there room up there?

Sure we can...

We haven't been up there in a while, we'll go up and have a quick look.

This is a worrying sign.

It looks as though the couple's past problems

with hoarding of possessions are beginning to creep back.

And when they get upstairs, there's a shock for Susan.

The bedrooms are all overflowing with belongings.

It's unlikely anything from downstairs is going to find a home.

No. No room at all.

No. No way we can put anything in that one...

Obviously they want to keep lots of the stuff,

which is why it's been brought up.

It's dolls, and she's done lots of knitting. It's just not

been put in an easy way that you can even get to anything, really.

One of these rooms needs to be emptied.

De-cluttered again.

Then we can put everything from downstairs up here.

This is a blow for Susan.

If the clutter keeps building up,

it could become a serious health risk to Rose and her husband.

And there's more bad news in the bathroom.

The tub is in a terrible state, and the toilet is broken.

The cistern's in the bath.

I don't know how they flush it.

In an emergency you can have a standpipe and a bucket, but...

Well, there must be one downstairs, we'll go and ask.

They obviously don't come up here, then.

OK. The bath hasn't been used for gosh knows...

We'll go have a word with her anyway, but... Yeah.

We've just been upstairs, it is still quite cluttered.

What do you do for your toilet now?

I've got a commode for now but there is one out there.

What worries me is how do you empty the toilet now?

Do you have to go outside? Do you carry it?

My husband does that.

-He goes to the outside toilet and goes down there?

-Yeah.

And how's he doing that? Because he was quite poorly,

he was dragging his feet... Is he able to do that OK?

-Not really.

-No. So we do need to look at that.

And do you feel safe to go outside at the moment?

-No.

-No.

The problems here are even bigger than Susan was expecting.

With no working indoor toilet and rooms filled with clutter,

quick action is needed

if this couple are going to be able to remain living in their own home.

You've got to think about whether

you ever are going to go back upstairs.

If you do go upstairs, you could apply for a disabled grant

to have a shower room put in.

It's something to think about.

Yeah. I'll get Phil to quote for that as well.

-Quite happy with him.

-Yeah. She's happy with you, there you are.

-OK.

-You'll do.

-All right.

Today's visit demonstrates that even if you are an experienced

housing officer like Susan, you just never know

what challenges you're going to face when you walk through a front door.

Very often we go out to clients and they've asked for one thing,

and then when we go in there we find a lot more. Lots of people

don't realise exactly what's wrong with their property.

They've always lived like it so they don't realise it's a problem

and it's not till we go in that we realise this.

This is why we're really encouraging people to let us in

and do health and safety checks.

Susan and her team are there

to offer help and advice wherever they can.

And as far as Rose is concerned,

she's determined to make the house safer for the future.

I don't like her sleeping in a chair. She seems used to it,

but that is going to cause problems long term,

so we've got to think about whether

we can clear the front room and get her bed in there.

So the more confident she is in her home walking around, the better.

Oh, I'm just glad that there's somebody that is willing to help.

We'll have to wait and see.

See what Susan comes up with.

Coming up... Susan tries to tackle the growing problem

of Rose's clutter.

Have you managed to find anything to throw away, or not?

You're going to keep the pen. Right.

Defending our right to a safe place to live

is the job of housing officers right across the UK.

This is not really an acceptable way of leaving the property behind.

Do you think?

I'm working alongside the men and women that do exactly that.

-Top marks.

-Yes!

'I'm hitting the streets...'

Hello, can you open up?

Definitely somebody inside because we've seen movement.

'..finding out what's happening on the front line...'

That's ready to collapse.

Let's get it sorted.

..and learning what it takes to make sure a house

is a fit place to call a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

Back in Dudley, and I'm with a team from the local council,

and police, investigating a number of houses

owned by the same landlord.

He's been served enforcement notices demanding

he turn the individual flats he owns back to shared properties.

That means he's supposed to remove any kitchen facilities from his

tenants' bedrooms, and provide fully working communal kitchens instead.

Something the housing team suspect he hasn't done.

If they find evidence today that the landlord hasn't done the work

he's been ordered to do, he'll face prosecution.

It's worth remembering that we're not just talking about rules

and regulations here. These are not just

jobsworth approaches to these properties,

these are to make sure the people inside these properties have

enough space and amenities to live a half decent sort of life.

'I wonder if the second property might prove to be any better.

'Again, the landlord IS supposed to have converted this place

'back into a single flat, complete with a safe

'and fully functioning communal kitchen.'

So, here we are. We're in the loft space.

What was a kitchen area.

No fridge... No cooker there now.

'The room is home to Leanne.

'And it seems the landlord's renovations up here

'haven't improved things much.'

Are you hoping to stay here long term

or do you want to move somewhere else?

-No. I want to move.

-Yeah?

-Definitely.

Why do you want to move out of here?

Because it's not big enough. I've got a ten-year-old, so...

Have you? So does your ten-year-old stay with you here?

No. No, no, at my mum's.

'Despite the landlord removing the kitchen sink,

'this room still has the feel of a bedsit,

'but now without the benefit of privacy or independence.'

Do you wash up, do you prepare your food,

do everything up here?

No. I prepare my food up here,

I have to go downstairs for the kitchen.

This is somewhere that shouldn't be occupied at all.

According to Planning, there shouldn't be anyone here.

'At least the shared kitchen looks a little better than the first

'property. But I'm not sure the changes go far enough.'

This floor that we're on now should be one unit. One flat.

I think we've got... two, maybe three, is it?

The first two properties have followed a familiar,

if depressing, pattern.

The landlord's supposed to have turned the third property

back into a shared house too.

The deadline for doing the work passed some time ago.

'While we're waiting to get inside,

'I'm distracted by the unusual letterbox set-up.'

So this is what I don't understand.

These are the letterboxes for these flats.

There are five flats. How do I know which one is which?

Well, you don't. The tenants don't either when we asked them.

It doesn't almost matter cos when you see inside,

you can't get it anyway, so...

So you have to reach in to get your post from this side anyway?

Yeah. So it just drops down.

So it drops down inside the wall?

-Yeah.

-So you never receive your post anyway?

-No.

'It doesn't bode well for the rest of the house.

'Unfortunately, once we do make our way upstairs,

'it's easy to see that the accommodation

'is less than luxurious.'

Yeah. So in theory, anyway, this could be a sort of bedroom possibly?

But this shouldn't be here at all,

these shouldn't be separate units.

The owner's known this for a long time.

These are legal criteria, these are specifications,

but they're there for a very simple reason

and that's to protect the people who occupy these places.

Because you can tell

this is not somewhere that's designed for individual occupation.

That's your washing facility there.

You can't even get in it at the moment. It's ludicrous.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

'It's been a long, wet and frankly depressing day for all of us.

'I'm hoping the council might have some solutions for the tenants

'I've met today.'

So three properties, one owner, all in sort of different stages.

In fact what we found was a mishmash of a shared property,

and individual bedsit units which you could lock the door.

I mean, the conditions that resulted from that were pretty miserable,

-weren't they?

-Yeah.

The kitchens are not operating, the rooms again are small,

you've not got the facilities, really. Things have been taken away

from the tenants,

rather than a better facility being provided.

So what is it that we're going to do?

From a planning point of view those notices are in place

and they've been in place for some time,

plenty of time to comply with and therefore it's up to us now

to determine whether we think it's appropriate

to refer that to our legal team

to prosecute the owner for failing to comply with the notices.

'All of which sounds reasonable in the long term.

'But it's the short term that has me more concerned.'

Don't know what to make of these properties, honestly. They are...

They shouldn't be divided up in the way that they are

in the first place, and rather than put them back

the way they should be the landlord seems to have opted to

reconfigure them to look like shared houses.

But they are so miserable... So miserable.

I can't tell you.

And I'm trying to put my finger on why

they are like that - maybe it's just because the weather's terrible,

I don't know. But honestly, the effect it has on you...

They don't feel like places

where there's a way out again, if I'm honest with you.

The council is now pursuing action against the landlord.

They say he breached enforcement notices which ordered him

to comply with planning permission in all three properties.

They're building a case, and hope to bring it to court soon.

Back in Swale, housing enforcer Susan Hughes

from the council's Staying Put team is returning to Faversham,

where she went to help a couple with a maintenance problem,

but soon found a lot more needed fixing.

Went in the bathroom. Next minute,

I was tumbling down the stairs.

Susan discovered that even though she had a broken arm,

Rose was sleeping in a chair,

and that the couple are both struggling to cope with

disabilities, as their house fills up with clutter.

Today I'd like to talk a bit more to them about the clutter that

they've got, how that is their main problem, and if we could sort that

out then maybe some of the other issues could be addressed easier.

Susan needs to make sure that the jumble of possessions

doesn't once again build to dangerous levels.

It could cause falls or even block escape routes if there was a fire.

But first on her list is checking that

the hole in the floor has been taken care of.

Oh. That's looking good, isn't it?

Yeah, we're getting there.

The builders have actually covered it up and made it a lot safer,

and although it's not fireproof, it's not a proper hearth -

they'll have to pay for that if that's what they want -

but as it is at the moment

it's going to prevent her tripping on it or falling.

So that actually satisfies me that the job's done

and we've made it safer for her.

That's one down at least.

Next is Rose's unconventional bedtime arrangements.

I'm really not happy about you sleeping in that chair.

That's not good for you at all.

So we've got a couple of options there.

We can either try and declutter a bit of the front room so we can

move another bed in there, so you can sleep in where your husband is.

The other option is... That one would be quick, but the longer one

would be a stairlift could be put in.

Now, you can either fund that yourself or

you could apply for a disabled grant.

I've put a phone number down here, which is where you ring and then you

have to go through an assessment, they'll ask about your disabilities.

If it's feasible, I would go back upstairs.

You mustn't go up until we've sorted it out.

Till you've either got a stairlift and all the clutter gone...

So you need the stairlift put in, and you need to declutter.

But sleeping in a chair is not good for you, is it?

You're going to get a stiff neck soon.

Well, that would join my arm!

SUSAN LAUGHS

Rose agrees to try to get back upstairs,

but now Susan wants to help her mobility

around the rest of the house.

So you're going to have lots of rails everywhere

but I think it's just going to be safer for you. OK?

-Yeah.

-So if we do them all along

where there's a space on the corridor here. Yeah?

And the rails continue outside -

so the couple can get to the loo.

All right? How does that feel there?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

I'll do it at that.

A little mark on there.

But Susan knows the main issue is the clutter.

With Rose sleeping in a chair

because there's no room for a bed downstairs,

Susan wants to help with the mammoth task of dealing with the hoarding.

If the couple can't keep on top of the amount of stuff

in the house, the problems are going to mount up.

Have you managed to find anything to throw away, or not?

I was just wondering if I could find your other shoe...

-No, I think that was thrown away.

-Oh, do you?

Well, if that's the case you could throw that one away then, can't you?

But that's in your knitting bag, so we need to have another bag...

You need to keep it in that bag for throwing away, don't you?

You're going to keep the pen. Right.

That's your throw-away bag, is it? That's it, put the shoe in it.

How about you have a little bag a day and go through things,

and then you might get rid of some of the stuff as it goes?

Yeah?

Small steps, maybe - but at least it's a start.

And Susan's wasting no time in trying to get the ball rolling

with Rose's much-needed stairlift.

Hi, all right - I'm with a client of mine,

I'm from Staying Put home improvement agency.

Erm... She's actually sleeping in a chair downstairs

cos she can't get upstairs.

The bathroom's upstairs

so she's having to use a commode and empty it outside.

So I think we need to look at getting her a disabled grant -

definitely for a stairlift, and maybe a shower room. OK?

So we've still got quite a lot to do. So Paul's going to come back

and he's going to put those rails along the corridor

to make it easier for you to walk.

And then I'll get two estimates for the toilet as well upstairs.

You think about the clutter as well -

think about whether you want a couple of hours,

somebody to come and help you declutter a bit more as well.

Thank you very much.

For Susan, this sort of case provides a lot of challenges.

It's a balancing act between trying to keep people in their own homes,

but also helping them to make important changes.

Bye.

Yes, it feels...

as though I've achieved something.

And we know it's going to take time.

Can't do it in five minutes, can we?

There's not so much as what there used to be,

but...Susan seems to think that we can get rid of a bit more.

We need to think about decluttering, that's the major thing.

We even managed to get rid of ONE bag of rubbish today.

Erm... OK, it was very small, but it's a start.

And I am worried about Rose falling again,

so we do need to sort of take it very carefully, certainly

with her husband, and make sure that we can make it safer and secure for

them, so they can carry on living in their own home independently.

Since we visited,

Susan's been looking into getting a lift installed in the couple's home.

They could then apply for a disability grant

to get a suitable bathroom installed upstairs.

In the meantime,

Susan's keeping a close eye on the couple's hoarding tendencies.

That's it for today. Join me next time

back on the road with The Housing Enforcers.