Episode 14 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 have died here,

you would've been standing in the coroner's court.

I'm Matt Allwright and I'm back with the housing enforcers.

-15 people in this house?

-15 people in total living in here.

I'll be with them as they tackle

problem properties and slum conditions...

It really does look a shanty town.

Yeah, it's 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, a landlord who's carved up a family house

ignores council orders to put things right.

Now they've been partitioned off, this middle room is like a hellhole.

-There's no lights, no ventilation.

-No, exactly.

-It's just the worst option, isn't it?

-Yeah.

A mysterious damp problem puts a family's health in danger.

It's disgusting. It does leak into the light switch as well.

So I tell the boys not to turn on the bathroom light at all

because I don't want them getting electrocuted.

And one man and his dog find happiness in a new home.

Every day is going to be a happy day here, I think.

Every day will be, definitely.

Just to know I can just pop down the road

and see my grandchildren and my children.

We might not always know it,

but there are people from every local council

whose job it is to make sure we have a safe roof over our heads.

I'm working alongside the men and the women

who use the law to make sure we don't live in slums,

but in homes fit to raise a family or enjoy our retirement.

They can make sure that you have the facilities you need

as you get older.

They also have the power to start the process

that can send a bad landlord to prison or help evict a bad tenant.

They are...the housing enforcers.

There's a housing shortage in London,

so landlords are keen to plug the gap

by converting family houses into shared homes.

But in the London borough of Newham,

the council takes a dim view of properties

that are unlawfully converted.

They reckon that a quarter of all rental properties in their patch are shared houses,

what they call houses of multiple occupation,

and not all of them have planning permission.

Housing officer Stephen Pavett is taking me to one of them.

It's got an unusual history.

This one has two enforcement notices on it.

People were collecting scrap metal and storing it at the property.

So the house itself was being used as a scrap metal dealership or storage?

Yeah, essentially, by the people who were living there.

Erm...last time I visited.

I'd found that the use had ceased as a scrap metal storage,

but the large home of multiple occupation was still occurring.

And the choice to go to prosecution would be based upon the level of risk

that those people are being exposed to?

Yeah, it is a last resort. We're left with no option

than to consider prosecuting the owner for this.

Since April 2015, Newham Council have carried out 400 inspections of shared houses

and that's resulted in 200 prosecutions or cautions.

This property's a small terraced house on a quiet residential street.

Not somewhere you would expect scrap metal to be stored,

or a large number of people to be living.

Hello. We're from the planning department from Newham Council.

We're here today to do an inspection of the property at the moment.

I want to see all of the house today.

Yes? OK?

We need to come in, please.

Which bed are you sleeping in?

So we've come into the front room and straight away there are...

there's one bed, there's a sofa, and there's a mattress.

And it looks like all three have been slept in.

But the guy that Steve is speaking to claims just to be a guest

and not living here at all.

So in there, Stephen, straight away it looks like we've got three guys sleeping.

-There's the bed, there's the mattress on the floor and then there's the sofa.

-Sofa, yeah.

The downstairs of the property has been converted,

creating an additional windowless room

in the middle of the ground floor.

OK, so there's no-one in this room.

No, there is. There's a chap asleep there.

He is there, too.

So you've got another guy asleep here

and you've got a bed,

no windows at all.

Five people so far in these two rooms

and all the signs of, you know, a large number of people living here.

All of these houses that we see, these terraces,

used to have big, long living rooms that went all the way through

for a family to sit in together, with a dining room maybe at the back.

-That's right.

-And now they're being partitioned off.

-This middle room is like a hellhole. It's horrible.

-Yes.

-There's no lights.

-There's no ventilation.

-There's no ventilation.

-No, exactly.

-It's just... It's the worst option, isn't it?

-Yeah.

While housing officers are more interested in the numbers of people in these small family homes,

I'm concerned about the deeply unpleasant conditions,

which also extend to the essential facilities.

-The kitchen has a feeling of coming in for some pretty heavy use.

-Yeah.

And the stove... Obviously, they're not worrying about cleaning, particularly.

All these people and use, again, will attract things like mice, rats.

Overuse of the property, really, and not being cleaned.

I'm going to open a cupboard and I'm going to see my arch enemy - the cockroach.

WHSIPERS: He's long gone.

Well, no cockroaches, but the poor state of the kitchen

coupled with a lot of people living in close proximity,

is not a good mix.

And we haven't even ventured upstairs yet.

It looks as though there are people occupying the upstairs bedrooms.

I can see things in windows.

So I think, if we wander up there now and have a look and see if they're awake...

So five so far on the ground floor.

Yeah.

Coming up...

We discover even more people living upstairs.

So we've got here two more.

So that's... I think we're up to seven so far.

Up to seven people so far, yeah.

Yeah.

Damp and mould are among the most common causes of complaint

to housing departments all over the UK.

But you don't expect to find them in a modern, purpose-built block of flats like this one.

In Wolverhampton in the West Midlands,

mum Kattrina Haney and her two sons moved into a flat here three years ago.

But since then, she says damp has got steadily worse,

making electrical sockets dangerous and damaging the family's health.

OK, well, this started off as a leak.

Just a damp patch.

And it's obviously got a lot worser.

It comes down right into the back of the cupboards.

It's disgusting and it's in the next one, too.

The flat is privately owned,

but leased and managed by a housing association.

After three years of asking them to help,

Kattrina finally contacted her local council.

Housing officer Ravi Phull took up Kattrina's case

and got in touch with the owner of the flat on her behalf,

advising them that work needed to be done.

It started the day I signed my contract, actually.

It was just a damp patch.

A little, light faded patch.

And they says that someone was going to come out and fix it.

You know, clean it up and repaint it.

But no-one's ever been since.

So it's been going on for three years.

Got worser over the years, obviously.

And now it's just a state. It's disgusting.

There's a smell to it. You know, a damp smell.

Horrible.

It's disgusting.

And it's not just the kitchen.

OK, this is the hallway.

Obviously, it's all come out into the hallway down the frame.

All the ceiling is starting to turn black now.

It does leak into the light switch, as well.

So I tell the boys not to turn on the bathroom light at all

because I don't want them getting electrocuted.

This is the bedroom where I sleep.

And it's all in the ceiling there, where the flue runs.

It runs down, straight down the wall.

As you can see, the wood is coming away from the ceiling,

and it's mould again.

This is not only nasty to look at.

Living in an atmosphere of mould and damp can also be a health hazard,

affecting the immune system and aggravating asthma attacks -

something Kattrina's sons already suffer from.

The dirtiness of it.

And having two children, it's not hygienic at all,

especially them having asthma.

I mean, one's got a chest infection now and has been off school since last week

and the other one's got tonsillitis.

So living in this environment is not helping them at all.

I've complained to the housing association that I rent the property from.

Someone should have already been out and dealt with it.

But I've never had an appointment for anybody to come.

I phoned the council because I think the housing association would listen to them more

than they'd maybe listen to me.

And I'd get somewhere a bit more quicker,

after waiting so long already.

The council listened to Kattrina.

But did the landlord and the housing association respond?

Ravi's arrived at Kattrina's flat to see if the repairs have been done.

This is a revisit of a property.

An inspection was carried out.

Hazards were identified.

The landlord was written out to

and we're just doing a re-inspection

to see how much of the works have been complied with or have been done.

Ravi wants to know if anything's happened

since the council stepped in.

Repairs and maintenance are the responsibility of the landlord.

But he or she would expect to be alerted to any problems by the housing association,

who are managing the flat.

What's been done?

The boiler's been repaired.

It was leaking constantly.

And that's been repaired.

And the lights in the kitchen.

What was wrong with the lights in the kitchen? Remind me again.

Water had leaked into them and they just kept blowing.

Carrying out these repairs has definitely made a difference.

But Ravi knows that, unless the source of the problem has been found and dealt with,

the damp won't go away.

Did they actually find the cause of the leak and remedy it

or did it just stop itself?

-The leaks do stop and carry on and stop and carry on.

-OK.

Someone did come out, says that the leak could be from my boiler or the man who lives upstairs.

But no-one's actually been out and investigated the leak.

If the other tenants are having problems, too,

there could be a serious underlying issue with this building.

The man upstairs called his agent, because we're with different agencies.

-He did say that he had a leak in his boiler.

-OK.

So that could be the cause of what's happened in my kitchen.

So even though the leak's in his flat...

Until we go in there, we won't know.

But there's no hazards. It's creating hazards in your flat, right?

But then there's downstairs, as well.

He knocked me and says there is a leak. Have I got something leaking?

-So you're potentially leaking downstairs?

-Yeah.

-So there seems to be a systemic problem.

-Yeah.

-OK. Can we have a look in the other room?

-Yeah.

Oh, goodness me! OK.

-It's vile.

-Yeah, OK.

It's just too much.

And having two kids, as well, right next to the sink.

All right. Well, obviously, there is also a concern

because of the water coming in from upstairs.

We've also got a concern if it's getting into the electrics,

which is a even bigger issue, really.

-I have got a damp patch around my electric box.

-Right.

But it's not, like, a leak, it's just a patch.

The bathroom is a very similar story to the kitchen.

Water has been seeping into the electrical sockets.

Ravi isn't happy about this.

Nor is she happy about the amount of mould the family are living with.

It's even crept into Kattrina's bedroom.

Ravi wants the source found and this flat cleaned up and made safe.

Damp is the main issue.

-And it is bad.

-It is bad.

So what we're now going to do

is we're going to get on to the next stage -

to serve notice on the landlord.

He's going to be charged for that notice, as well,

because there's a fine that comes with it.

And if they don't comply with the notice,

then we will look to prosecute them.

The council can now make sure

that action is taken to put things right for Kattrina and her sons.

And you'll hear from us.

-You'll get a copy of all the notices served et cetera, as well.

-OK.

-Thank you very much for your help.

-All right, no worries.

It's Ravi's job to make sure that standards in the flat are improved

to make it a safe environment for all the family.

She has no hesitation in getting straight on to the housing association and the landlord

to remind them of their obligations.

They need to dig a little further into where the leak's coming from,

if the leak has actually been stopped now.

It's not just a case of just patching up visibly whatever is there,

but to make sure that whatever is going on doesn't recur.

Kattrina turned to the council for help

because she says she was unable to get the housing association to do the work.

She's hoping it won't be long now before the mysterious hidden leak can be located

and the damp and mould are finally cleaned up for good.

The agents for the property told us that, under the terms of Miss Harvey's tenancy agreement,

she should have reported defects straight to them

but, instead, she reported them to the council.

When they were told of the issues, they said they inspected the property

and, as a responsible housing association,

agreed to repair and to recharge the costs back to the landlord,

in line with the terms of the lease.

They also said some repairs had already been done

and they'd contacted the tenant on several occasions to do more work,

but had been unable to arrange access to the flat.

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...

That's ready to collapse.

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

The cistern's in the bath.

I don't know how they flush it.

..and learning what it takes to make sure

a house is fit to be called a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

Earlier, housing officer Stephen Pavett

showed me a terraced house in Newham, East London.

The council has served two enforcement notices on the landlord

because the property was being used to store scrap metal

and it's been unlawfully converted into bedsits.

I want to see all of the house today.

Yes? OK?

Stephen's here to check if the landlord's changed the property back to a single home.

He reckons that as many as five people were living on the ground floor alone.

All right, so we've got three doors here.

Hello. From the planning department. Newham Council.

I just need to have a quick look around your room, please.

-Are you living here in this room by yourself?

-Yes.

Just yourself.

-How much rent do you pay per month for the room?

-£400.

£400.

And do you have a tenancy agreement or anything like that that you pay rent to?

How do you pay your money?

So you pay the money to someone in the house

and they pay the money to someone else? OK.

Thank you.

It's worrying that this tenant doesn't pay his rent directly to the landlord,

but to one of the other tenants in the house.

Another bedroom here.

But it seems like, from what the other guy was saying,

-that he's paying his rent to somebody else here.

-Yeah.

So there's a possibility that it's being sublet?

Is there sometimes the case

where actually the owners have no idea what's going on within their property,

that it's being let out without their knowledge?

Yeah, it could be that.

But, you know, it's up to the owners and the landlords to know what's going on in their own property

and for them to carry out checks if they need to.

But whichever way you look at it,

it seems there are still too many people living in this house.

So we've got here two more.

So that's... I think we're up to seven so far?

Up to seven people so far, yeah.

Yeah.

It's over six people.

OK, so over six to be a large house of multiple occupation,

for which a special licence is needed.

-Planning permission is needed for the planning department.

-Right.

-They'd also need a licence from the housing department, as well.

-OK.

So the plus side is we haven't seen any scrap metal here.

No. But we're here to see all the rooms, but...

-We've got one more room to go in.

-We've got one more room.

-Hello. I'm from the planning department from the council.

-Yeah.

We need to just have a quick look around your room, please.

Thank you.

Are you living here at the moment?

So how long have you lived in here?

So in this room he's got a couple...

..and a double bed and that's it.

So how much rent a month do you pay for the room?

For which bit, the whole property?

So are you the gentleman who's got the lease of this property?

Right. So how much do you actually pay yourself?

Right, OK.

The plot thickens.

The couple in this room

appear to be looking after the bills for the whole house,

although the gentleman says that someone else, who left recently, owns the lease to the house.

It's possible that the owner of the house is unaware

that his tenant is subletting rooms.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sorry to disturb you.

From Stephen's investigations,

it looks like as many as nine people may be living in this house.

It's supposed to be a family home,

but none of them appear to be related to each other.

One of the things I really like about Newham

is that it's really straightforward here.

You know, we could see that there were things wrong with that property,

you know, in terms of the condition.

-But actually, this is a planning matter.

-Yes.

There just shouldn't be that many people living in that way in that house.

It has to go back to a family dwelling and that's all there is about it.

There's no other use they can use for that property at this stage in Newham.

So the next step, then.

Are we looking at a prosecution here?

Yeah, I've sent letters of warning of a prosecution in the past.

And this further visit just confirms it's still in breach of our notice.

Even with the warning of a prosecution,

the owners still haven't done anything about putting it back to a single family home.

So we've got nowhere else to go now,

other than to look to pursuing more proceedings as a prosecution.

The council have since told us that they didn't find enough evidence

to prove that the property was still being used as a shared house.

However, they say they'll keep on visiting

to make sure that compliance with the enforcement notice continues.

There's a saying that home is where the heart is.

But for some people, their home is in one place

and their heart is somewhere entirely different.

In Stroud, housing officer Rachel Pugh

is waiting to welcome a new tenant

who's taken the huge step of giving up his home

and moving 200 miles to be closer to the people he loves the most.

We're meeting Mr Weston today.

He's relocating from Ipswich to be nearer his family.

So from being very isolated, he's moving a lot closer

to everybody and he's really excited about it.

He might be excited now,

but still in Ipswich, Pete Weston's decision to up sticks and move

three-and-a-half hours away from his home

hasn't been an easy one.

One of my sons and his girlfriend moved down to Stroud,

where they'd been given a job.

Four or five years later, my youngest son, he moved there, as well,

which then left me here on my own.

Which was about seven or eight years ago, I think.

Despite feeling increasingly isolated in his own home

and with only his dog Saffy for company,

even pleas from his family to join them

weren't enough to convince him to pack up his whole life and start again somewhere new.

They were always saying that I should move down there and I was agreeing,

but I could never see a way of doing it, for some reason.

It seemed such a daunting thing to do, to have to move

after all these years in the same place.

Despite the fact that your sons from a distance are saying, "It'll be all right, Dad,

"we'll do everything for you."

Pete's worries were made worse by health problems

caused by a medical condition which severely affects his nervous system.

It causes quite severe muscle spasms

in the upper back and the legs and feet, mostly,

which can be incredibly painful.

So doing something like moving, trying to arrange everything,

think of what needs to be done and when

is incredibly difficult, it really is.

I still had this thought in my mind, "It's just too much.

"I won't be able to do it, I'm better off just staying where I am."

Which is silly because, behind that, I know I'll be better off with them.

But finally, Pete found the courage to take the plunge.

Just six weeks after applying for a place on Stroud District Council's housing list,

they offered him a new home.

Now Pete can't wait to have his family just round the corner.

I haven't seen a great deal of them over the years.

I mean, my children have been up here with my grandchildren,

but it's not the same as having lived near them for any length of time.

So I'm really looking forward to going down there and spending time with them.

It'll be absolutely brilliant.

With the big day here,

it's housing officer Rachel's job to oversee the handover

and help get the council's newest tenant settled into his new home.

It was almost ready when he saw it last time.

And he seemed really pleased.

So I hope he's going to be thrilled with the final result.

And I shall be signing a few bits of paper with him, make it all official.

Pete's all packed up and on the road.

But the move's happening so quickly, reality hasn't quite sunk in.

I think once I'm there and I've got the keys and my boys turn up...

..I will start believing it's actually happening.

I never had any high hopes

that I would be able to find anywhere to live down here.

I certainly didn't expect it to be so easy.

I'm just overjoyed that I'm going to be three miles away from my granddaughters.

And my little dog Saffy is absolutely fine

and I think she's going to love it when we get there.

I'd say, on a scale of one to ten of being happy at the moment,

I'm 11.

I'm beyond happy at this moment.

Come on, then.

Good girl.

This is our new home, Saffy.

-Hi, Rachel.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Nice to see you again.

-Are you ready?

-I am indeed, yes.

OK. Let's go.

I've got butterflies.

And I'm feeling a little bit nervous at this moment, but...

-That's all right.

-..but happy and good.

Pete's only seen his new home once.

This is the first time since it's been redecorated.

It looks just as nice as when I came before.

-Come on in.

-Saffy, you're going the wrong way.

It's got a new floor everywhere now.

Oh, my goodness! I wasn't expecting that.

-So we've gone over all the tiles.

-Oh, yeah. Yep.

Right, bedroom in here.

-Yeah. Oh, it's so light.

-Yeah.

It's so light.

It's the big windows, makes such a difference.

Ah! I love it when the light... It's brilliant.

It's absolutely wonderful.

It really is.

It's so light. It's spacious. It's brilliant.

I love it. I love it.

It's not only Pete who's got to get used to some new rules and regulations.

So with pets, with Saffy,

we have a pet policy that we ask you to fill in.

-All I need to do first is to check out the local cats and where they are.

-OK.

Apart from that, she is absolutely fine.

It might be an idea, perhaps, to keep her on a lead,

until you've sussed out the cat situation.

I'll just ask you to sign it now and then it's a done deal.

If you...

-Just under your name there.

-OK.

That's it! It's all official, Mr Weston. So here are your keys.

-Thanks for your help.

-Pleasure.

-That's lovely, thank you.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye.

Formalities over, Pete can get stuck into the job of moving in.

And with all three of his sons on hand to do the hard work,

it seems he and Saffy are planning, well, a more supervisory role.

I'm looking forward to it immensely.

I'm looking forward to getting my armchair in.

I'm looking forward to getting my bed made.

I'm looking forward to getting my garden chair

and just sit out here for an hour or two, I think.

Let my boys do all the work.

With their dad just minutes down the road now, rather than hours away in Suffolk,

the whole family think Pete's exactly where he belongs.

He's going to be back in the bosom of the family. He'll be well-supported here.

Yeah, a good move. Definitely.

He's only three miles away from Nicki and Dale's two eldest.

So, yes. It's perfect for him.

Perfect for them, as well, I hope.

I think Grandpa moving by is going to be amazing.

We'll come to see him every weekend.

Saff, come here.

Only a few weeks ago, giving up his home and moving 200 miles

seemed like an impossible challenge for Pete.

But thanks to Rachel and Stroud District Council's housing team,

he can now look forward to a much brighter future.

That all went very well.

I've got a happy man and a happy dog in there.

He seems really pleased, so I'm chuffed.

Now he's installed,

Pete's already looking forward to making a new home for himself,

surrounded by the people he loves the most.

Every day is going to be a happy day here, I think.

Every day will be, definitely.

Just to know that I can just pop down the road and see my grandchildren and my children,

it's going to marvellous, absolutely marvellous.

I'm relieved. I'm happy. Speechless.

I... I'm just overcome by it all.

It is absolutely wonderful.

That's it for today. Join me next time,

when I'll be learning more about what it takes

to be a front-line housing officer.