Episode 17 The Housing Enforcers

Hello, can you 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 would have been standing in Coroner's Court.

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

One of the fishiest presentations of a property I've come across so far.

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

'and slum conditions...'

-It really does look shanty town.

-Yeah, it's not up to standard.

'..as they deal with dodgy landlords,

'nightmare neighbours and everything between...'

My God, straightaway there's the smell of dog muck.

You never know what you're going to find.

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

'Today, housing officers investigate a dangerously overcrowded bedsit.'

-We've got 15 people in this house?

-15 people in total living in here.

15 people's a lot to cope with in this property.

This is like a vertical village.

'A visually disabled family get the help they need

'to live independently in their own home.'

You take it for granted when you can see.

You don't realise how much you rely on it,

even just doing the smallest of things.

You're learning all over again.

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.

In 2015, the population of London reached 8.6 million.

That's the highest it's been since 1939.

As people move here from all over the world,

boroughs like Newham in east London are facing a crisis.

High demand for cheap housing means family homes

are being unlawfully converted into shared accommodation.

Looking to get the biggest return possible,

landlords are packing these homes with tenants,

meaning there often aren't enough toilets

or kitchen space to go round.

It turns what should be a family home into a health hazard.

'Today I'm joining housing officers Stephen Pavett and Holly Ripp

'on an inspection of a shared house that they suspect

'is dangerously overcrowded.

'The house in question is beautiful, if somewhat run-down,

'a double-fronted Victorian property

'in one of Newham's best neighbourhoods.'

Hello, we're from the council. We need to do another inspection today.

'Stephen and Holly started investigating this property

'over two years ago,

'when they discovered that the landlord had more than one family

'living in the house.

'They issued an order, forcing him to turn the property back

'into a single family home.

'But, since then, there's been no communication from the landlord,

'so they've come to see if anything's changed.'

So, this is a living room.

We've got a living room, at least in this room of this house.

It's certainly set up in that way.

Perhaps it's maybe a kids' play area as well.

-You can see a toy here.

-Yeah.

There is a single, temporary mattress.

But we've got a fridge in here.

Um...

Why we've got a fridge in the living room, I don't know.

Then we've got the lady who came in

and said there were people living in that room over there,

suggesting people other than her or her family.

-Yes.

-So, straightaway...

Straight away, we've got the signs again

that this property is not used in the correct way

-and it could be that they're using this as their living area...

-Yeah.

..and they're keeping their food in here,

separate from the other people.

'A major problem with overcrowding the house

'is that it creates a serious fire hazard,

'making it difficult for everyone to get out of the building

'should there ever be an emergency.'

A complete lack of all fire protection that's required.

We've got one on the ground floor here. It looks wired to the mains

but it's not working, it's hanging from the ceiling.

Not in working order, so that's pretty dangerous for this property.

'We've only been in the house five minutes

'and it's already pretty clear

'that the landlord has more than one family living here.

'It would appear he's completely ignored the council's order,

'which is a criminal offence.'

We found a family of four in here last time

and the lady's just confirmed that's still the situation.

-OK, the family living separately in here?

-Yeah.

Let's just have a little look.

This really worries me down on this wall.

If we have a look at the number of plugs

that are working out of that single socket there...

There's an iron there as well.

It's all going into that one socket,

again, completely overloading what should be

-a front room, a dining room.

-That's right, yeah.

It's not designed to be used in that way.

'This room is right next to the main escape route out of the house,

'so a potential fire hazard like this,

'combined with the overcrowding,

'means that should there ever be an emergency,

'it would be incredibly hard for the tenants to escape.'

So just to be clear,

-there is an enforcement order on this house...

-That's correct.

..to stop it being used in exactly the way

-it seems to still be being used?

-That's correct, yeah.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have complied

with the enforcement notice still.

There's at least two children here.

So, one is of school age,

judging by the fact that there's homework being done over there.

It's all happening in here. Family of four,

everything going on in this room - education, food, sleep.

It's all going on right here.

It's not big for four people at all.

It's heartbreaking to think how desperate the family must be

for them all to have to live together in this one room,

but I soon get to find out what it's like

when we head upstairs to meet Anita

who's been in the house for the past three years.

-So, in this room at the moment...

-It's too small for me and my kids.

-You?

-And my two kids and my husband.

-So, there's four of you in this one room?

-Yeah.

Can you tell me how that works? How do you do the things you need to do?

Because there is one bed here. Do you all sleep in that bed?

No, my husband sleeps on...

-Your husband sleeps on the floor?

-Yeah.

-Then the three of you...?

-Do you get any sleep at all?

-No.

I can imagine.

-How much do you pay for this room?

-380.

-380 a month?

-Yeah.

It just feels like a very small room for a family of four.

But then, with your son being so young,

-are you in this room all day long?

-Yeah.

I'm living...

He's sitting with me all the time.

-So, all day long, the two of you in this room?

-Yeah.

It's upsetting to see the conditions Anita has to try

and raise her children in.

She's constantly surrounded by a stream of ever-changing tenants

in a dirty, unkempt house.

Oh, man.

So, this is the bathroom where she has to bathe her kids.

Again, trying to put myself in Anita's situation,

one thing you want to do is keep your kids clean.

And this is where she comes to try and do that.

So, there's obviously some kind of repairs that they've carried out

with sellotape just to try and hold the bath together

so that the kids haven't got sharp edges

or try and creep underneath the bath.

Then you put yourself in the place of the dad

who works on a building site.

So, he comes home from work.

Who knows? Long hours, manual labour.

This is where he gets to relax and have a bath.

Then he goes to sleep on a mat under a duvet on the floor

next to them in the bed.

Just picture that as your day-to-day life, for a second.

'Anita and her family are in the country legally.

'But what concerns the housing officers

'is that overcrowded shared houses like this

'often exploit a hidden population of people

'who don't have permission to be in the UK.

'It's something the council is keen to get under control.'

This is the last bedroom that we've come across.

14 people in this house.

And another gentleman on the ground floor, 15.

-Is that...?

-Yeah.

-I didn't even spot that one.

-No.

-They've got 15 people in this house?

15 people in total living in here.

15 people is a lot to cope with in this property.

-Yeah.

-It's just completely overcrowded.

This is like a vertical village.

'I can't believe there's 15 people living in this one house.

'That means the landlord's netting

'somewhere in the region of £1,600 a month

'from a property that by law should only have one family living in it.'

'It's time for us to leave.

'We've seen that the house is dirty and overcrowded.

'But if the housing officers want more evidence

'of how many people are actually living in the property,

'they'll have to come back after dark.

'Establishing what's really going on in some properties

'can be a time-consuming job.'

This is a really stunning double-fronted house

minutes from the city of London,

the most exciting city in the world with some of the highest property,

and yet we go in there through the front door

and there are scenes of real proper depravation, aren't there?

That's right. We don't want to see the property

rented out as individual rooms.

They're basically just sharing kitchen facilities,

bathroom facilities, they've locks on the doors,

there's no interaction between them, they come and they go frequently.

It's trying to remove that transient population from Newham

and make it a place where people want to stay,

rather than this continual movement of people through the borough.

'Later on, Stephen and Holly are back at the house

'but, this time, it's not the landlord who's in trouble.'

He's got no ID, no passport, no nothing.

No form of identification that tells us where he's from,

what he's doing here, nothing.

For the nearly 12 million people in the UK living with disability

or chronic health issues, the home should be a place

where they can feel safe and live with dignity.

Sadly, for many, the reality can be quite different.

In Kent, Susan Hughes is on her way to meet a couple

who both have severe visual disabilities.

They've asked the council for help with urgent improvements

they say they need

to live independently in their own home.

They live in a housing association property.

They've lived there for about a year now

but it hasn't got some of the adaptations that they really need.

They took it on because it was meant to be adapted for disabled

but they have got some quite different disabled requirements.

Harriet Keeling has been visually impaired since birth

as the result of a genetic condition.

I was born with cataracts and I had it removed

when I was about three years old.

But, unfortunately, I got left with quite complex vision,

very low vision.

But I was born with a sight problem,

so I've got on with my life and moved forward.

But for husband Michael,

who didn't have sight problems when the couple met,

losing his ability to see in later life has been a huge adjustment.

Having already lost one eye in an accident,

his remaining eye started to fail three years ago.

I had retinal degeneration.

So, my sight loss was quite rapid.

A situation made worse, as Michael also suffers from Marfan's syndrome,

a rare genetic disorder affecting the heart and the joints,

leaving him battling mobility problems.

When I was younger, I used to play a lot of sport.

But now, I don't do any of that.

To be honest, I don't actually do much of anything now.

Part of you doesn't always accept what's happened.

After leading an active life,

losing his independence has taken its toll on his self-confidence.

This is why it's harder for Michael to come to terms with

but, at the moment,

we prop each other up and we work as a team.

But he can struggle to do even the simplest of tasks.

You take it for granted

when you can see,

but when it's taken away from you,

you don't realise how much you rely on it,

even just doing the smallest of things.

Making a cup of tea,

scrabbling around finding the side where the kettle's on.

Having moved to Kent to be closer

to the specialist medical treatment the family needs in London,

they say their previous housing association told them their new home

would be fully adapted to their sight and mobility problems.

It's basically about keeping your independence

and having a very straightforward life like anybody else would

and being able to do things yourself, keeping your confidence.

But when they asked for alterations to the kitchen

and bathroom to make them easier and safer to use,

the couple say they were turned down.

The new housing association say they'd done some work

and were happy to discuss the family's needs,

but the house had already been adapted for disabled occupants,

so, Harriet called in the council.

Everything is a fight and I think what I'm asking for is not a lot.

It's just to give us the independence.

We've been here nearly a year

and we're struggling for something

that really doesn't need to be a struggle.

As part of the council's Staying Put team,

it's Susan's job to help elderly, disabled and vulnerable people

to adapt their homes so they can live independently.

Hello, Mrs Keeling? Mr Keeling? Nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you.

-I'm Susan Hughes.

Susan's been called in to assess the situation

and see what the council can do to make the house safer

while they work with the housing association to resolve the issue.

Social Services have written to your housing association, yes?

And they've asked for a few things to be done,

but your housing association haven't done them.

This was a few months ago, it was six months ago.

We got in touch with the housing association,

-because we moved to this property from another adapted home.

-Right.

And our previous association said

-that all the adaptations will be done as you move.

-Yeah.

And that's something that has to be done.

It's a good-sized house, it's perfect for what we need

but we need the adaptations to make life easier

for our individual needs.

We'll have a look at what's needed.

I can write and sort of ask them again.

There may be some things we can do.

With his sight deteriorating, issues in the kitchen

make it even harder for Michael to do things for himself,

with poor lighting at the top of the list.

Simply having strip lighting would allow the family to make the most

of the sight they do have.

This is one of the worst points for us.

When it's a day like this, you can see it's quite bright in here,

but that single light does no light for us

-once the weather changes and in the evenings.

-Right.

So we asked for strip lights to be put in,

which is a normal thing that we had in our other property.

If I need to go away, if Michael, my husband, is here,

then he has to have everything done for him,

because he cannot see in here at all.

It's just that it's too dangerous.

I'm sure the housing association would allow that,

so I'll try and look at some funding, at least for the light.

For keen chef Michael,

cooking's one pleasure not taken away by the loss of his sight.

But, unable to stand for long because of the joint

and mobility problems caused by his illness,

the layout of the kitchen is making that impossible.

Cos my husband's actually a great cook

and if he just had a side there, if he's having a bad day,

-it's something he can go and prepare...

-And he'd sit down at it?

-Sit down, et cetera.

-OK.

The Keelings aren't alone in having difficulty finding a home

which allows them to live independently

despite their disabilities.

One in six disabled adults and half of all disabled children

live in housing that isn't suitable for their needs.

Later, we see how making small changes can make a huge difference

to people living with a disability.

-You're happy with everything?

-Yeah.

-That's brilliant.

I just think it's a brilliant service and, you know,

more local councils should be doing something like that.

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, cos we've seen movement.

..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 a fit place to call a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

'Back in Newham, housing officers Stephen Pavett and Holly Ripp

have been investigating overcrowding at a shared house.

-15 people in this house?

-15 people in total living in here.

-15 people is a lot to cope with in this property.

-Yeah.

It's just completely overcrowded.

It's 11pm and Stephen and Holly are on their way back to the house,

this time accompanied by police.

We've actually gained information

that there are more people living there

than we were previously aware of when we first did the visit

and that some of them may be in the country illegally.

Raids like this are important for the council

as they try to crack down on unlicensed shared housing.

They've invited the police to attend because they suspect

they might also find some of Newham's hidden illegal population.

If the police can prove that the landlord is knowingly renting

to illegal immigrants,

they could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

-Hello.

-Hi, we're from the council again.

-OK.

-Is it all right to come in?

-Yeah.

-OK, thank you.

By raiding the house at night,

Stephen and Holly are hoping to catch any extra tenants

that we didn't meet before.

This is the same as last time, so it's still a lounge.

Can't see anyone in there.

The lounge is empty, but upstairs the police have found a man

they believe could be in the country illegally.

That room's over the annexe, so it's the back-of-the-house room.

It's a small single room with a double bed in it

that we were in the other day.

He's got no ID. No passport, no nothing.

No form of identification that tells us where he's from,

what he's doing here, nothing,

so the officer's just getting him to write down some details now

of his name, his date of birth, so they can run a check on him,

but having no identification's a bit odd.

The police will inform the Border Agency about anyone they find

with no official papers.

He's just basically said that he's come over seven years ago

to the UK on a lorry.

So, it doesn't appear that he's legally allowed

to be in the country,

so the officer's just going to ask him a few questions more

at this stage.

A search of the property doesn't reveal any extra tenants,

but further down the hall in one of the other bedrooms,

the police have found another couple

who are potentially in the country illegally.

I've just been informed by another officer

that another two people down there, a couple,

a lady that we met the other day

are unfortunately going to be asked to come down to the police station,

cos the police believe that they're illegally in the country.

In total, three people are taken in for questioning

by the police and Border Agency, a single man and a young couple.

Anita and her family remain in the house.

The officer's just telling the gentleman down there

that he's going to have to escort him to the police station,

cos the UK Border Agency will want to talk to him.

The raid's complete and,

although the team don't find any extra tenants,

there's still action for Stephen and Holly to take.

The information that results from tonight won't change how

we're going to deal with this property.

We're still going to continue with our prosecution.

We'll just add the small bit of information

that we've gathered from this evening,

add that to our evidence

and then we'll be preparing prosecution instructions

for this one.

Newham Council have told us that since we've filmed

they wrote to the landlord warning him

of their intention to prosecute for breaching an enforcement notice.

In reply, the landlord said he'd now complied with the notice.

Newham housing officers are going to carry out a final inspection

of the house to see what work's being done

before they make a decision

on whether to continue proceedings against him.

Back in Kent,

Susan Hughes has been called in to help Harriet and Michael Keeling

who both have severe visual impairments

and say their housing association property needs urgent work

to allow them to live there independently.

We've been here nearly a year

and we're struggling for something

that really doesn't need to be a struggle.

The housing association say

they've done considerable work for the family

and they'd already adapted the house

for a disabled previous tenant.

But changes made to help him actually make everyday tasks harder

for Michael who's also battling a condition affecting his joints.

That means sometimes he needs a wheelchair.

-Oh, shower room.

-This is our lovely wet room.

My husband actually can't use the bath

and the whole point of having this room is to have the space

for the wheelchair for Michael to be independent.

Michael needs a different type of handrail to allow him

to get in and out of the shower and bath safely.

And there's not enough room in the bathroom to manoeuvre the wheelchair

with the shower in its current position.

-That's the shower area.

-This is the shower area, which we asked...

Originally, the shower was over on that wall,

so you would have a lot of room to come in and out with the chair.

-Yeah.

-But what he's done, the previous tenant,

he unfortunately moved it to there,

so when you have a shower, you just get a flood

and then it goes out the door.

-Right.

-Because it's not sloped properly.

-Yeah.

-We've asked them to move that, but that's...

And a few rails sorted out, but...

We can look at the rails, we can definitely look at the rails.

Keen to do whatever she can to help,

Susan has some good news and some bad news.

We can't take out the bath

and bigger things like that cos they're too big,

but we'll look at doing some of the smaller bits for you.

That's great and that's not what I thought I would hear,

cos we've been waiting so long for things

and everything is a struggle and a fight, so I'm chuffed.

Thank you.

And being able to do the kind of things he used to take for granted,

like cooking, could make all the difference for Michael

as he comes to term with the loss of his sight.

Just to have lighting in the kitchen,

a surface that Mike can work on himself.

It's all about safety, it's not because we fancy

a top-of-the-range, brand-new fitted kitchen, we don't want that.

What we want is safety.

A couple of weeks later

and Susan's back in Kent to see how the family is getting on.

'Today I'm going to the Keelings.

'They've had all their work finished.'

I just want to make sure that it's all done correctly

and they're happy with everything.

Hi, Mr Keeling, it's Susan Hughes.

-I've just come to check all the work.

-Yeah, OK, no problem.

Is that all right for you to show me everything?

-Are you happy with it all?

-Oh, it's fabulous.

-Is it? Brilliant.

Oh, look at those lights. That's very good.

-So they make a difference, do they?

-Yeah, they make a huge difference.

Yeah.

Especially at night, with just having that single light there.

But now we've got these two, it's absolutely brilliant in here.

Michael's unable to stand up for long

because of problems with his joints.

So, creating a worktop he can sit at has been a great help.

Our handyperson has done you a worktop.

-Yeah.

-That looks very good, doesn't it?

It's a lot easier for me now.

-So you can sit down here and you can do some work?

-Yeah.

What are you cooking tonight, then?

-I'm going to make a chilli con carne tonight.

-That's really good.

And a few simple adaptations

designed for people with visual and mobility problems

means Michael can now use the bathroom safely by himself.

All these nice blue rails, then.

-Wow, you've got a lot of 'em!

-THEY LAUGH

-Obviously replaced the ones that were already here.

-Yeah.

Using the white ones, there was a clash

against the background on the tiles

so it was better to have a darker rail.

Are you happy with everything? That's brilliant.

Yeah, I just think it's a brilliant service

and more local councils should be doing something like that.

Well, as I say, you know where we are. You can always give us a ring.

Hopefully, other bits that you need,

your housing association will pick up on,

but if you have got any problems, by all means, give us a ring back.

-Brilliant, OK, well, I'm glad it's all OK. Bye!

-Bye!

The council Staying Put scheme is there to help people

live independently in their own homes

and Susan's delighted with the results.

I think the biggest change has been

that Michael can now do some things more independently

so he can see to cook,

he's got that nice worktop that he can cook on.

The thing is, with something like this,

because it's something I enjoy,

something I know, I don't have to rely on my sight for it, so I can...

I was just about to say I could do it blindfolded, but I nearly am!

HE LAUGHS

Now, with everything that's been done in here,

I can get back to it

and I don't have to put up with Harriet's cooking!

The housing association which owns the house tells us

that they've carried out a lot of work

to adapt the home for the family

even though they had no obligation to do so.

They say the family and the previous tenant

had arranged between themselves to swap homes

and would have assessed the suitability of the house

for their needs before they moved in.

That's it for today.

Join me next time back on the road with the housing enforcers.