Episode 4 The Housing Enforcers

-We'll have to force access.

-DOG BARKS

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...

-It really does look a shanty town.

-Yeah, it's not up to standard.

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

If someone had died here,

you would've been 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...'

MATT LAUGHS

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

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

'and everything in 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, we discover a house so overcrowded

that even the housing officer is shocked.

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

I wouldn't want to stay in here more than a couple of hours.

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

One man calls in the council

after his neighbours take a unique approach

to landscaping in the back garden.

I couldn't believe it. That's it, I'll just pile through the house

and into the back garden without any disregard to nobody else.

'And we visit what I think might be the smallest home in the country.'

I don't know if you can see, but that there,

that is the width of the whole house.

That's all you get.

When was the last time you heard anyone use the phrase

"slum landlord"?

Not that recently, right?

Well, that's because we live in a country with laws

that make sure housing meets basic standards.

And it's not just landlords.

There are laws that mean that tenants need to behave too.

I'm working alongside the men and women from councils

across the UK who enforce those laws.

They are the housing enforcers.

We're in Newham, East London,

a borough which attracts a high number of immigrants

who all need somewhere to live.

But that also leaves them open to exploitation by greedy landlords.

'I'm with housing officers Christine Lyons and Holly Ripp.

'They're checking up on a privately rented property

'they suspect to be seriously overcrowded.

'By making an unannounced visit,

'the officers hope to see the real conditions inside.

'But first, they have to get in.'

Hello, can you just let me in?

Hi?

Excuse me?

Mm, definitely somebody inside, cos we've seen movement,

but they don't appear to be answering the door.

KNOCK ON DOOR

-Must be in.

-Don't knock that one, it's broken.

Christine's wisely gone straight past the doorbell.

Just from a quick visual inspection,

I would say is non-functioning.

Please, just let me in. Open the door.

Excuse me.

'The landlord of this property only has planning permission

'to rent it out as a single family home.'

Hello, can you open up?

But Holly and Christine think it's actually being used to house

a number of people who don't know each other.

The landlord's already been served with an enforcement notice,

ordering him to comply with planning permission.

If it isn't being rented to just one family,

'he'll be breaching the notice and committing a criminal offence.'

If they're not regulated by the council,

'large shared homes like these are often rundown,

'overcrowded and sometimes dangerous.'

Hi? Excuse me?

Can you just open the door for a minute?

We just want to talk to you about the property, that's all.

It's not a problem, it'll be five minutes of your time.

Definitely people inside,

definitely not really interested in talking to us.

Having said that, there are clues here.

Overflowing wheelie bins, always a good sign.

'Because we haven't got a warrant, we can't demand entry,

'so for now, it looks like it's a no-go.'

Realistically, we're not getting in there,

but there are lots of clues, aren't there?

With this kind of property,

in some cases the landlord has told them not to answer the door.

With any case of overcrowding, it's also a question of safety.

There are issues, you know, fire safety,

poor quality, overcrowding.

You know, our real aims are to ensure they're safe

and we don't know, do we?

We don't know what's going on, and if we're not allowed in,

and we're only allowed in with the landlord,

what you'll see with the landlord is different

than what we see when we knock on the doors.

You can only imagine what it is that's preventing them

from letting people in who could help them.

It must be, one would imagine, a fear of eviction,

a fear of what happens to them if, you know,

they bring some kind of trouble to bear on the landlord.

It must be, whatever it is, it must be quite effective and strong.

Yeah, they would probably be evicted, wouldn't they?

That's what they see as being the worst, worst thing to happen,

to look again for somewhere to live.

Coming up, our worst fears are realised

as the Newham team finally get into the house.

I don't know what I'm going to find in the rest of the house,

but it's not looking good so far.

Back in Newham,

'I'm joining James Burton and Ellen Nicholson

'from the council's planning department.

'They've had a complaint about cramped conditions

'in a privately rented home,

'and this time, it's come from the tenants themselves.'

OK, so what's on the list?

A garage that's been converted into a studio flat.

Right, and what information have we got?

Is there any kind of permission on it at all?

Yeah, there was planning permission in 1991

for an erection of a two-storey extension.

It should be part of the family house, though,

and not necessarily being used as separate accommodation.

The tenants have been here for a while,

but they say they're now struggling to manage.

And even at first glance, it's not hard to see why.

I don't know if you can see, but that there,

that is the width of the whole house.

So, from drainpipe to wall, that's all you get.

'Unbelievably, this house, if you can call it a house,

'is home to a family of three.'

Is that it?

-Tiny.

-There's a tiny, tiny kitchen.

It's so narrow.

And then you've got a single room above that.

This is a very small place, isn't it?

The landlord is the next-door neighbour.

And it looks like this house was once part of an extension.

You can see the little door,

uPVC door that's been chucked on the side of the property,

but then where does it go?

OK, the owner here doesn't want to show his face

and doesn't want to be on television,

but he has allowed us to do a tour of...

..just the most incredibly tiny property I've seen so far

on this programme.

And it's... You just have to come see it.

You just have to come.

The problems of living somewhere like this are obvious,

even before you step inside.

So, you go through this lean-to, kind of alleyway thing

with its own front door here...

which, by the way, has got no way of opening it

in the case of an emergency, cos it's got a key shut.

And then you have this wall, which is quite visibly falling down.

'And the reality of the living conditions indoors

'for a family with a small child is even worse.'

OK, so this is the living area, as such,

and in here we've got two chairs,

and a table, microwave. We've got two armchairs as well.

And then straightaway, we move into the kitchen,

and in here you've got an electric hob and a sink.

That's the downstairs. That's your whole downstairs, right here.

OK, a tiny staircase...

leads you up to this, which is

a bedroom for Mum, Dad and Baby.

(That's it. That's it for the bedroom.)

And then we've got...its en-suite.

I can't open the door fully, even.

You've got a sink, toilet and a shower room.

You just can't live like this.

You can't do it.

It's obviously quite an undersized flat.

It's just over two metres width across

and looks slightly longer than that long.

For three people, it's drastically undersized.

A one-bedroom flat like this to meet minimum requirements

would have to be pretty well over 50 square metres

and there's no way this gets even close.

It's obvious this place is not fit for one person to live,

never mind a family.

It would never have got planning permission to let out as a separate unit.

I'd say this is almost the smallest family house

in the country right now.

If you've got one that's smaller with three people in it,

let me know cos I can't imagine how you'd do it.

Fortunately, James has managed to get hold of the landlord.

He may be able to shed some light on how his tenants came to be living like this.

Hi there, we're from the council, from the planning department.

After a quick chat, it seems we have some answers.

Until the time that he put that kitchen in,

it was just part of the main dwelling.

The kitchen went in and he let it out separately a year ago.

From planning terms, even though the main structure has been there for a

long time, it's still a new use and something we can enforce against.

So when you change the use and then let it out, in this case,

that's the crucial bit.

Always check with Planning and make sure, can I do this?

He will probably get a notice to return the use

of that side extension for the main property.

-So we just keep an eye on that, make sure he does follow through.

-Exactly.

So it looks like the house will soon return to being what it

was supposed to be - an extension,

and not a home for a family of three.

The result of all of this, sadly,

is that he'll probably make it what it should have been all along,

which is one family home, and that means that our couple with

their baby next door could well be looking for somewhere new to live.

That's the pressure of Newham and on London generally.

Earlier, I accompanied Newham Council housing officers

Holly and Christine to check up on a private rented property which

only has planning permission for one family

and is thought to be seriously overcrowded.

But, despite our best efforts...

Hello, can you just let me in?

..we couldn't get access.

Holly's back, armed with a warrant and colleague Stephen Pavett

to find out what's really happening inside.

-Is there someone in there?

-Hello.

-Hello, sir,

we're from the planning department from Newham Council.

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

Are we all right to come in?

The landlord has already been served with an enforcement notice to

make sure the property only houses one family.

Anything other than that and he's breaking the law.

-So how many people are living in your room here?

-My daughter.

-Your daughter?

-Yes.

-And your wife.

-Yes.

-In this room here?

-Yes.

-OK.

How long have you been living in this room?

-Three years.

-Three years? It's a long time to be in one room.

And how much rent do you pay for this room?

-400.

-£400 per month?

-Yeah.

So that's two adults and a teenage child, crammed into one room,

complete with all their worldly possessions, for three years!

Does this pull out, and you sleep on...?

It's hard, it must be.

Yeah, OK.

It's hard to believe that this man thinks there's no better alternative

to living in conditions like this than to be on the streets.

-Thank you very much.

-Sorry to disturb you.

-OK, no problem.

I don't know what I'll find in the rest of the house, but it's not looking good so far.

And things don't get any better in the kitchen.

It's not in a very good condition, we can see the ceiling is

in a terrible mess here.

I don't know what's happening, it must have been a leak, probably

from the upstairs bathroom that's all caved in.

We've got a number of fridges,

another good indication that this is a shared home.

So, I think we're going down the back here.

We've got this extension here, this is someone's room.

I wouldn't be particularly happy to have it as my room,

it doesn't look in particularly good shape.

Do you know how many people live in here?

-Two.

-Two people in this bed here?

It's...

Yes.

The landlord is pocketing almost three grand a month

for this property, including £320 quid

for what is not much more than a lean-to.

It's quite a small room.

-And this is your heating?

-Yes.

Does it get quite cold in here?

-Sometimes.

-It feels quite damp.

Cramped, cold and damp, not what any of us are looking for

in a home.

Planning and housing restrictions are there to ensure safe,

acceptable conditions, but judging by the state of the bathroom

it's an epic fail on both counts.

The whole floor is wet and I can't actually tell

where that's coming from.

There seems to be a bit of movement to the floor.

I would say that the floorboards underneath are sodden

and this probably may collapse.

With the amount of people that we think have been told to us

are living in this property, which is 14,

we've just got conditions that are just appalling.

I wouldn't want to be in here.

I wouldn't want to stay in here more than a couple of hours

and breathe the air in because it feels damp.

There's mould everywhere.

It's one of the worst overcrowded properties I've seen.

The conditions are not great,

so it would have to rate as one of them, yeah.

Depressingly, there's yet another family of three living in this room.

And how much do you pay for renting the room?

500.

£500 altogether for the room. OK.

When you pay the money, have you got a contract or tenancy agreement

saying that you stay here?

Nothing, you don't have any tenancy agreement?

So with three people in a number of the rooms,

no tenancy agreements, and unsafe conditions, it's enough to

make any housing officer's toes curl.

But although the landlord could face prosecution,

it's the tenants who have to deal with the fallout.

Does that mean, then, that we will have to look for new places to live?

There's a good chance that that will have to happen.

He would have to give you what's called a Section 21 notice

under the Housing Act.

A Section 21 notice is part of the Housing Act of 1988

and it gives the tenant a minimum of two months' notice

before they have to vacate a property.

Although that's probably small comfort to the tenants.

I'm seeing...

People there genuinely are nice and you've got families in there.

They're just trying to make a life for themselves,

paying a lot of money and for not a lot of return.

It's not being kept up at all by the owner of the property,

you've got damage and leaks and issues everywhere.

Yeah, we'll look to take further action on this one

by probably going for a prosecution.

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.

North Wales has some of the most stunning scenery

in the British Isles...

..with the Snowdonia National Park

attracting people who want a small piece of this relaxed lifestyle

and everything that comes with it.

Gwynedd Council housing officer Carwyn Roberts is on his way

to a house that's been causing problems for neighbours after

a new owner bought it and started work on the property.

So we're going to a property in a small village

called Llan Ffestiniog.

The property in question is a small, little miner's cottage

which has been empty for a number of years.

The current owner started work on landscaping the garden.

He couldn't get the digger in through the garden,

so he drove the digger right through the middle of the house.

That's right. Unable to gain access to the rear of his property,

the owner thought it would be a good idea to smash through the house

from front to back.

He didn't just wreck his own property,

his neighbours are worried it's damaged the structural integrity

of their homes too. Noel Rhys Owen owns the house next door,

but conditions have got so bad, he's had to move out.

I couldn't believe it that he could get away

without any thought actually of just...

"Oh, that's it, I'll just pile through the house

"and into the back garden without any disregard to nobody else."

It's a shock to see such a beautiful old cottage being demolished

and being left as it is for such a long time.

The new owner was given planning permission for the work

on the cottage by Snowdonia National Park Authority,

not Gwynedd Council.

So Carwyn can't compel the owner to make good on the works needed

to put the house right, but he can intervene in the neighbour dispute.

Although looking at the property,

it's difficult to see what he can do.

There's not a lot of structure of the property left to hold

the whole thing up, and that's my main concern.

The owner of the property started the work over three years ago.

It's caused a great deal of stress for Noel,

who's now moved out and put his house on the market.

But it gets worse because it's estimated that empty properties

can devalue neighbouring homes by up to 18%.

He's had it on the market,

people come for viewings, they're not interested.

Erm...and why would they with this next door?

You can't hide what's actually behind the boarding

and the scaffolding. So, yeah, that's basically it.

Later Carwyn discovers things are even worse than he thought.

He's dug down so deep now, the foundations have started to cave in.

In three months during 2015,

local housing authorities received over 27,000 applications for

housing assistance from homeless people.

But with high demand for council properties throughout the

country, this can be a challenging, time-consuming process that

can often include long stays in temporary accommodation.

In the Gloucestershire town of Stroud,

housing officer Vicky Stephenson is helping one young woman leave

her past behind to start a new life in her own home.

We have picked her up as a priority because of medical problems,

and she has been bidding regularly on Homeseekers,

which is the council waiting list.

And fortunately, we have been able to secure

a private rental through our homeless prevention fund.

Vicky's client is Sally-Ann.

After losing close family members, Sally-Ann was homeless,

and became addicted to drugs.

The drastic change in my life was my brother getting killed, yeah.

My nan and grandad passed away in 2009,

and that just sent me off the hook, yeah. That broke me.

Over the past few months, Sally-Ann has been battling her addictions,

living in temporary accommodation whilst she and Vicky tried to

find her a place of her own, but it hasn't been an easy time.

I have fought for this.

I've fought so hard to get where I'm at now, but I've let

myself down, obviously with my addiction,

it is so powerful and cunning,

and I feel lonely, I feel weak,

depressed, and I have contemplated suicide, put it that way.

In England, at the end of June 2015,

more than 66,000 households were in temporary accommodation.

Sally-Ann believes leaving this world behind is her best

chance for a fresh start at life away from her addictions.

I don't want to ruin this chance because the council are not

going to keep helping me, they can't keep doing it for me.

I'm getting a flat.

I am getting a flat and it's just worked out so perfectly.

I'm excited, it's a new chapter.

Getting her own place to live might not seem like a big change,

but for Sally-Ann, it's allowing her to let go of the past and look

towards a positive future.

And on a wet morning in Stroud, Sally-Ann is on her way to

a meeting that's another milestone in her recovery.

The time has come for her to collect the keys to her very own flat.

Signing my papers, getting out of the B&B,

erm...

getting my own space, my sanctuary,

and a lot, a lot of excitement.

Hi, Sally. Come on in so you can see what you think of the flat.

-Thank you.

-Hi, Mark.

-Hi, how are you?

I'm Vicky. This is Sally-Ann.

What do you think, Sally?

What I like about the flat, it's mine, I'm not sharing.

Yeah, it will be my own security.

This is the supplemental agreement, and this is between your

landlord, yourself, and Stroud District Council,

so if you're happy with all that, if we could get you to sign there.

For Sally, it comes down to this moment.

All she has to do now is sign.

It's not just a signature, this is like a new life.

Excited, I've got butterflies.

I can't wait to get in and give it a good clean.

Yeah, then it's mine.

I've got my own key then, not a B&B key.

I'm going to come back in six months to see what you've done.

-Give it a couple of weeks!

-I'd like to do that, to see.

-Give it a couple of weeks.

-It will be different.

-Yeah.

Thanks to Vicky, Sally-Ann has signed a 12-month tenancy agreement on the flat.

I'm over the moon.

Two weeks later and Sally-Ann's house is starting to look like a home.

As a future home,

I could see it as a homely home and a place of sanctuary and security.

It's not just Sally-Ann that's delighted,

it's also a job well done for housing officer Vicky.

It's really nice to see how happy Sally-Ann was, getting her settled

into a new property, and having gone through such a tough time.

I feel proud of myself. No, I do, I feel very proud of myself.

But, yeah, no, I'm more than content.

We're back in Llan Ffestiniog in North Wales,

where housing officer Carwyn Roberts

has been investigating a half-demolished house

which has been making the neighbours' lives a nightmare.

The shock to see such a beautiful old cottage being demolished,

and being left as it is for such a long time.

Carwyn's been here before, but Noel's told him that the

state of the building next door has deteriorated.

The best view is from Noel's back garden.

I can see that part of the roof has been taken off now.

Last time I was here, it was half-demolished.

Three-and-a-half years like this.

I call it my own battlefield, to be honest.

He's dug down so deep now, the foundations on the end of the house

apparently have started to cave in, and it's just a pity to see one

of the oldest houses in the village literally being torn to pieces.

I'm trying to sell the house

and this is the biggest drawback.

-This demolition job next door.

-Yeah, it's not helping.

The owner's tried to board up the front of the property to try

and hide, really, the massive hole at the front.

It's quite shocking to see it.

It's certainly one of our worst ones we've got.

My concern is obviously that this is going to eventually

drag down the roof of this house.

The issue at the heart of this dispute is that planning permission

was given by the Snowdonia National Park authority, not Gwynedd Council.

And that means Carwyn can't compel the owner to complete

the work required and restore the house.

We've contacted the owner to try and see, you know,

what's going on.

He says it's works in progress

and although it's works in progress, to have it go on for so long

is not reasonable.

There is a recent planning permission gone in to erect

an extension on the back.

Erm, so whether that will spur him on to do the works, who knows?

Noel thinks he's going to have to cut his losses, and soon.

I might have to reduce the price drastically, put it on auction.

This is quite a frustrating case that we've got

because we're really not able to do much.

It's just a waiting game, crank up a little

bit of pressure and see, you know, if we can get him to move quicker.

The Snowdonia National Park Authority tells us that

while it understands the neighbour's frustrations,

they don't have the power to compel the owner to work faster.

They say a notice can only be served on the owner

if no work had been carried out at the property,

or if the work was in breach of planning,

which at the moment, it isn't.

That's it for today.

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