Episode 13 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 have died here,

you'd 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.

And I visit a flat where the tenant seemed to have disappeared

into thin air.

You can see, there's even still beans on toast on the table

and then everything else virtually as if he's left it

like five minutes ago.

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...

Straightaway, 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 at 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 for 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 -

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

and I've lost count now.

So we've got a family of four on the ground floor.

-That's four.

-Four.

-Another family of four.

-Two.

-Eight.

-Two.

-10, 11.

12.

13, 14 people.

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.

What we're looking at is not just a house. This is like a village.

You've got people doing everything, every different walk of life,

growing families, living by themselves, together as guys,

all in one place.

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.

So this a kitchen for, we think, about 15 people.

Just have a look at this. This is the work surface.

This is...

This is your food preparation area.

Big chunks taken out of it through sogginess

or maybe a little fire or something.

But there's one final problem with this house that tells us

all we need to know about the conditions here.

Clearly at some point,

someone is so worried about the safety of their food supplies...

-Yeah, that's mine.

-..that they fitted...!

Anita, that's not going to stop anyone.

-Does everyone know this is your cupboard?

-Yeah, that's mine.

-Your cupboard?

-Yeah.

-Right, OK.

-Your food is in there, is it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Your lunch?

Because sometimes, a mouse is coming.

-You get mice in there?

-Yeah.

-Oh, so that's what the spoon's for?

-Yeah.

-Cos otherwise it just opens by itself.

-That's right.

Can we have a look? Is there any evidence of mice in there?

Oh, OK.

-Oh, that's the mice eating away at the bottom of the cupboard?

-Yes.

Are you going to show me something else?

Have you got something else to show me? Go on, then?

'It's time for us to leave.

'We've seen that the house is dirty, overcrowded

'and has a pest problem,

'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 with you, 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.

Ask 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.

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.

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.

It falls to council housing officers

to make sure that both social housing and privately rented homes

are safe and fit for their tenants to live in

and in Gwynedd in Wales, they've got their work cut out.

Figures up to March 2015 showed

that of almost 6,500 social rented homes registered with the council,

44% didn't meet the quality standards

set by the Welsh Government.

Getting these homes improved is tough for housing officers

and a common cause of disputes between landlords and tenants

and it's often then that the council is called in.

Today, Richard Hughes is about to visit a property

which was at the centre of a row

between a private landlord and a council tenant.

The landlord wanted to do some repairs,

but the tenant wouldn't let him in to do the work.

This is one of the places we're going to later on.

It's a bit strange, isn't it,

that you've got a property with tenants in there

and these works are there to protect those tenants,

to make their lives better and to keep them safe,

yet the landlord that's trying to carry these works out

is prevented from doing them.

'According to the file, the tenant stopped paying his rent

'and a few months ago,

'the landlord was forced to give him notice to quit.'

As relationships deteriorate, they might, as in this example,

stop paying rent and it just deteriorates further and further,

which is a shame, because everyone's there, really, to try and help them.

The flat in question is in Caernarfon.

It's owned by a private landlord

and rented out for social housing through an agent.

It looks like the problems started

when the council advised the landlord

that work was needed to make the flat safer for tenants.

So, Richard, I'm looking at a file here for a property

which it appears needs pretty substantial work

to put in order, is that right?

We visited previously and there were bits and bobs to do, that's true.

The tenants have been evicted because of non-payment of rent.

They've actually finally got access,

but the condition of the property as it stands today

is a bit unknown.

Whatever grievances the tenant had,

not paying the rent is always a risky strategy

and in this case, he was evicted.

All Richard can do now is to have a look at the flat

to see what improvements need to be done

and work with the landlord to make it fit to rent again.

The property is right in the centre of town, above a shop.

-That's the place?

-This is the one.

The landlord's representative is here to meet us.

-Hello, there.

-Hello, hi.

-How are you doing? I'm Matt.

-I'm Dawn James.

Nice to meet you, Dawn.

So you're the agent for this property?

-Yes, I help look after the property, yes.

-OK.

Shall we go in and have a look?

The flat is on the top floor of a three-storey building.

As the landlord's representative, Dawn has the keys.

Once inside, the poor state of the flat becomes clear.

-It looks like someone left in a bit of a hurry.

-Yes.

There's no electric because it's on a key meter...

And that's all run out?

'It's obvious life's been going on as normal here

'until quite recently.'

You can see, there's even still beans on toast on the table

and then everything else is virtually as if he's left it

about five minutes ago, but how long is it, Dawn,

since anybody's been in here?

I came in a couple of days ago

and people seemed to think downstairs that he'd gone,

but he hadn't brought the keys back or anything,

so we had the locks changed

and we put a notice on the window giving him another seven days

to come in to the property if he wanted to remove any more goods.

This is a whole life here,

this is somebody's life that's just been dropped.

'It's incredible that someone would leave

'so many personal possessions behind.

'It's also a big headache for Dawn.'

Somebody downstairs said he had moved a lot of stuff out

and he said that he'd taken everything he wanted,

but there's still a lot of items here

that we don't know what to do with now.

It feels like either a sudden decision has been made,

or something very bad's happened.

There are things here which seem very personal,

like children's toys here,

there are photographs.

'I'm struggling to understand what's happened here,

'but with safety work needing to be done in the flat

'and the tenant refusing to let the landlord in to do it,

'or pay his rent, the agent had no choice but to evict him.'

He's been told to leave now for a couple of months

and he's kept putting it off, then he realised

that the final day's come and he needed to move out.

I think he may have gone to live with his girlfriend and the baby.

For Richard, the most important thing now

is to assess what needs to be done

so the landlord can bring the flat up to standard.

We've discussed previously works required here.

So obviously, you've had difficulty with the tenant

-not allowing you access, what have you.

-Yes.

So we'll crack on with the existing list

and obviously, I think there's a few additional things

like they've smashed the door.

-Yeah, that wasn't smashed.

-No, definitely not.

We're hoping to get the work started within the next couple of weeks.

We'll just work with you now and try and get it back up and running

as soon as we can so you can re-let it, really.

We'll have a quick look round now

and we'll see the extent of the damage.

Then we'll have a bit of a chat on where we go from here.

OK, that's fine, yeah.

Coming up, the mess left behind by the tenant

is disguising a dangerous problem.

I'm also looking at it in the context

of what would happen in a fire.

Your exits are all...

..already alight.

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.

The lack of a handrail on the stairs

is also leaving the whole family frightened every time they use them.

We just asked for, on the stairs, to have a rail on the other side.

Yes, I heard that, yes.

-Only because...

-That's definitely something we can do.

Only because we can't...

-With the sight thing...

-Yeah.

-..we have to come down,

but because we've only got one side to hold on...

That's something that we can simply do.

-..it's quite scary.

-That'll be fine.

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.

Susan's done everything she can for today

and she's starting to understand exactly what this family needs.

I can see now what they're struggling with.

We take our sight for granted.

It just makes you realise what it would be like

if you couldn't see

and all the difficulties you'd have in your own home, of getting around

and doing your normal...making a cup of tea, making your dinner,

getting up in the morning, what a difference it can make.

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 terms 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.

Straight away, Susan spots a small change

that's already making a big difference.

Oh, yeah, lovely rails.

They look good, are you happy with them?

-Yes, I am.

-Yeah? Very good.

Using the stairs is now much easier and more importantly,

much safer for the whole family.

OK, is it all right to go in the kitchen and see what's in there?

-Sure.

-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.

The one down by the bath there.

That was a new one put in,

which makes getting in and out of the bath a hell of a lot easier.

So, you do get in and out of the bath, do you?

Yeah, because you had nothing to actually hold on to, to get in.

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 is 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

so I think they're in for a lot of treats of nice meals coming up.

He's a lot happier so, yeah,

you go home today with a good feeling,

knowing you've helped someone.

Although the work will make life easier for the whole family,

adjusting to the loss of his sight

and much of his independence has been especially hard for Michael.

So, for him, it isn't just about being helped.

It's about being able to help himself again.

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

It sounds like being able to cook for his family again

hasn't come a minute too soon.

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.

'I'm in Caernarfon town centre

'where Gwynedd Council housing officer Richard Hughes

'was showing me this abandoned flat.

'The landlord and tenant had been in dispute for several months

'and it ended with the tenant being given notice to quit,

'but he apparently just walked out of his life,

'leaving Brian plenty of work for the council to do.'

How long is it, Dawn, since anybody's been in here?

I came in a couple of days ago

and people seemed to think downstairs that he had gone.

'Despite being given extra time to come back

'and claim his belongings,

'it looks like this tenant has well and truly moved on.

'With housing in short supply in Wales

'and many homes not up to standard,

'housing officers are keen to help landlords

'get properties improved

'and back on the market as soon as possible.'

You can see this is the damage

and the way it's been left by the tenant.

Obviously, there will be the odd thing to do extra,

such as the bedroom door which has been smashed up.

Housing is in short supply and, when people abuse what they've got,

it's taking it off the market for the next person, really.

So we'll try and work with the agent as well as we can now

and try and get it back up and running

to the standard that it should be.

'Although it's small, this could be a really great home for someone,

'but there is one huge problem with this flat

'which is staring even me in the face.'

So, we've got one sort of stairwell down to the ground floor

from up here and I'm thinking what do we do in the case of a fire.

There's no real other way to get out.

Let's say that that living area there is consumed by fire,

which is maybe started from the kitchen or something like that.

Those are two high-risk areas

and we are in this part or upstairs, then how do we get out?

It's one of the things we probably look at

just to have some kind of protected route

to escape from the flat because it's on the second floor

so you're not going to be jumping out of any windows.

House fires cost 188 lives in Great Britain last year.

When the Government looked into this,

they discovered half of all house fires

were caused by the misuse of cooking appliances.

We'll be looking to maybe construct some kind of internal partition,

maybe, to create some kind of hallway that would allow tenants

to escape without going through the lounge and kitchen area.

'This is a split-level flat with a kitchen,

'bedroom and living space downstairs

'and another open plan bedroom in the attic space

'at the top of the stairs.

'It's here that it gets really dangerous.

'If a fire started below, there would be no escape.'

Up here, we've got his double bed

that's tucked in there under the eaves

and we've got a crib.

You're a family guy.

What do you think when you see situations like this?

It does bring it home to you, really,

because a very young child has been living here.

I'm also looking at in the context of what would happen in a fire.

-You're not going anywhere.

-You're not going anywhere, no.

You could chance it out on the roof if you could get up there,

but, really, your exits are already alight.

'It's a terrifying thought, but something

'that Richard has to consider every time he inspects a home.

One of the examples we've mentioned is to create

an internal route of escape

and, you know, you can easily achieve it

if you boarded up the open side

underneath the stairs, 30 minutes construction.

So, when you say 30 minutes, what we're looking for

is we're looking for some construction

that will resist the fire for 30 minutes,

just long enough for the smoke alarms to go off

and then get out as quickly as possible.

Yeah, basically,

so it's just sort of getting from the bedrooms of the flat

out to the communal hallway and they can make their way down.

'It could be expensive for the landlord,

'but housing officers like Richard are enforcing laws.

'Either the work is done

'or the council could decide the property can't be let.'

Is that what you see when you walk around a place like this?

You're trying to balance the needs of trying to keep the landlord...

something that makes financial sense for them,

but also at the same time trying to make sure

that this is a place that is going to be safe for people to live?

If you're talking about spending hundreds of thousands

to redo the whole building, well,

you've got to balance that then on the rent income

and how long will it take for them to get their money back.

But we won't sacrifice the safety of prospective tenants

or the building just to save a quick buck, basically.

'It's good to know that, once the work's done,

'this will be a much-needed and safe home

'for the next person to live in.'

Gwynedd Council told us that, after we filmed,

an architect was brought in by the landlord and work is now underway

to convert the property into a one-bedroom apartment.

There will be proper fire separation between the bedroom

and living area and a protected escape route for people

to leave the flat safely in the event of fire.

The council is keeping an eye on the situation

to make sure all the work is completed to the required standard

before a new tenant moves in.

That's it for today.

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