Episode 17 The Housing Enforcers

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

I wouldn't ever envision anybody living like this.

But for thousands of people across the UK,

the reality can be more hovel than home.

The house was a deathtrap, at the end of the day.

In the battle for decent housing...

Leaving things, that's what happens. This is totally unacceptable.

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

If somebody had died here, you'd be standing in a coroner's court.

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

-LIGHT BLOWS

-Oh! You all right?

-Yeah, good!

I'll be with them as they tackle problem properties and slum conditions...

-Faeces isn't an issue. That's standard.

-Faeces is an issue, Glyn!

..as they deal with dodgy landlords, nightmare neighbours and everything in between...

Oh, no! That's incredible!

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

-Ain't it fabulous?

-SHE SOBS

Oh, Margaret! Oh, Margaret!

Today, council officers step in when one man tries to open a guest house

in an empty office building, without planning permission.

Number on the door.

We've got a fridge here. It's basically set up as a hotel.

I think probably we'd look at prosecuting.

A house that's been left empty for 12 years is causing huge problems for neighbours.

It's full of rats and it's empty

and something's got to be done about that.

KNOCKING

And housing officers try to help a tenant desperately battling

the cold in a house with rotting windows and holes in the wall.

There's a very... That's like an invitation.

That's not just potential access.

That's, "Please, come on in, there's a party in here."

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.

Have you ever thought of starting your own little B&B?

Or maybe it's crossed your mind to make a quick bob by renting out

your spare room and turning your home into a guest house?

The idea may be even more appealing

if you live in an area like Stratford in East London,

which attracts tourists wanting to visit the Olympic Park,

the 02 Arena or the giant Westfield Shopping Centre, all of which are on the doorstep.

But it's not as simple as it sounds

and if you don't follow council planning rules, you're going to be in trouble.

Like here, where a guest house was opened

and was operating without planning permission.

Newham Council ordered its closure several months ago.

Together with housing officers Stephen, Holly and Christine,

I'm checking on whether the "no vacancies" sign has now been hung up for good.

What are we looking for specifically?

-Well, again...

-Is it people we're talking about or is it

-door furniture and that sort of thing?

-That's the sort of thing.

Door furniture. We'd expect door numbers, maybe, on a hotel to have been removed,

door locks on the internal doors.

Basically, it should look like a family house on the upper floors now, one flat.

The property used to be offices and then it sat empty until someone

had the bright idea of turning it into accommodation for tourists.

Let's check it out, then.

Here's the problem - you can have as many bright ideas as you like,

but if the council doesn't give the correct planning permission,

that bright idea will be switched off very quickly.

-Hello.

-Hi, there.

-Hello.

-OK, so we're in the kitchen now.

-In the kitchen.

-Apart from a sign...

-Apart from a sign saying "guest house"...

-It still says "guest house"!

..we've got two hobs, two ovens, two washing machines, two sinks.

It's already abundantly clear that a guest house is still operating here.

Unless it's a very big family, it does still feel a bit guest-housey.

Yeah, we wouldn't expect to see these facilities in a single flat for a family to live in.

So already there are sort of concerns over

the amount of compliance we might find today.

-"Welcome to our guest house!"

-This hasn't really changed, has it?

No, no. This is clearly still in breach of the notice.

All he's done is taken out the current occupiers

and he's stopped using it.

He hasn't done the next step of actually preventing the use from reoccurring.

Right, let's keep looking.

If the landlord had done more research,

he'd have found out the council wouldn't have given him permission

to run a guest house in this part of town.

Newham Council planning officers want to keep tourists

in the town centre, where they're less likely to disturb residents,

leaving areas like this for family homes.

After what we've seen in the kitchen it seems unlikely,

but let's see if the rooms upstairs have been cleared.

-OK. So, number on the door.

-Number on the door.

We've got a fridge here so the occupiers can keep their own food.

-It's basically set up as a hotel.

-Guest house.

-Guest house still.

So what happens next? We can go and look at the other rooms

but it's pretty clear what we've got here, isn't it?

Yeah. We'll continue to look at other rooms,

but it's pretty clear they haven't done what we required.

So now we've got to look at the next sort of action.

In this case, I think probably we would look at prosecuting

the owner of the property, because they've failed to carry out

what we require and turn it back into a family residence.

This is where planning steps into criminal law.

Up until this point, planning, there's no criminal liability so,

basically, an enforcement notice doesn't have any effect until you don't comply with it.

When you don't comply with it, that's when it becomes a criminal offence.

It goes to show how easy it is to fall foul of planning laws.

If you want to set up any sort of overnight accommodation,

whether you call it a B&B or guest house,

make sure you've got the right permissions in the first place.

Every local authority is going to have different requirements.

The man who had the grand plan in Stratford has just arrived and is trying to explain himself.

I don't want to deal with this property. I have invested enough money in this place.

Did you ask the planning department at the time? Before you did it?

I didn't have enough knowledge, sir. That was my mistake.

-Did you get a lawyer or a solicitor to look at your sale details?

-No.

Sid Mahajan is the man that took that financial risk.

He was already an experienced landlord,

so why did he take the gamble of starting a guest house before he knew he could get planning consent?

My mistake - I didn't involve a solicitor.

It was because a big agent was involved, estate agent. That, too.

You know, with the full affiliation by everyone.

So you took this place on the basis you would be able to let it out as a short let, as a guest house?

Yes, because it was a commercial premises above a big restaurant

and it was serviced offices.

I can't stop straight away

because I already have bookings from Europe and the last thing

I want to do is stop something and there are a lot of tourists coming and they don't have a place.

-Yeah.

-So I told them, "OK, give me three months." Which they did.

-And your last guests are moving out?

-Because their booking came a long time back, so I can't tell him,

"Go on the street." And you can see the premises is empty.

-What are you going to do now?

-I'm handing back the premises to the owner.

But what about your lease? You've paid for ten years of lease.

-Are you going to be able to...

-I lose my three-month deposit,

he's told me, and he'll put a big family here.

I said fine. I don't... I'll lose money.

I'll lose 15 grand, I know that.

The last thing I want is to run something which is against the law.

You can see the allure - a large empty commercial property with loads of rooms.

Fill it with lots of paying guests and make lots money.

If only it was so simple.

Even if it's just a couple of spare rooms you want to let out,

check with the council about the change-of-use consent.

So there we have a landlord who thought he'd bought a property

or leased a property that he could then let out on short lets.

And that just wasn't the case.

You can't do that with that property.

No, he seems to have got hold of the property,

hasn't made the right checks, signed the lease for a long time,

thinks he can operate it in this way and that's not the case at all.

So he's fallen foul of the system.

We're leaving Sid to pack up the rest of the guest house, but we'll be back.

Coming up - we speak to the owner who sold Sid the lease

and ask him some difficult questions.

Sid actually has quite a big operation.

He full well knew what was entailed in this particular venture.

Next, we're in Stroud,

a market town surrounded by rolling hills and valleys.

With an increasingly ageing UK population,

it's one of many councils aiming to provide a good standard

of sheltered housing for older, vulnerable residents.

To make sure it's not left to chance,

they send in local tenants like Dave Dale to check

newly renovated social housing and make sure it's up to scratch.

After working in the building trade all his life,

Dave's well-qualified to sign off work done by council contractors.

So, what my role involves is just checking to see if it is,

from a tenant's point of view, you know, is it suitable?

If I'm happy with it, would they be happy with it?

Stroud is one of a handful of councils in the country which works

with tenants to inspect repairs as part of a scheme to improve homes.

Today it's vital that Dave does a good job.

The sheltered home he's visiting is earmarked for a woman with leukaemia.

She is struggling to cope alone since her army veteran husband was moved into care.

My husband and I used to live here together and I'm here on my own.

This is why I can't kind of manage it all on my own.

Elaine's immensely proud of her husband, who served his country for almost 40 years.

But now, without him at home, she wants to move nearer to family.

With tenants' champion Dave fighting her corner, she's going to get the best home possible.

In this role I feel as though I'm protecting the tenants.

That is my main role, is helping people.

But what it is I'm looking for is to make sure everything's safe

for the ingoing tenant, for her,

so she can move straight in without any problems.

That's great news for Elaine, and other residents like her.

Housing officers have already seen a significant improvement

to building work in council properties,

as contractors don't know when spot-checks will be carried out.

As a council tenant himself, Dave's job is to keep standards high,

and he won't accept second best.

I'll be quite hard on the contractors who've done the work,

cos there's only one way to do it, is do it right, and right first time.

That's my motto.

From the outside, everything looks neat and tidy.

But as I know only too well, on this series,

you can't always judge a book by its cover.

These are sheltered homes, where older residents can stay

independent while still having support close at hand.

It's time for Dave's finely honed detective skills to come into play.

See if all the windows, there's no cracked windows.

Every tiny detail comes under Dave's scrutiny.

Landlords - please take note!

I'm just checking the doors to make sure they open and close properly.

That's fine.

Here, the rubber seal is rubbing on the threshold.

Well, an elderly person would have difficulty opening this door.

Nothing much gets past Dave. And now he's spotted something else.

Little bit there which really needs touching up.

So I'll make a note of that.

It's thanks to this kind of attention to detail that standards have improved.

There's no problem, it's just the finished article which I'm not happy with, as a tenant inspector.

Dave should rent himself out to look round people's houses.

Nothing escapes his critical eye.

He now turns his attention to the electrical sockets.

Could do with a little bit of a clean on the plates.

Another plug there, fine.

Looking very good in here.

If they're cracked or anything like this,

obviously, the tenant could get electrocuted or something like this.

Unlikely to happen here.

Dave takes pride in keeping standards high

so that tenants are protected.

I'd say, at the moment, there's nothing with the property

that would stop the tenant moving in.

It's just those tiny little things need just addressing, perhaps.

They'll get a score on all the things that I've checked.

Anything that I'm not happy with obviously will bring the score down.

Anything serious enough to pose a risk will have to be redone before the tenant can move in.

There's no problem, you know?

They can go straight into the home and that's it.

End of story, really, for them.

What a great way of getting residents involved in providing

the best possible housing for the people who really need it.

We'll come back later to see if the new home meets with Elaine's approval.

-Here we are, come on in.

-That's lovely, thank you.

I'm back in Stratford, in the London borough of Newham.

Earlier I saw what happens when you try to start a guest house

without consent - the council shut it down.

The last thing I want is to run something which is against the law.

Sid Mahajan made a mistake when he bought the lease for this building.

He should've checked with his local authority before he opened

his guest house because he wasn't going to get approval

for change of use here - the council doesn't want hotels in this area.

They want family homes.

He'd have saved himself a lot of money and heartache

if he hadn't assumed he could start a guest house anywhere he wanted.

Sid blamed the owner and agent, Kamran Younis.

Hi, Kamran, how are you?

I'm very well, thank you. Nice to meet you, Matt.

According to Sid, Kamran had told him getting the licence

wouldn't be a problem because it was a commercial property already.

When we purchased it, the licence was A2, which is office use.

Then came along this chap who wanted to do short lets,

a hostel type of guest house type of thing.

-So this is Sid? The guy we've met?

-This is Sid, absolutely.

So we agreed some terms, we put together a lease

and basically we passed it over to him, assigned him the lease.

Certainly, the feeling I was getting from Sid is that he was led

to believe it would be lawful to run the place as a bed and breakfast,

hostel-type arrangement, by you. That's certainly what he's saying.

Then I think that was a misunderstanding on behalf of Sid.

I am legally trained and, basically, I personally wrote that lease out.

I personally put the covenants in for any lawful permitted use.

And that is the responsibility

of the ingoing tenant to seek the appropriate lawful usage.

That's probably something he's misunderstood.

I have a very good working relationship with Sid.

This place is not going to work as a bed and breakfast.

There was never going to be permission granted for that.

I can understand how he would be a little bit put out

when he entered into it in what he felt was good faith,

and thinking that this was possible.

Now, Sid actually has quite a big operation.

He runs tens, if not 20 units or so, which are hostels,

bed-and-breakfast type of apartments.

He full well knew what was entailed

in this particular venture at the outlay.

While I've been getting to the bottom of things with Kamran,

the housing officers have returned to the property to see

if their demands have been met - they don't want this place

returning to a guest house the minute their back is turned,

so they want it stripped out and ready for use by a family.

Right, OK. So they've got...

They've taken out all the tables of all the rooms and they've

put them here so far. Looks as though it's ready to be taken out by a van.

Locks have been removed off the door.

-Locks gone off that door.

-So we're on our way.

All the beds in these rooms have been taken out and removed, so that's a good step so far.

Again, we've got a lock removed off the door,

all signage removed off the door.

So it's back to a bit of a blank canvas.

They've just got to take out the furniture at the moment.

So we're on the way to getting compliance here.

Yeah, I'm satisfied that they're taking the right steps.

We may have to come back another time just to confirm everything else is done.

But with regards to any future action we may take,

as long as it keeps progressing like this,

this would be a case that we would look to close in the future.

It seems both landlord and agent acted in good faith.

But setting up a guest house without getting the planning permission

in place first has been a costly gamble which didn't pay off this time.

As for Newham Council, officers hope that in the future

this will be a building that houses families instead of visitors.

Back in Stroud, tenant inspector Dave Dale has cast his beady eye

over a sheltered home that was earmarked for army veteran's wife Elaine.

She has leukaemia and was struggling to cope after her husband was moved into care.

Nice little place, but a little bit too big for me at the moment.

I got diagnosed last October with a very rare leukaemia

and they also picked up that I have arthritis of the knee and of the back.

That's why I'm struggling to be able to do everyday things.

Dave's inspection of Elaine's new home is part of a pioneering

council scheme to involve residents in keeping social housing up to par.

After a few cosmetic concerns, he signed it off as fit for purpose.

I believe people trust me because I'm a tenant myself.

This is a patch that I know very well.

I was born and bred in Stroud

and I'm proud to look after the area in this respect, you see?

Elaine and her husband had lived in their flat for 11 years

and they enjoyed making the most of their garden,

but recently, just going outside has become a major problem for Elaine.

The step here, it's a bit steep and it does present a problem.

And that is the getting out.

And that'd be the same for getting back in again.

Up round the path there are steps, but there's nothing to hold on to.

So I would need the help and support out in the back garden here.

As well as her difficulties getting around, there are other issues

affecting Elaine just as much as her poor health.

The wall is quite high and it's enclosed

so I don't really see anybody coming and going.

Loneliness and isolation are very real problems for those with mobility issues

and they can affect both physical and mental health.

I need to be back in the community that Stroud is offering.

Here I haven't got that community. With Stroud, I've got the community

where I can go and talk to somebody, you know, be involved.

As well as being a more sociable place to live,

the move will also bring Elaine closer to her family.

She can't wait to collect the keys to her newly renovated bungalow.

It's a new chapter. A moving-on.

I'm looking forward to being able to manage the property on me own,

with some support as and when I want it. Or need it.

Elaine's being met by Stroud housing officer Rachel Pugh,

who's keen to show her her new home

now that it's been carefully checked and given the go-ahead by Dave.

-Here we are, come on in.

-That's lovely, thank you.

All right, do you want to go straight through to the living room?

-It looks nice, yeah.

-It should be easier now.

Definitely. This is what I need at the moment, isn't it?

OK, I'll show you the bedroom.

Elaine has some mobility issues, so she needs a level-access property,

something that she can move around inside with ease.

Also, the location is much better for her.

She's got the support of her family, just a few miles away,

rather than 30, 40 miles away, which is the situation at the moment.

-It's looking lovely, it's nice. Definitely. Yeah.

-OK, thank you.

It looks like this is the perfect place for Elaine.

Today she's just delighted to take charge of the keys

and look forward to a new start.

Just get you to sign at the bottom there,

just to accept the keys from me, please.

It's lovely to be moving out of that old place.

At least I can see things without high fences and high walls

and I'm moving into a property that's nice and bright.

It'll feel like home shortly.

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?

There's definitely somebody inside, because 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 fit to be called a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

Having a warm, safe and secure place to live is something many of us take for granted.

But not everyone's that lucky.

Four in ten people who use benefits to pay their rent to a private

landlord complain of poor insulation and excess cold.

In Wolverhampton, I'm with housing officer Maria Harley.

We're on our way to meet a tenant who's unhappy

about the condition of her privately rented home,

which she claims is so cold she's forced to sleep downstairs on the sofa.

Somebody's called in to complain about the condition of their house.

That the windows are leaking, that it's cold

and the shower is leaking into the living room.

So we're going to go and see what the matter is with the property.

Hopefully, the landlord will be in attendance also,

because he's been advised that we're carrying out an inspection of the property.

So we'll just wait and see what conditions we find there.

Are we talking about a family? Who lives in this place?

It's a single lady. She's 51 years of age.

This semidetached house has been home to tenant

Tracy Skinner for almost two years.

And when we meet up with housing officer Ravi Phull outside,

there's immediately one very obvious problem that needs fixing.

Straight away I can see the consumer unit for the property

is on the wrong side of a fence which separates it from next-door.

And not only that, it's wide open.

So that means that anybody can come along and turn off Mrs Skinner's

electrics any time they feel like it. Is that right?

-Ten out of ten.

-Thank you very much.

-OK. And there's one more. It's right in front of you, Matt.

-Literally.

So we've got a concrete fence...

That is about to fall on a public highway.

Although we haven't even set foot inside the house yet,

the problems we've already spotted could be a sign that the landlord

isn't doing the work needed to keep the property in a good state of repair.

And tenant Tracy is less than impressed with his approach to maintenance.

So, how long have the problems been in this property, then?

Well, since I've moved in here.

He started, he started coming and doing the painting and then he kept

saying the reason why he wouldn't come was because I was never at home.

And then half the times when he used to come it was late.

I mean, about three o'clock and he wants to start repairs.

And many a times I've been in and he's never come.

According to Tracy, the landlord has made only half-hearted attempts

to sort out the problems with the house.

She's so fed up with the lack of progress,

she's made a list of the things that are wrong with this place.

"Upstairs shower leaks through to living room.

"Dampness around the property.

"Loose tiles on the kitchen floor. The gas fire doesn't work.

"Downstairs window doesn't shut securely. Old windows.

"No point in turning heating on as the heat goes all out the window."

It's big a list of serious problems but it's a list that's about to grow.

We've spotted a large hole in the ceiling.

I'd be worried about the electrics in this place and the risk they pose.

We've obviously got a massive hole there,

where either the water has come and the plaster's fallen away from it,

or there's been some kind of strange repair that's going on.

It doesn't look promising.

But the biggest problem for Tracy is the cold.

Looking at the terrible state of the old, draughty windows, it's easy to see why.

And it sounds like the temperamental gas fire isn't helping either.

It's very hard to put it on.

When we do put it on, it works,

but all the house is so cold it goes all out the window.

And with your heating, does it work? When you put the boiler...

-It does, yes.

-The heating. And how would you say the property feels?

It feels cold, cos all the heat is going out the window.

Right, and have you seen a gas safety certificate?

No, I haven't seen anything.

The possible lack of a gas safety certificate is a real cause for concern.

It could mean that the gas appliances here are unsafe.

But we're still only in the living room

and the stains on the ceiling are evidence of even more problems.

When I put my shower on, all the water comes in.

If you were to do that now, would we see evidence of that happening?

I don't know if it does work like that but it usually does.

If I give you the damp meter, could you press it in...

-Of course.

-..and see whether we can pick up readings for that?

-Yeah.

-I'm just noticing the damp stain.

-A little bit over there as well.

-Seems to be everywhere. And is the bathroom directly above here?

-Yes.

It's still dry. It's still pretty dry,

even though there's black marking on it.

Although the moisture meter doesn't pick up damp now,

it's clear that at some point water has come through the ceiling from the bathroom above.

But we're still downstairs.

We haven't even looked in the back room yet.

-Do you use this room very much, Mrs Skinner?

-No.

-No.

-Why don't you use it?

-Too cold.

-Too cold.

You know when you moved in?

Did it have floor covering then or was it always like this?

-It's always been like that.

-It's always been like this.

The problems with the warmth of the house could be resolved

by double glazing and efficient central heating.

But there are also problems with the boiler.

What's this?

When you see a saucepan under a boiler, you think it's leaking.

Yeah, it does leak, look, cos that's where all the water's coming from.

-Right, so it does leak.

-Do you have problems with the pressure at all? Does it go down?

Yeah, it keeps on going off and I have to keep on messing about with it and I hate it.

You keep pumping it up, do you?

-Yeah, I have to turn that and turn that one, too, and I hate it.

-So that's why, then.

So, the boiler's not working properly either.

The kitchen has broken wall and floor tiles,

making it difficult to keep clean.

But at least it has some ventilation.

If you can call it that.

Matt, do you want to have a look down here and tell us

what there's a potential for here?

There's a very... That's like an invitation.

That's not just potential access, that's,

"Please, come on in, there's a party in here."

Who are we inviting?

Well, I mean, in the first instance, mice, followed by large rats,

cats, foxes - anything could fit through that hole.

Coming up, we're on the hunt to uncover what's causing the water damage to the ceiling.

The sealant's gone all round the sides of the bath.

I wonder if that's the problem.

In Barmouth on the north Wales coast,

Gwynedd Council housing officer Carwyn Roberts is on his way

to a property that's tangled up in a story of neglect.

It's stood empty for more than a decade.

And an empty home, whatever its issue,

is a problem for Carwyn both professionally and personally.

It's quite a shame when you see them.

You get some that are in very good condition,

you get some that are in a very bad condition.

As a young person who isn't a home owner yet,

it does tend to put the question in your head of why are these properties empty?

I find it difficult to buy my own home as it is and yet

there are people out there with several of them sitting there

with nobody living in them, just slowly disintegrating and it's quite disheartening, really.

But Carwyn has to put his personal feelings to one side.

There's a job to do. This house is in need of some serious love.

Neglect has taken its toll and it's in a very sorry state.

This is the property, which is the end terrace of a row of five.

It's been empty now for about 12 or 13 years

and over time it's just slowly gotten worse.

It's such a shame, really,

because most of these properties in the whole terrace are rented out

in separate units as flats, yet this property is just sat there,

where it could accommodate a number of families.

But it's not just that this property could be put to good use that's so frustrating.

Barmouth attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Basically, it's a bit of an eyesore.

It's in the middle of one of our largest tourist towns.

A lot of people come here.

The property is slap bang in the middle.

It's empty, it's falling down to bits.

As you can see here, they've tried to put boarding up, but it's slowly rotting.

Obviously, again, the property's not having maintenance

so there are issues like this that crop up.

Something else that keeps cropping up here is Japanese knotweed. It surrounds the place.

Japanese knotweed spreads very quickly

and stops everything else around it from growing.

It can reach a height of seven feet.

It can even get under the foundations of buildings, affecting house prices.

Some lenders will refuse to give a mortgage on a property with

Japanese knotweed and even if they do lend,

they'll want an insurance-backed guarantee

there's a treatment plan in place.

The problem's so serious, new laws have been introduced

which mean it's a criminal offence to ignore council orders

to control Japanese knotweed on your property.

And it is hard to control - even the plant-loving

Royal Horticultural Society describe it as a "real thug".

It's a bit of a jungle.

Somebody's obviously been here cutting or putting some kind of poison down to kill the knotweed,

which seems to have worked slightly.

You can see parts of knotweed here where it's still growing

and these bits where the shoots are.

Obviously, bits where the weedkiller or whatever has been used

has killed the top part but, of course,

the danger we've got is that's only the visible bit on the surface.

That will actually go about four metres underground and of course

you can put enough weedkiller on top and it will kill the weed that you see

but it won't actually kill the roots.

It will keep growing back,

so in a couple of weeks' time, maybe a month,

again, it will keep going and keep going

and of course next year it will come back even worse.

So it's trying to keep on top of the problem and it's such

an invasive plant that it's just difficult to keep control of it.

The community here would be grateful for council intervention.

They've had enough, according to neighbour Roy Ellis.

The house has knotweed, so it's a concern, obviously.

But it's a matter of getting someone to bring it under control.

The local authority here say they've got some restricted powers

forthcoming where they might have a mandate to actually get some work done. Is that not right?

So that's what we're waiting for. In the absence of the owner,

we're pretty powerless to take any other action.

-Lacks a certain kerb appeal at the moment, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

For 25 years, Milton Pitcher has run a hotel down the road.

The ongoing vacancy at this property is a huge source of frustration.

It's full of rats and it's empty.

Something has got to be done about that and I'm not on my own on this.

I think that property, the council should do something about him -

either having to do it up or they should take it over,

do it up and let it because it's a pity.

It's a nice house in a beautiful position.

But this knotweed, if it's going to affect a property,

it'll affect that property there because it's full of it.

The owner told us he will make this home habitable again

and he's going to renovate the house so his daughter can move in.

He also said the knotweed came onto his property from a neighbour,

so he isn't to blame for the jungle it's created.

In the past, he's been saying to us that he's going to be coming up

to do the property, he's going to be coming back to live here but

of course we're a way on now and no-one's come here to live here.

The owner's only ever - as far as I know -

come here once since I've been working on this case and all he's done is painted a window

to make it try and look nicer from the road.

The house is a frustration on every level for Carwyn.

He sees an empty home as an opportunity wasted.

It's a shame, especially when it's got so much potential.

And it's quite irritating, because you feel like you're

banging your head against a brick wall with some owners.

I just don't understand why you'd have such a property

which could be generating quite a nice income for you

and just leave it and let it rot.

It's quite...quite funny.

Funny or not, Carwyn is likely to get the last laugh.

Legislation is now in place to allow councils to take action

against owners who allow knotweed to go untreated.

If the owner doesn't take action,

Gwynedd could issue a community protection notice.

And if nothing is done, he could be prosecuted and fined up to £2,500.

We're back in Wolverhampton, where housing officers Maria Harley

and Ravi Phull are investigating complaints from an unhappy tenant

about the condition of her privately rented home.

When we do put it on, it works,

but all the house is so cold it goes all out the window.

Now we've turned our attention to the back garden.

I have to secure myself and I've had to put that there.

That door was originally there and it was removed because?

-I don't know why it was removed.

-He just took it out.

-He just took it out.

-And you're using that to secure the rear door?

-Yeah. That's all I have.

Living alone, the makeshift back gate is all Tracy can do

to try and secure the property from unwanted visitors.

But there are other problems which aren't so obvious.

We've got another potential hazard. And can you identify what that is?

We've got water that's just going to spew out over that courtyard there,

erm, which is going to then, in cold weather, ice over.

It's just not going to get down to the drain, which is at the end.

So we need that down pipe to go all the way round to the drain there...

-Yeah.

-..and make sure the drain's clear.

So far we've discovered a broken cover for the electrical mains power board,

water leaking into the sitting room ceiling from the upstairs bathroom,

a temperamental gas fire and boiler, with no gas safety certificate,

a missing back gate and the downpipe downstairs not draining away properly.

But there's more.

Looking at the state of the windows upstairs.

I know we haven't gone upstairs yet but you look at those and they are,

I mean, they're just hanging on for dear life, aren't they?

Yeah, absolutely. This just seems to have been neglected, really.

The problems continue upstairs, and even getting up there reveals

something else wrong with the house that could send someone tumbling.

So, again, the carpet. Was this like it when you moved in?

-No, I had to put this on myself.

-Was it just bare wooden treads?

-Yes.

In the bedroom, we can now get a good look at the problem windows.

Can you open that window or is it just this one?

Yeah. You can open both of them.

When you look at these windows and, again,

they're sort of hanging on for dear life where they've not been painted this century.

This millennium, I would say.

And they're sort of flaking away. Just about holding the glass in.

And they're single-glazed.

This is going to be a very cold place, isn't it?

By the look of things, Tracy is just using the upstairs bedrooms for storage.

Mrs Skinner, is there any reason why you're not using these rooms?

Cos it's too cold up here, so I just put all my stuff in here.

What's that hole in the wall?

I don't know what that hole is in the wall.

So, actually, you're not getting proper use of the property that you're paying for, are you?

-No. I stay downstairs because, like I said, it's too cold.

-Right.

-And was it always in this condition when you moved in as well?

-Yes.

It's beginning to look as though this house might not have been properly maintained for years.

You're saying when you have a shower here, it goes straight down.

-Yeah.

-Cos...cos you've got...

The sealant's gone all round the sides of the bath.

I wonder if that's the problem. It's getting in through there.

Probably, yeah.

The house is in such poor condition, the impact that living here

is having on Tracy is becoming clearer the more I talk to her.

I'm petrified of upstairs. I don't like it up there. I sleep down here.

So, you've done the last two winters in this house.

-What's it like?

-It's horrible.

It's like being - excuse my language -

it's like being in the flippin' North Pole, man.

If the problems were here to start with,

-why did you choose this property?

-Because I had nowhere else to go.

To make matters worse, despite everything wrong with the place,

Tracy says the landlord actually wants her to pay more to live here.

The rent that he's asking for now, he wants to put it up.

Am I paying for the work to be done?

It seems to me a lot of this work is to get it into a liveable condition.

You know, which is a safe, healthy condition in which to live.

That's his responsibility as a landlord.

Mrs Skinner, thank you very much. It's really nice to meet you.

Thank you for letting us into your home.

Inspection over, it's clear Maria has seen enough to convince her

that urgent action is needed to fix the problems here.

And she knows who's responsible for putting them right.

I'm going to write to your landlord and I'm going to give him

the opportunity to get back to me with what he intends to do

with respect to the hazards we've identified here.

I think first and foremost we get, obviously, the leak sorted out and the gas safety certificate

for the property, the windows need looking at, entry by intruders...

In the meantime, can I just ask that you try and bring yourself up to speed with your rent, OK?

-OK.

-Because you don't want to give the landlord any excuse on his part.

We've got a long list of problems that need resolving.

It's time to take stock and, sadly, it seems like the situation here is far too common.

Landlords provide accommodation like this to tenants but because they don't live in it themselves,

so they feel like it's all right to just see it as bringing in money,

but not needing to spend on it.

I worry...I worry about the quality of work in there cos, obviously, there's the stuff we can see

and the stuff that we can see is shocking.

You know, windows that are letting the heat out and the cold in.

But the stuff we can't see - we really don't

know about the electrics, we don't know about the gas work.

And then you start to think, "Right, OK, this needs a proper look at."

-Yep.

-Now the housing officers have seen just how bad things are here,

they can order the landlord to do some repairs.

But once back at the office, they discover there's more to this story.

When Maria and Ravi contact the landlord to tell him

about the tenant's complaints, he says the tenant has fallen behind with rent payments

and the increase he proposed is to cover the arrears.

He says he won't change the windows until the rent arrears are paid.

But in the meantime, he has agreed to do all the other repairs.

That's it for today.

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