Episode 4 The Housing Enforcers

Hello, can you just let me in?

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

I wouldn't keep my dog there is the honest truth.

'But for thousands of people across the UK the reality can be

'more hovel than home.'

The house is falling to bits, there's nothing I can do.

In the battle for decent housing...

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

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

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

If somebody had died here you'd be 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...'

-It really does look shanty town.

-Yeah, it is not up to standard.

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

'and everything in between...'

Oh, my God, straight away there's the smell of dog muck.

You never know what you're going to find.

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

'Today,

'police and council officers join forces to investigate

'a landlord's unlawful bedsits.'

You don't get fridges like this in a busy communal kitchen.

'Housing officers discover one problem after another

'at an elderly couple's home.'

-No where we can put anything in that one...

-No.

'And there's fire safety fears for tenants sharing a family home.'

This is a great place for a fire to start.

When they're all trying to rush down here in the middle of the night,

and the stairs are on fire, we've got a big problem there.

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.

Here in Dudley, I'm joining housing officer Ian Bowen.

Today he's on a mission to investigate three houses

all owned by the same landlord.

They've been split up into unlawful bedsits, with tiny kitchens

which pose a risk to tenants' safety,

so he's been ordered to turn them back into shared properties.

But there are fears he hasn't done the work properly

and is still breaching planning permission.

The council is taking this pretty seriously.

It's a big operation, with the local police here too.

Talk me through exactly why we're here in the first place.

We've had a call from the Planning Department.

They're taking enforcement action with regards to the property.

It's been subdivided into more flats than is allowed.

And does he know we're coming, is he going to be there?

He's arranged to meet the planners.

-So there could be a few of us in there today?

-Yes.

So they're coming back today to have a look to see whether

the landlord has put it back to comply with the planning permission.

The first house officers are inspecting should now have

just one flat on each floor, instead of several bedsits.

To comply with council safety rules, the landlord's been ordered

to remove kitchen equipment from individual bedsits, leaving

each tenant with their own bedroom, but sharing a communal kitchen.

Ian and Carl from the council's Planning Department

are here to see if the landlord has done the work in a way that

protects the safety of the tenants.

Although as we make our way to the upstairs flat,

things don't look too promising.

So, you've got no handrails on the stairs at all,

and it leads straight down to a very sudden end,

hitting a big fire door, an external door at the end.

And nice, hard, uncarpeted steps on the way down - you could really do yourself some damage.

'And the facilities don't improve much once inside.'

HE CHUCKLES

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

'If the landlord has done what he's been asked, none of the

'bedrooms in this building should now have any cooking facilities.

'Fortunately we're able to check, as one of the tenants lets us

'look around.'

Talk us through your flat.

That's my bedroom, that's my wardrobe, that's my living room,

that was my kitchen, and that's my bathroom.

OK. You've got your own fridge here.

-That's all mine.

-Do you have a sink and everything?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in there. They took it out and

we've got to use the communal kitchen next door.

OK, so why was that? Do you know?

Er... Not really, no.

-Thank you so much for letting us in.

-It's all right, mate.

'From what I can see, it looks like the landlord hasn't removed

'kitchens from the bedsits, he's just taken out the sinks.

'But it's cooking that poses the biggest fire risk in these

'tiny rooms.

'With a fully functioning shared kitchen, that danger should be reduced.'

So here we have a kitchen which doesn't have

the feel of a regularly used shared kitchen.

For instance, I don't know about you

but my kettle isn't held together with Blu-Tack.

My fridge definitely doesn't look like that.

'And you'll wait a long time for your soup

'to heat up on this hob. It's not working.'

It's on number six. That's not going to cook your tea.

So it's not working as a kitchen, clearly no-one's using it,

and we've just got a dead space.

'This is why inspections like this are so important.

'Landlords need to obey the rules or else tenants can get a raw deal,

'being forced to pay for facilities that are substandard or unsafe.

'The flat downstairs is also supposed to have a new, shared kitchen.'

You don't get fridges like this in a busy communal kitchen.

'So the kitchens have been removed from the bedrooms,

'but the housing team is not convinced they've been

'properly replaced by the facilities that we've seen.

'This visit has definitely opened my eyes,

'but coming up, things get even worse.'

These shouldn't be here at all, these shouldn't be separate units.

The owner's known about this for a long time and done nothing about it.

Here in Swale, the council are looking not to just deal with

housing problems of today's housing,

they're looking to the future too.

A local study suggests this region is set to see a significant

increase in the number of older residents.

An ageing population is clearly going to present very specific challenges.

Housing Officer Susan Hughes works with the council's

Staying Put agency.

The Staying Put service are there to actually help

vulnerable and elderly and disabled clients to remain in their own home.

Everybody wants to stay in their own home, and it is quite important.

But as they get older, repairs get harder and they quite often

just ignore it - rather than just sort out the problem they will ignore it.

They also need adaptations more -

rails up the stairs, that sort of thing -

and if it's left their house will get into disrepair,

clients can fall, hurt themselves...

Lots of things can happen.

Susan's on her way to what on the face of it

looks like a routine appointment to help deal with some

maintenance issues at a client's home.

But something small can sometimes be a symptom of a much larger problem.

We're going over to see a couple that live in Faversham.

So this couple own their home,

and they've lived in it all their married life.

They've been with us before, they've had a few issues that we've had to

help with them - mainly clutter and a few little minor repairs -

and we've had our handyperson out do a lot of jobs,

but they called us again because they have a hole in the floor.

Our handyperson went out and it's a bit too big for him

to actually sort out, so I'm going out to have a look

and I'm going to get a builder out there.

Rose, whose husband has been battling a brain infection,

has called for some help after another visitor to her home

put her foot through the floor.

Last time the nurse came to give my husband insulin

and she went through it.

I wasn't here but I would have liked to have seen the look on her face!

I have been keeping out of its way, otherwise I'd be down it.

Sadly for Rose, the hole around the fireplace was just

one in a long line of recent mishaps.

Rose has just returned from hospital after suffering a nasty fall.

I got out of bed to go to the bathroom,

went in the bathroom -

the next minute I was tumbling down the stairs.

I fractured it, fractured the humerus.

It's clearly a delicate situation.

With Rose's recent tumble and her husband's serious illness,

Susan needs to be assured the couple are safe in their own home.

Fortunately,

she's got Phil the builder in tow to look at the repairs.

-How are you?

-All right, thank you.

-I've brought a builder...

-As right as expected.

-Yeah.

I've brought a builder to come and have a look, and if you can show me

this hole in the floor to see what can be done, OK?

You lead the way, all right? See what there is.

Oh, right.

Well, it's not in an AWKWARD place, that is one thing.

I don't think it's TOO major. We'll see what Phil says anyway.

What we'll have to do is move you out the way for a while and do some

exploratory digging out here, take some boards up to see exactly what's happened.

But it's nothing to worry about, your house isn't going to fall down.

We'll come back with a bit of boarding over it for you,

so you don't trip over it. Just be aware it's there.

We don't want you having an accident...

The repair seems very straightforward,

but Susan's more concerned about whether the hole in the floor

is part of a wider problem with the couple's living conditions.

Two years ago the council spent three days clearing out

huge piles of clutter from the downstairs room.

It's not as cluttered as it was, you're keeping it under control.

What about the other rooms, are they all OK? Yeah?

Well, at the moment, I'm not going up the stairs.

I'm a bit...

Are you sleeping downstairs as well?

I'm sleeping here.

Oh, dear. That's not very good, sleeping in a chair.

How do you manage that? Can't you get another bed put in the front room?

No.

Cos that's where your husband sleeps. You don't want another bed put in there?

I don't think there's room.

Rose's recent fall has left her too shaken to go back upstairs,

but her downstairs sleeping arrangements are clearly less than ideal.

While Rose's husband is out having a medical check-up,

Susan wants to see if she can get an extra bed in his room.

Can I just have a look at your front room?

I am still worried about you sleeping in a chair.

Right. Oh, OK...

There COULD be space if things were moved around, don't you think?

We could move that over a little bit.

Why are all those things here?

Is it really important that there's a table there?

You'll have to ask my husband that because I don't know the reason.

Right. Cos if you moved that table,

you would fit in a little bed, wouldn't you?

You may have to get another bed, but at least you're sleeping in a bed,

it's awful that you're not.

I think we need again someone here just to help move a few bits...

If we put the chairs upstairs somewhere?

-Yeah...

-Is there room up there?

Sure we can...

We haven't been up there in a while, we'll go up and have a quick look.

This is a worrying sign.

It looks as though the couple's past problems

with hoarding of possessions is creeping back.

And when they get upstairs, there's a shock for Susan.

The bedrooms are all overflowing with belongings.

It's unlikely anything from downstairs is going to find a home.

No. No room at all.

No. Nowhere we can put anything in that one...

Obviously they want to keep lots of the stuff, which is why it's been brought up.

It's dolls, and she's done lots of knitting. It's just not

been put in an easy way that you can even get to anything, really.

One of these rooms needs to be emptied.

De-cluttered again.

Then we can put everything from downstairs up here.

This is a blow for Susan.

If the clutter keeps building up,

it could become a serious health risk to Rose and her husband.

And there's more bad news in the bathroom.

The tub is in a terrible state, and the toilet is broken.

The cistern's in the bath.

I don't know how they flush it.

In an emergency you can have a standpipe and a bucket, but...

Well, there must be one downstairs, we'll go and ask.

They obviously don't come up here, then.

OK. The bath hasn't been used for gosh knows...

We'll go have a word with her anyway, but... Yeah.

We've just been upstairs, it is still quite cluttered.

What do you do for your toilet now?

I've got a commode for now but there is one out there.

What worries me is how do you empty the toilet now?

Do you have to go outside and carry it?

My husband does that.

-He goes to the outside toilet and goes down there?

-Yeah.

And how's HE doing that? Because HE was quite poorly,

he was dragging his feet... Is he able to do that OK?

-Not really.

-No. So we do need to look at that.

And do you feel safe to go outside at the moment?

-No.

-No.

The problems here are even bigger than Susan was expecting.

With no working indoor toilet and rooms filled with clutter,

quick action is needed

if this couple are going to be able to remain living in their own home.

You've got to think about whether you ever ARE going to go back upstairs.

If you do go upstairs, you could apply for a disabled grant

to have a shower room put in.

-It's something to think about.

-Yeah. I'll get Phil to quote for that as well.

-Quite happy with him.

-Yeah. She's happy with you, there you are.

-OK.

-You'll do.

-All right.

Today's visit demonstrates that even if you are an experienced

housing officer like Susan, you just never know

what challenges you're going to face when you walk through a front door.

Very often we go out to clients and they've asked for one thing,

and then when we go in there we find a lot more. Lots of people

don't realise exactly what's wrong with their property.

They've always lived like it so they don't realise it's a problem

and it's not till we go in that we realise this.

I don't like her sleeping in a chair - she seems used to it

but that is going to cause problems long term, so we've got to think

about whether we can clear the front room and get her bed in there.

So the more confident she is in her home walking around, the better.

I'm just glad that there's somebody that is willing to help.

We'll have to wait and see. See what Susan comes up with.

Coming up: Susan tries to tackle the growing problem

of Rose's clutter.

Have you managed to find anything TO throw away, or not?

You're going to keep the pen. Right.

Back in Dudley, and I'm with a team from the local council, and

police, investigating a number of houses owned by the same landlord.

He's been served enforcement notices demanding

he turn the individual flats he owns back to shared properties.

That means he's supposed to remove any kitchen facilities from his

tenants' bedrooms, and provide fully working communal kitchens instead.

Something the housing team suspect he hasn't done.

If they find evidence today that the landlord hasn't done the work

he's been ordered to do, he'll face prosecution.

It's worth remembering that we're not just talking about rules

and regulations here. These are not just

jobsworth approaches to these properties,

these are to make sure the people inside these properties have

enough space and amenities to live a half decent sort of life.

'I wonder if the second property might prove to be any better.

'Again, the landlord IS supposed to have converted this place

'back into a single flat, complete with a safe

'and fully functioning communal kitchen.'

So, here we are. We're in the loft space.

What was a kitchen area.

No fridge... No cooker there now.

'The room is home to Leanne.

'And it seems the landlord's renovations up here

'haven't improved things much.'

Are you hoping to stay here long term or do you want to move somewhere else?

-No. I want to move.

-Yeah?

-Definitely.

Why do you want to move out of here?

Because it's not big enough. I've got a ten-year-old, so...

Have you? So does your ten-year-old stay with you here?

No. No, no, at my mum's.

'Despite the landlord removing the kitchen sink,

'this room still has the feel of a bedsit,

'but now without the benefit of privacy or independence.'

Do you wash up, do you prepare your food,

do everything up here?

No. I prepare my food up here,

I have to go downstairs for the kitchen.

This is somewhere that shouldn't be occupied at all, according to

Planning, there shouldn't be anyone here.

'At least the shared kitchen looks a little better than the first

'property. But I'm not sure the changes go far enough.'

This floor should be one unit. One flat.

I think we've got... two, maybe three, is it?

The first two properties have followed a familiar,

if depressing, pattern.

The landlord's supposed to have turned the third property back into a shared house too -

the deadline for doing the work passed some time ago.

'While we're waiting to get inside, I'm distracted by the unusual letterbox set-up.'

So this is what I don't understand.

These are the letterboxes for these flats.

There are five flats. How do I know which one is which?

Well, you don't. The tenants don't either when we asked them.

It doesn't almost matter cos when you see inside,

you can't get it anyway, so...

So you have to reach in to get your post from this side anyway?

Yeah. So it just drops down.

So it drops down inside the wall?

-Yeah.

-So you never receive your post anyway?

-No.

'It doesn't bode well for the rest of the house.

'Unfortunately, once we DO make our way upstairs,

'it's easy to see that the accommodation is less than luxurious.'

Yeah. So in theory, anyway, this could be a sort of bedroom possibly?

But this shouldn't be here at all,

these shouldn't be separate units.

The owner's known this for a long time.

These are legal criteria, these are specifications,

but they're there for a very simple reason

and that's to protect the people who occupy these places.

Because you can tell

this is not somewhere that's designed for individual occupation.

That's your washing facility there.

You can't even get in it at the moment. It's ludicrous.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

'It's been a long, wet and frankly depressing day for all of us.

'I'm hoping the council might have some solutions for the tenants

'I've met today.'

So three properties, one owner, all in sort of different stages.

In fact what we found was a mishmash of a shared property,

and individual bedsit units which you could lock the door.

I mean, the conditions that resulted from that were pretty miserable,

weren't they?

Yeah.

The kitchens are not operating, the rooms again are small,

you've not got the facilities, really. Things have been taken away

from the tenants,

rather than a better facility being provided.

So what is it that we're going to do?

From a planning point of view those notices are in place

and they've been in place for some time,

plenty of time to comply with

and therefore it's up to us now to determine whether we think it's appropriate

to refer that to our legal team to prosecute the owner for failing to comply with the notices.

'All of which sounds reasonable in the long term.

'But it's the short term that has me more concerned.'

Don't know what to make of these properties, honestly. They are...

They shouldn't be divided up in the way that they are

in the first place, and rather than put them back

the way they should be the landlord seems to have opted to

reconfigure them to look like shared houses.

But they are so miserable...

I can't tell you.

And I'm trying to put my finger on why

they ARE like that - maybe it's just because the weather's terrible,

I don't know. But honestly, the effect it has on you...

They don't feel like places where there's a way out again, if I'm honest with you.

The council is now pursuing action against the landlord.

They say he breached enforcement notices which ordered him

to comply with planning permission in all three properties.

They are building a case, and hope to bring it to court soon.

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.

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 someone inside cos we've seen movement.

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

That's ready to collapse. Let's get it sorted.

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.

-They shouldn't have people living in here.

Oxford, with its worldwide reputation,

attracts not only local house hunters but huge numbers

of students and foreign workers, all looking for somewhere to live.

Sharing houses is a popular option,

but if these homes aren't regulated, they can quickly become dirty,

overcrowded, and sometimes dangerous to live in.

'I'm with housing officer Clive Salisbury, who's investigating

'a house in the city

'that's been attracting complaints.'

So, from the information we've got so far, is there any

hints as to what might be going on there, what we might find?

So, we've had a complaint from a resident in the area,

they're concerned about this property.

And they're saying that there's a number of men living there,

and there's noise and problems with mice, and it's something that

justifies us having a look to see if it's an unlicensed shared house.

In Oxford the council have introduced a landlords' licensing

scheme, as a way of regulating housing conditions in shared homes.

It's that white one at the end on the left,

with the lush front garden.

Clive needs to check

if there are three or more people in the house we're going to visit.

If there are, and they're not family members,

the council needs to know about it.

High rentals, that prompts landlords to over-occupy,

or tenants are subletting, there's two sides to it.

But you can get a lot of people living in quite small places.

Family homes like these weren't designed to be carved up

into separate units - but if they're adapted,

the council says it has to be done properly.

Oh, the front garden's a bit messy...

'As we approach the house I spot something in the front window,

'and wonder if THAT'S a clue to who's living here.'

Look on the front window there.

There you go. There's a taxi sign.

I think that's the one right outside the council offices.

There is a bell. They rarely work.

You're absolutely right.

I can hear someone...

Hello there. Hi, my name's Clive Salisbury, I'm with the

housing team at Oxford City Council.

We're just checking on rented properties in Oxford

to make sure they're safe for tenants.

What's your name?

Mario, nice to meet you, I'm Matt, how do you do?

How many of you live here?

-Five.

-OK, and where are you guys from?

-All of you?

-Yeah.

Are you all working as taxi drivers?

May we go in the kitchen, we'll have a quick chat, Mario?

Now we know there are five Albanians living in the house,

all working as taxi drivers.

Unless they're all from the same family, then the landlord needs

a special licence designed to make sure

the people sharing this house are safe.

Time for some more investigation.

-How long have you lived here?

-For two months.

Do you know the names of the other...?

I don't know. With everybody working...

Stay for one hour here, go sleep...

Yeah, OK.

'Mario doesn't know the names of his housemates

'so clearly they're not a family.

'And it's not difficult to spot

'that the house is in a poor state of repair.'

The first thing I can see is that we've got

quite big ingress of water here

and damp on that wall

which is,

I think... Yeah,

it's a proper structural wall.

And we've got the paper...

-Ooh.

-Wow.

-Best not to press too much, you might go through. Is it solid or is it a partition?

No, it's solid, but the plaster has actually come away as well.

'Before the paper disintegrates entirely,

'Clive takes some pictures that will be useful when he speaks to the landlord.

'And I can see how many other things are wrong here.'

-The lights on but there are no bulbs.

-But only one's on.

There's only one bulb.

This is a room where the guys are smoking -

there's no fire protection in here at all.

You're right next to the kitchen as well...

That's right, I think we'll find quite a few issues here.

'So we've managed to discover a number of problems in just one room.

'There's a fire risk, and a damp problem for starters.'

We're into this sort of conservatory/laundry room...

There's a bit of a smell of damp, isn't there?

It's a mess, really. You've got clothing that's stacked up here...

"Insecticide or surface and space spray."

Thy may be treating themselves for a pest problem, do you think?

One of the things the resident said was he was concerned that there might be mice in the area,

and was concerned they were coming from the house.

'Mice.

'Now, my experience with rodents on this programme

'has taught me a very valuable lesson.

'Time for my big moment.'

You know when you go into the garden, there might be things

in the garden that don't expect anybody to be there. So it's

very important to have the camera ready as soon as we open the door. Got it?

OK, here we go. This is the moment.

You only get to do this once.

-You ready, Clive?

-Yeah, cool.

DOG YELPS

'Well, I wasn't expecting THAT.'

No mice, but loads of bikes.

'OK, so we didn't surprise any rodents -

'but that doesn't mean there aren't any there,

'and the garden is still worth checking out.'

OK, so what have we got? Wow, those brambles are impressive, aren't they?

So yeah, this is obviously unsightly, it's bad for the area, isn't it?

You know... Just in our first ten minutes there's a concern, isn't there?

'Clive's very kindly allowing me to go first THROUGH the brambles(!)'

Always best not to dress up in this job,

you never know where you might be going.

You can break a trail.

I've got stuck on the brambles...

CLIVE LAUGHS

Anything exciting? Like anybody LIVING in the garage?

There's boxes and things from Bangladesh.

You know when you see a row of houses, and you think,

"They're nice family homes, one after the other,"

then you come to a place like this and it tells such a different story.

Well, that's part of the reason we're here. It just stands out.

The eyesore house in the street is often the one with the extra problems.

So - quick summary in the garden of what we've got here?

We've got the bones of about four different bicycles,

parts of two different beds, boxes and mattresses. We've got

children's toys that have just been chucked down the side,

we've got a skanky old garage...

We can't get IN the garage, the divan's in the way.

Even if we could, I think it's locked.

Yeah, OK. That's fine, I just need to get the conservatory.

We'll have a look at the kitchen and then we'll go and see Mario upstairs...

-Looking forward to the kitchen.

-..say hello again.

'Coming up: We find a tiny box room,

'about half the size it should be for someone to use as a bedroom.'

This is a very small room.

It's more like life on board a ship - or a submarine, even,

that's how tight it is there.

Back in Swale, housing enforcer Susan Hughes

from the council's Staying Put team is returning to Faversham,

where she went to help a couple with a maintenance problem,

but soon found a lot more needed fixing.

Went in the bathroom. Next minute,

I was tumbling down the stairs.

Susan discovered that even though she had a broken arm,

Rose was sleeping in a chair,

and that the couple are both struggling to cope with

disabilities, as their house fills up with clutter.

Today I'd like to talk a bit more to them about the clutter that

they've got, how that is their main problem, and if we could sort that

out then maybe some of the other issues could be addressed easier.

Susan needs to make sure that the jumble of possessions

doesn't once again build to dangerous levels.

It could cause falls or even block escape routes if there was a fire.

But first on her list is checking that

the hole in the floor has been taken care of.

Oh. That's looking good, isn't it?

Yeah, we're getting there.

The builders have actually covered it up and made it a lot safer,

and although it's not fireproof, it's not a proper hearth -

they'll have to pay for that if that's what they want -

but as it is at the moment

it's going to prevent her tripping on it or falling.

So that actually satisfies me that the job's done and we've made it safer for her.

That's one down at least.

Next is Rose's unconventional bedtime arrangements.

I'm really not happy about you sleeping in that chair.

That's not good for you at all.

So we've got a couple of options there.

We can either try and declutter a bit of the front room so we can

move another bed in there, so you can sleep in where your husband is.

The other option... That one would be quick, but the longer one

would be a stairlift could be put in.

Now, you can either fund that yourself or

you could apply for a disabled grant.

I've put a phone number down here, which is where you ring and then you

have to go through an assessment, they'll ask about your disabilities.

If it's feasible, I would go back upstairs.

You mustn't go up until we've sorted it out.

Till you've either got a stairlift and all the clutter gone...

So you need the stairlift put in, and you need to declutter.

But sleeping in a chair is not good for you, is it? You're going to get a stiff neck soon.

Well, that would join my arm!

SUSAN LAUGHS

Rose agrees to try to get back upstairs,

but now Susan wants to help her mobility around the rest of the house.

So you're going to have lots of rails everywhere

but I think it's just going to be safer for you. OK?

-Yeah.

-So if we do them all along

where there's a space on the corridor here. Yeah?

And the rails continue outside -

so the couple can get to the loo.

All right? How does that feel there?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

I'll do it at that.

A little mark on there.

But Susan knows the main issue is the clutter.

With Rose sleeping in a chair

because there's no ROOM for a bed downstairs,

Susan wants to help with the mammoth task of dealing with the hoarding.

If the couple can't keep on top of the amount of stuff

in the house, the problems are going to mount up.

Have you managed to find anything TO throw away, or not?

I was just wondering if I could find your other shoe...

-No, I think that was thrown away.

-Oh, do you?

Well, if that's the case you could throw that one away then, can't you?

But that's in your knitting bag, so we need to have another bag...

You need to keep it in that bag for throwing away, don't you?

You're going to keep the pen. Right.

That's your throw-away bag, is it?

That's it, put the shoe in it.

How about you have a little bag a day and go through things,

and then you might get rid of some of the stuff as it goes?

Yeah?

Small steps, maybe - but at least it's a start.

And Susan's wasting no time in trying to get the ball rolling with Rose's much-needed stairlift.

Hi, all right - I'm with a client of mine,

I'm from Staying Put home improvement agency.

Erm... She's actually sleeping in a chair downstairs

cos she can't get upstairs.

The bathroom's upstairs so she's having to use a commode and empty it outside.

So I think we need to look at getting her a disabled grant -

definitely for a stairlift, and maybe a shower room. OK?

So we've still got quite a lot to do. So Paul's going to come back

and he's going to put those rails along the corridor

to make it easier for you to walk.

And then I'll get two estimates for the toilet as well.

You think about the clutter as well -

think about whether you want a couple of hours,

somebody to come and help you declutter a bit more as well.

Thank you very much.

For Susan, this sort of case provides a lot of challenges.

It's a balancing act between trying to keep people in their own homes,

but also helping them to make important changes.

Bye.

Yes, it feels...

as though I've achieved something.

And we know it's going to take time.

Can't do it in five minutes, can we?

There's not so much as what there used to be,

but...Susan seems to think that we can get rid of a bit more.

We need to think about decluttering, that's the major thing.

We even managed to get rid of ONE bag of rubbish today.

Erm... OK, it was very small, but it's a start.

And I am worried about Rose falling again,

so we do need to sort of take it very carefully, certainly

with her husband, and make sure that we can make it safer and secure for

them, so they can carry on living in their own home independently.

Since we visited,

Susan's been looking into getting a lift installed in the couple's home.

They could then apply for a disabled grant

to get a suitable bathroom installed upstairs.

In the meantime,

Susan's keeping a close eye on the couple's hoarding tendencies.

'Here in Oxford, I'm with housing officer Clive Salisbury.'

Hello...?

'Residents have complained about the house on their street

'where they say a number of people have been coming and going.'

How many of you live here?

OK, and where are you guys from?

-All of you?

-Yeah.

'The city council says no more than three unrelated people

'can share a family home without a licence.'

Oh, that's nice, look at that. I didn't know you could get those.

'So Clive wants to investigate exactly what's going on here.'

Five blokes, one spoon.

Maybe they've all got their own in their room.

'The men living here aren't related,

'so the landlord definitely needs a licence. But in order to get one

'he'll have to prove he can keep his tenants safe.

'And there are plenty of issues that need addressing here.

'Clive's so busy making notes, that I'm helping out.'

Oh, no, look.

If you look in here, Clive, the element,

which should be snugly wrapped against the top, is hanging down.

I've got a feeling that nobody here watches Bake Off.

You would scorch the top of your scones with that.

You could reach in and get a shock, possibly, worst case.

I think it would need an inspection.

'The men living here may not be particularly house-proud...'

It would be very difficult to clean this kitchen,

if anybody had the mind to do so.

'..but the property does have to be in a reasonable state of repair.

'And we're still checking for evidence of the mice

'neighbours have complained about.'

-No evidence of mice so far...

-OK. Food cupboards are the place

but we haven't found much food yet, have we?

Nice bag of oats, that'd be good.

Even the mice are thinking, "What do you eat in here?

"What do you actually eat?"

Maybe that's why they've had to go to the neighbour's houses, there not getting much to eat here.

'There's much more to concern Clive in this room, though.'

The ceiling looks like it's got moisture coming

through from above somehow.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say there's a bathroom upstairs,

which could be causing the moisture on that wall as well.

And what about the erm... fire detection system?

-There IS no fire detection in this room.

-Yeah.

This is not a fire door - it's got glass panels in it.

You want all of those things...

Deficient in every respect.

'Fire safety is crucial in any home, but where there are a NUMBER of

'people sharing there are legal requirements to protect the occupants.

'And even I can see that these stairs could be deadly.'

This is a great place for a fire to start -

if it's not going to start here it would start in the kitchen -

and what you want underneath the stairs is protection

with plasterboard or something

that just gives them a bit longer before they go up in flames.

What I can see under there is just bare exposed wood.

You get a fire, and the last thing we want is when they're all

trying to rush down the stairs in the middle of the night

and the stairs are on fire, cos we've got a big problem there.

So, yeah, that needs to be fire protected.

'The guys living here wouldn't stand a chance.

'And upstairs it gets even worse.'

Just want to check your fire alarm here on the top.

-Let's get a tall person to help.

-Nothing.

OK, so we can get an need electrical safety certificate in seven days.

In seven days?

Yeah. Legal requirements, gas and electrical safety certificates

to us, otherwise that's another offence.

So we've got perfectly reasonable grounds for requiring that.

'I've also spotted another couple of issues in the bathroom.'

Is that the extractor fan? It's just, like, a hole.

Can you just put your finger in there?

I'm not going to put my finger in there, Clive! Do you think I'm mad?

It's going straight through to the loft.

Bit of trunking here...

Is that kind of exposed wiring?

Electric showers draw a lot of current, don't they?

And people handling them with wet hands,

so it's really got to be bomb-proof in terms of electrical earthing.

'Although, you know, I can't fault the bathroom for cleanliness.'

-I'd like to know what that means.

-We'll find out.

We'll have a little gamble - I think it says...

"Please flush." What do you think it says?

Erm, "Keep the toilet clean."

Mario, what does that mean?

Clean. When you're finished, clean it.

-Clean the toilet.

-Yes.

-I thought it was flush. No, no - clean.

-Yes.

Clive, you win. Clive won the bet.

'So far, Clive's established

'a number of safety problems with the house,

'but if he needed any more evidence that things aren't right here,

'we're just about to find it.'

This is a very small room.

Yeah, we do have standards on the minimum room size

for anyone to live in.

I mean, that's got to be...

Can you bring to mind what they are?

Oh... I knew you were going to ask me that.

It is...

6.5 square metres.

No - 6.5 square metres

-unless there's a... If there's a front room.

-Very good.

It's 8.5 square metres if there ISN'T a front room.

So, how big do you reckon THAT is?

Let's be generous and call this two metres that way,

and then let's say this way it's the same

but there's a big chunk taken out of it for this.

Want to take a measurement?

It's fine, I was just fishing it out while you were guessing.

See how accurate your estimates are.

This is four metres, maximum.

That's 1.70...

It's 3.5 metres squared, this room.

Even with a lounge, which they've got,

we want 6.5 square metres, and that's 3.5.

You don't really need to measure it, do you?

Because for me to...

I don't think I could lay in that head to toe.

It's like life on board a ship -

or a submarine, even, that's how tight it is there.

Clearly it's a real squeeze, isn't it?

-Ridiculous.

-Top marks.

Yes!

'It might be top marks for me,

'but for the tenants here there's not much to celebrate.

'It's obvious there's plenty of work that needs doing in this house,

'and the council will now follow up on these issues

'with a legal notice to the landlord.

'He or she will also need to apply for a licence,

'because let's not forget - those rules are in place to keep people safe.

'People like Mario and his mates.'

-Thanks for letting us in.

-It's all right, don't worry.

-So, the key is that your landlord needs to fix this house.

-Yes.

-Needs to make it better. Yeah?

-Yeah.

-For you.

-So you can stay here...

-Yes.

-..and not worry about fire.

And then the garden, the kitchen, all these things.

-Clean the house.

-Yeah.

OK. Nice to meet you, Mario.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

So Clive, a distinctly unloved house...

but, I mean, not the worst we've ever seen.

First impressions weren't very encouraging with the front garden

being a bomb site and the weeds eight foot high,

but once we got inside, yeah, I've seen worse ones for shared houses.

The main issue to me is the disrepair

that the landlord's responsible for.

They don't know each other, they don't seem to communicate

with each another - apart from the sign over the toilet,

which says keep clean, and it IS very clean...

So, you know, considering they're all leading separate lives in there,

it's operating to a certain degree.

But the landlord needs to keep his half of the bargain.

'Well, I'm pleased to say Clive did finally manage

'to track down the landlord.

'He said he had no idea there were five guys living in his house.

'He said he originally rented out the property to a family,

'and was unaware of the issues we found.'

The main thing I wanted to check is that he'd put in some smoke alarms -

two of them, as I'd asked - and he hasn't.

So he's got to have them in by the end of today,

otherwise we're going to take some emergency action which will

cost him about £580. So he's just gone now to buy two smoke alarms.

But, regardless, he's now begun work

on putting right the safety wrongs in this property.

Which can only be good news for everyone concerned.

ALARM BEEPS

That's it for today. Join me next time

back on the road with The Housing Enforcers.