Episode 5 The Housing Enforcers

-We'll have to force access.

-DOG BARKS

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

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

But for thousands of people across the UK,

the reality can be more hovel than home.

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

In the battle for decent housing...

-It really does look a shanty town.

-Yeah, it's not up to standard.

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

If someone had died here,

you would've been standing in a coroner's court.

'I'm Matt Allwright

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

-15 people in this house?

-15 people total living in here.

'I'll be with them

'as they tackle problem properties and slum conditions...'

MATT LAUGHS

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

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

'and everything in between...'

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

You never know what you're going to find.

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

Today, we discover a house so overcrowded

that even the housing officer is shocked.

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

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

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

One man calls in the council

after his neighbours take a unique approach

to landscaping in the back garden.

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

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

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

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

that is the width of the whole house.

That's all you get.

When was the last time you heard anyone use the phrase

"slum landlord"?

Not that recently, right?

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

that make sure housing meets basic standards.

And it's not just landlords.

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

I'm working alongside the men and women from councils

across the UK who enforce those laws.

They are the housing enforcers.

We're in Newham, East London,

a borough which attracts a high number of immigrants

who all need somewhere to live.

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

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

'They're checking up on a privately rented property

'they suspect to be seriously overcrowded.

'By making an unannounced visit,

'the officers hope to see the real conditions inside.

'But first, they have to get in.'

Hello, can you just let me in?

Hi?

Excuse me?

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

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

KNOCK ON DOOR

-Must be in.

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

Christine's wisely gone straight past the doorbell.

Just from a quick visual inspection,

I would say is non-functioning.

Please, just let me in. Open the door.

Excuse me.

'The landlord of this property only has planning permission

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

Hello, can you open up?

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

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

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

ordering him to comply with planning permission.

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

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

If they're not regulated by the council,

'large shared homes like these are often rundown,

'overcrowded and sometimes dangerous.'

Hi? Excuse me?

Can you just open the door for a minute?

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

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

Definitely people inside,

definitely not really interested in talking to us.

We think, in fact we're fairly sure,

that there's somebody in the here but they're not answering the door,

possibly, who knows, because the landlord has told them

not to open the door to...

er, people like Christine from the council.

Having said that, there are clues here.

Overflowing wheelie bins, always a good sign.

Also if you look through the letterbox up,

you can see a sort of photocopied sign

Sellotaped to the bathroom door.

Not the sort of thing that families leave for each other.

It's a sign that there are

too many people living in the space available

and it needs regulating by leaving messages for each other.

Oh, well.

-Yep.

-Nope.

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

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

Realistically, we're not getting in there,

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

With this kind of property,

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

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

There are issues, you know, fire safety,

poor quality, overcrowding.

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

and we don't know, do we?

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

and we're only allowed in with the landlord,

what you'll see with the landlord is different

than what we see when we knock on the doors.

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

from letting people in who could help them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

to look again for somewhere to live and maybe find another deposit.

There's lots of questions that go through their minds when

they've been told not to do something.

Coming up, our worst fears are realised

as the Newham team finally get into the house.

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

but it's not looking good so far.

The high demand for housing in London

means people will sometimes settle for a smaller living space

just to be in the capital. But there are limits.

Back in Newham,

'I'm joining James Burton and Ellen Nicholson

'from the council's planning department.

'They've had a complaint about cramped conditions

'in a privately rented home,

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

OK, so what's on the list?

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

Right, and what information have we got?

Is there any kind of permission on it at all?

Yeah, there was planning permission in 1991

for an erection of a two-storey extension.

It should be part of the family house, though,

and not necessarily being used as separate accommodation.

So, have we got any idea of who might be living there right now?

Yeah, we do, actually.

The complainant in this case was the actual tenant

of this particular new flat,

and he's living there with his wife and small baby.

So, a couple and a small baby

in what should have possibly been an extension

to an existing building.

-Yeah, by the sounds of it.

-Let's go and have a look.

The tenants have been here for a while,

but they say they're now struggling to manage.

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

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

that is the width of the whole house.

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

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

'is home to a family of three.'

Is that it?

-Tiny.

-There's a tiny, tiny kitchen.

It's so narrow.

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

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

The landlord is the next-door neighbour.

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

You can see the little door,

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

but then where does it go?

Yeah. Absolutely, that's what we have to find out.

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

and doesn't want to be on television,

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

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

on this programme.

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

You just have to come.

The problems of living somewhere like this are obvious,

even before you step inside.

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

with its own front door here...

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

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

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

so this is where you go every day with your child,

past a...

dangerously bowing wall.

Anyway, come on through.

'And the reality of the living conditions indoors

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

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

and in here we've got two chairs,

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

And then straightaway, we move into the kitchen,

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

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

OK, a tiny staircase...

leads you up to this, which is

a bedroom for Mum, Dad and Baby.

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

There's a wardrobe wedged into the corner.

MATT SIGHS

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

I can't open the door fully, even.

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

There's no central heating in here,

so the guys are relying on a... you can't see it -

I'm going to have to go out so you can see it -

an oil-fired little radiator down there.

Have a look.

OK?

That's the only way you can get to see everything

is if I step out of the way,

so there's clothes hanging off everything trying to get them dry.

How you get them dry, I don't know.

You just can't live like this.

You can't do it.

It's obviously quite an undersized flat.

It's just over two metres width across

and looks slightly longer than that long.

For three people, it's drastically undersized.

A one-bedroom flat like this to meet minimum requirements

would have to be pretty well over 50 square metres

and there's no way this gets even close.

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

never mind a family.

It would never have got planning permission to let out

'as a separate unit.' Newham never ceases to amaze me.

The housing market never ceases to amaze me,

the way it is at the moment.

The things that people are being forced to accept.

Erm, I'd say this is almost the smallest family house

in the country right now.

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

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

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

As the owner of the property next door, he may be able to shed

some light on how his tenants came to be living like this.

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

And after a quick chat, it seems we have some answers.

So let me get this clear, James, cos it's quite a complex situation.

It was already, the extension was there when he bought the place.

-Yeah.

-But he recently put in that kitchen

which effectively makes it a separate unit, a separate dwelling.

Yeah, exactly.

Until the time that he put that kitchen in,

it was just part of the main dwelling.

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

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

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

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

that's the crucial bit when you need to get on the phone

and say, "Can I do this?"

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

He will probably get a notice to return the use

of that side extension for the main property.

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

-Exactly.

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

was supposed to be - an extension,

and not a home for a family of three.

I've been to Britain's smallest house, I think it's in North Wales,

but it's a tourist attraction, no-one lives there.

That place is not much bigger, if at all,

and yet there are three people there, a couple and their child,

a family, and it's hard to imagine how on earth they cope.

The landlord's attempt to turn this extension into a profit also

highlights a very real problem faced by housing officers

and tenants in this part of the world.

The result of all of this, sadly,

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

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

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

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

Earlier, I accompanied Newham Council housing officers

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

only has planning permission for one family

and is thought to be seriously overcrowded.

But, despite our best efforts...

Hello, can you just let me in?

..we couldn't get access.

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

to find out what's really happening inside.

-Is there someone in there?

-Hello.

-Hello, sir,

we're from the planning department from Newham Council.

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

Are we all right to come in?

The landlord has already been served with an enforcement notice to

make sure the property only houses one family.

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

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

-My daughter.

-Your daughter?

-Yes.

-And your wife.

-Yes.

-In this room here?

-Yes.

-OK.

How long have you been living in this room?

-Three years.

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

And how much rent do you pay for this room?

-400.

-£400 per month?

-Yeah.

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

complete with all their worldly possessions, for three years!

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

It's hard, it must be.

Yeah, OK.

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

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

-Thank you very much.

-Sorry to disturb you.

-OK, no problem.

They've got a pull-out sofa that's the main bed

and then a mattress or a duvet that's on the floor.

It's quite appalling to be in those sort of conditions for that long.

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

but it's not looking good so far.

The next even-smaller room has two beds and a lock on the door,

another classic sign of a house being shared by strangers.

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

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

in a terrible mess here.

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

from the upstairs bathroom that's all caved in.

We've got a number of fridges,

another good indication that this is a shared home.

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

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

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

it doesn't look in particularly good shape.

Do you know how many people live in here?

-Two.

-Two people in this bed here?

It's...

Yes.

Yeah, I noticed in the kitchen

the ceiling has come down recently from the bathroom,

a leak or something, and the landlord does nothing, really,

-to maintain?

-He don't care.

-No.

-He's just after getting his rent from you?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

The landlord is pocketing almost three grand a month

for this property, including £320 quid

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

It's quite a small room.

-And this is your heating?

-Yes.

Does it get quite cold in here?

-Sometimes.

-It feels quite damp.

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

in a home.

Planning and housing restrictions are there to ensure safe,

acceptable conditions, but judging by the state of the bathroom

it's an epic fail on both counts.

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

where that's coming from.

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

I would say that the floorboards underneath are sodden

and this probably may collapse.

We've got signs on the door saying what you should and shouldn't do.

So good on them for trying to do something about it,

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

are living in this property, which is 14,

that's going to be a very hard thing to do.

And you can see from the bathroom's condition, it's just,

it's just a no-win situation.

It's not hard to see just how the landlord has managed

to cram 14 people into this place.

-This is a tiny room.

-Yeah.

I can nearly touch the walls either side,

so you're probably looking at about six by eight foot.

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

I wouldn't want to be in here.

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

and breathe the air in because it feels damp.

There's mould everywhere.

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

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

The conditions are not great,

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

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

And how much do you pay for renting the room?

500.

£500 altogether for the room. OK.

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

saying that you stay here?

Nothing, you don't have any tenancy agreement?

So with three people in a number of the rooms,

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

make any housing officer's toes curl.

But although the landlord could face prosecution,

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

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

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

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

under the Housing Act.

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

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

before they have to vacate a property.

Although that's probably small comfort to the tenants.

I'm seeing...

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

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

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

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

you've got damage and leaks and issues everywhere.

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

by probably going for a prosecution.

In three months during 2015, local housing authorities received

over 27,000 applications for housing assistance from homeless people,

but with high demand or council properties throughout

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

that can often include long stays in temporary accommodation.

In the Gloucestershire town of Stroud,

housing officer Vicky Stephenson is helping one young woman

leave her past behind,

to start a new life in her own home.

We've picked her up as a priority because of medical problems.

And, erm...

She's been bidding regularly on Home Seekers,

which is the council waiting list

and, fortunately, we've been able to secure a private rental

through our Homeless Prevention Fund.

Vicky's client is Sally-Anne.

After losing close family members, Sally-Anne was homeless

and became addicted to drugs.

The drastic change was, in my life,

was my brother getting killed, yeah.

My nan and grandad passed away in 2009

and that just sent me off the hook, yeah.

That broke me.

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

living in temporary accommodation, whilst she and Vicky

try to find her a place of her own,

but it hasn't been an easy time.

I'm in a bed and breakfast in Gloucester,

where I don't want to be.

Erm...

Choices I've made, I've fought for this, I've fought so hard

to get, erm, where I'm at now,

but I've let myself down.

Obviously with my addiction, it's so powerful and cunning.

And I feel lonely, I feel weak...

..depressed,

and I have contemplated suicide, put it that way.

In England, at the end of June 2015,

more than 66,000 households were in temporary accommodation.

Sally-Anne believes that leaving this world behind is her best

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

I'm hoping for a secure accommodation, to be settled, happy.

What I would like to achieve is comfort, security,

knowing that I've got somewhere that I can lock the door,

have my own serenity and peace and quiet.

It's been a tough journey for Sally-Anne,

but thanks to Vicky and her team, the prospect of a life

out of the B&B and in her own flat

is now just a few weeks away.

I don't want to ruin this chance

because the council aren't going to keep helping me.

They can't keep doing it for me.

I'm getting a flat, I am getting a flat,

and it's just worked out so perfectly.

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

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

but for Sally-Anne it's allowing her to let go of the past

and look towards a positive future.

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

a meeting that's another milestone in her recovery.

Vicky's team have found a private landlord

who's willing to take her on as a tenant.

So after all of the waiting and planning, the time has come

for her to collect the keys to her very own flat.

Signing my papers,

getting out of the B&B.

Yes! Erm, getting my own space,

my sanctuary,

and a lot, a lot of, erm, excitement.

Between April and June 2015, over 13,000 households were

registered as homeless by the government,

but for Sally-Anne there is a positive future ahead.

-Hi, Sally, morning.

-Thank you.

-See what you think of the flat.

-Thank you.

-Hi, Mark.

-How are you?

-I'm Vicky.

This is Sally-Anne.

-What do you think, Sally?

-What I like about the flat - it's mine.

I'm not sharing.

Erm, yeah, it's my own, it'll be my own security.

It's a step, like, huge stepping stone

and I need my own space now.

This is the supplemental agreement

and this is between your landlord,

yourself and Stroud District Council.

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

Perfect. Yeah.

For Sally-Anne, it comes down to this moment,

all she has to do now is sign and then sign again.

And then...another signature.

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

-That's that done.

-Excited. I've got butterflies.

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

Erm, yeah, and then it's mine.

I got my own key, then. Not a B&B key.

Yeah.

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

-I'd give it a couple of weeks.

-I'd like to do that.

-Yeah, give it a couple of weeks.

-To see the difference.

It's out with the old and in with the new.

I have to, it's a fresh start for me.

This is the beginning of the end, if that makes sense.

-Well, I hope you'll be very happy.

-Does that make sense?

-The beginning of the end?

-Yeah, it does. A new start.

Thanks to Vicky, Sally-Anne has signed

a 12-month tenancy agreement on the flat,

allowing her to really make the place her own.

I wouldn't get this property if it wasn't for Vicky

and the Homeless Prevention Team.

She's getting things done that I probably wouldn't have got done.

I'm over the moon, absolutely dead proud.

Two weeks later, and Sally-Anne's house

is starting to look like a home.

As a future home, I could see it as a homely home

and a place of sanctuary and security.

It's not just Sally-Anne that's delighted.

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

It was really nice to see how happy Sally-Anne was,

getting herself settled into her new property,

having gone through such a tough time.

I feel very proud of myself.

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

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

That's the reasons for doing this job,

when you get a good result.

Defending our right to a safe place to live is

the job of housing officers right across the UK.

This is not really an acceptable way of leaving the property behind.

Do you think?

I'm working alongside the men and women

that do exactly that.

-Top marks.

-Yes!

I'm hitting the streets...

That's ready to collapse.

Finding out what's happening on the front line

The cistern's in the bath.

I don't know how they flush it.

..and learning what it takes to make sure a house

is fit to be called a home.

I'm very shocked. This is ridiculous.

You shouldn't have people living in here.

North Wales has some of the most stunning scenery

in the British Isles...

..with the Snowdonia National Park

attracting people who want a small piece of this relaxed lifestyle

and everything that comes with it.

Gwynedd Council housing officer Carwyn Roberts is on his way

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

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

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

called Llan Ffestiniog.

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

which has been empty for a number of years.

The current owner started work on landscaping the garden.

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

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

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

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

from front to back.

He didn't just wreck his own property,

his neighbours are worried it's damaged the structural integrity

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

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

I couldn't believe it that he could get away

without any thought actually of just...

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

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

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

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

There's a massive gaping hole on the front and the rear,

and the gable end is on the verge of coming down.

So today's visit is basically to have a look at

the state of the property now.

What condition it's in.

The new owner was given planning permission for the work

on the cottage by Snowdonia National Park Authority,

not Gwynedd Council.

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

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

Although looking at the property,

it's difficult to see what he can do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

can devalue neighbouring homes by up to 18%.

He's had it on the market,

people come for viewings, they're not interested.

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

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

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

Later Carwyn discovers things are even worse than he thought.

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

I'm in Oxford, a property hot spot where rising house prices

have led to an increased demand for rental properties.

So to help protect the growing number of sometimes desperate

tenants looking for a roof over their heads, larger properties

that offer shared accommodation need to have a licence from the council.

This allows housing officers like Adrian Chowns to keep

an eye on them to make sure that a reasonable number of people

live in the property and that the landlord is providing a safe

and sanitary environment.

So the property that we're looking at, what are the issues there?

This is one that's been licensed before,

but the owner's failed to renew the licence.

So either it's gone back to an acceptable amount of people,

so it doesn't require a licence, or they've just not bothered.

Anything else I should know about?

We've had a report there's some rats been seen,

so, obviously, there's an issue with conditions.

OK, let's check it out.

The council needs to find out

if there are still a number of people sharing this house.

There are a lot of bins here,

and that's often a sign of an overcrowded property.

-Hello there.

-Hi there, how are you doing?

-I'm from the council.

How long have you been here?

'The tenant didn't want to speak on camera,'

but has confirmed Adrian's suspicions.

There are four people renting separate rooms inside.

In Oxford, any more than three unrelated people sharing

a house means the landlord must have a licence,

allowing the council to regulate health and safety.

The good news is, this landlord's proudly got one on display.

The bad news is, it's out of date.

That expired on 2nd April 2015.

And that means he's now breaking the law.

The licence has lapsed but then also we don't know how good

the management's been since that time.

I mean, you know, we need to have a look round.

So, no licence and it looks like the landlord hasn't

kept on top of the conditions in the property either.

You've got evidence of a lot of condensation

going on in that corner there, it's gone black and spotty.

So maybe the ventilation's either not working

or not working very well.

And it might be easy to understand why there have been

reports of vermin around this house.

If I was a rat I'd love that big bag of flour there.

Or even a nice cockroach.

I'm not sure we can blame the landlord entirely

for this one, though.

Typically in a shared rental house,

the tenants are expected to keep the communal areas clean.

But it's the responsibility of the landlord to make this practical.

That means kitchen surfaces

and floors should all be in a good state of repair.

Waste storage should be provided inside and out.

And key areas, such as bathroom walls and sanitaryware,

should be kept up to scratch

to give tenants a fighting chance

of keeping them clean,

unlike what we find next.

In the bathroom here we've got a really grubby floor.

-The state of the whole place...

-Just generally grotty.

Generally grotty.

We're looking at the management regulations here.

It's the efforts that the landlord is making to

regulate their behaviour in each other's interest.

Yeah, and to manage the house and to keep it in a reasonable condition.

But Adrian doesn't seem to have found any significant issues yet,

and at least the fire precautions seem to be up to scratch.

So it's odd that the landlord did have a licence

but then didn't renew it.

As we head outside, though, it seems the answer

might be staring us in the face.

See, what's THIS? Hold on, hold on, what's this?

Later, we discover that despite not having a licence for his tenants

inside, this landlord seems to be growing his empire outdoors too.

In here it even looks like someone's about ready to move in.

We're back in Llan Ffestiniog in North Wales,

where housing officer Carwyn Roberts

has been investigating a half-demolished house

which has been making the neighbours' lives a nightmare.

There's a massive gaping hole on the front and the rear,

and the gable end is on the verge of coming down.

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

state of the building next door has deteriorated.

The best view is from Noel's back garden.

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

Last time I was here it was half-demolished.

This used to be my border wall.

He's knocked this down without any permission or agreement by myself.

Three-and-a-half years like this.

I call it my own battlefield, to be honest.

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

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

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

I'm trying to sell the house

and this is the biggest drawback.

-This demolition job next door.

-Yeah, it's not helping.

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

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

It's quite shocking to see it.

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

My concern is obviously that this is going to eventually

drag down the roof of this house.

If it was done up properly, this could be a lovely house.

You know, it's got stunning location, stunning views

but to have it, seeing it getting worse

and worse like this every time I come here is very disheartening.

Erm, and frustrating, really, that the owner's, you know,

not doing any substantial amount of works with the property.

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

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

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

the work required and restore the house.

Carwyn's tried to get the best solution for Noel

but his hands are tied. All he can do is maintain a dialogue with

the owner of the crumbling property.

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

what's going on.

He says it's works in progress

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

is not reasonable.

There is a recent planning permission gone in to erect

an extension on the back.

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

But I certainly think it needs...

it needs to be a lot quicker than what it's going at the moment.

Despite battling on with the sale of his house,

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

I've been here for 13, 14 years and, er,

when we moved in it was a beautiful little cottage with a lovely garden.

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

I'd just love to sell the house but I seem to be getting

a lot of difficulty selling it because of next door's problem.

This is quite a frustrating case that we've got

because we're really not able to do much.

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

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

The Snowdonia National Park Authority tells us that

while it understands the neighbour's frustrations,

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

They say a notice can only be served on the owner

if no work had been carried out at the property,

or if the work was in breach of planning,

which at the moment, it isn't.

Back in Oxford, and I'm with housing officer Adrian Chowns.

We're at a property that we've learnt

is unlawfully home to four tenants.

That expired on 2nd April 2015.

But as well as an expired licence

and grotty conditions inside the house,

we discovered there's a much bigger mystery at the bottom of the garden.

What's this?

Oh, look at this.

I think we might, here, have stumbled on

an interesting bit of development that's going on.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, we're walking in here and straightaway it

appears like we have everything we need in here for a bathroom.

That suggests to me that there's going to be some toilet

or, yeah, there's drains.

Really, you don't put a bathroom into a storage area

in your back garden, do you?

It seems the presence of this building

is as much of a shock to Adrian as it is to me.

We had no notice of this place here at all, did we?

There's nothing on the books?

No, I mean this is the thing, isn't it?

I mean, we come to these places and you find something like this

being constructed in the back garden.

And with two centrally heated, double-glazed rooms...

This is feeling quite residential, I'd say.

It seems our landlord is definitely looking to expand his accommodation.

In here it even looks like someone's about ready to move in.

-Yeah.

-We've got bedding, and we've got suitcases and chairs.

We've got clothes there, as well.

I'd say this is maybe three or four weeks off actually being inhabited.

-So this was a good time to call round.

-Yeah, definitely.

With this, it goes straight to Planning, I'd say,

and say we found this.

Is there any record at all of this being given planning permission?

And Adrian's got another concern about this glorified garden shed.

One that could make life for the tenants inside the house

even more uncomfortable.

The thing for me is that we haven't got a kitchen.

So my assumption would be that whoever's staying in this building

-would use the kitchen in the main house.

-Yeah.

That would push it beyond acceptability.

Adrian's concern is that extra tenants put pressure on all

the facilities in a house and make the property officially overcrowded.

So even if planning permission exists for this outbuilding,

Adrian would still look to take action.

We can serve a prohibition order on here

and we can put a condition on the licence

so that this building can't be used for sleeping accommodation.

And that's the important thing to remember about visits like this.

There's a reason the council want to licence rented accommodation.

They need to ensure everyone has a safe place to live.

We saw the licence and you know he's clearly not renewed that, so...

And the reason for that could be because he didn't want anyone

coming round seeing the fact that he's building a palace

in the back garden for even more residents.

I think we need to start a formal investigation into the landlord

and into the way he's been operating this property.

And true to his word, a couple of weeks later,

Adrian has completed his investigation.

It seems that paperwork really isn't this landlord's strong suit.

Not only has he not got the right licence to house his four tenants,

there's nothing in the files for his mystery garden building either.

In terms of the actual outbuilding that we went into,

there doesn't appear to be planning permission.

And that's more bad news for the landlord.

We'll let our Planning colleagues know.

They will potentially be looking at taking enforcement action

against him for an unlawful development.

We've now heard that the council is taking action

against the landlord for failing to renew his licence.

Meanwhile, the planning department have invited him to put his

side of the story about the building at the bottom of the garden

in a formal interview.

That's it for today.

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