Episode 8 The Housing Enforcers

Hello. Can you let me in?

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

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

But for thousands of people across the UK,

the reality can be more hovel than home.

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

In the battle for decent housing...

We've just got conditions that are just appalling.

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

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

If somebody had've died here,

you would've been standing in the Coroner's Court.

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

-15 people in this house?

-15 people in total living in here.

I'll be with them as they tackle problem properties

and slum conditions...

-It really does look a shanty town.

-Yeah, it's 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.

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

Today, there's a rat infestation at a house in Wolverhampton.

I actually found a rat in the toilet at one time.

It had got in, went for a drink and drowned.

The council adapt an unsuitable bathroom

allowing an elderly tenant to stay in her much-loved home.

And has it changed the way that you live here independently?

It does, definitely.

I visit a house in Newham

that's been unlawfully converted into flats.

-This is taking the mick.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

-It is, really.

-It's taking the mick.

You could at least move the fridge out and then...

-You know...

-Or take the kitchen cupboards out.

Some token effort to try and pretend,

-but none of that's happened at all.

-No.

And in Babergh, a housing officer discovers

what's been left behind by a tenant after years of hoarding.

Oh!

I don't think I can even get into the room or open the door.

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 Wolverhampton,

just like other parts of the UK,

housing officers like Clare Clifft have a difficult job.

It's like that

when you're applying rules and regulations

to people's complex lives and their homes.

Especially when you're looking after a tenant

with very complicated needs.

Paul lives alone in this rented three-bedroom house

with his three ferrets and beloved dog.

I've had no heating for about four years.

At least four years.

And that's my only form of heating.

For Paul, this is home,

even though it's clearly a property with plenty of problems.

As you can see, there's a block of wood down there by the drainpipe.

That's actually stopping the rats getting in.

As you can see, where the house is tilting,

because the house is going to the side,

you can see all the cracks on the window there.

There's cracks all up there.

If you walk back,

you can actually see from here all the cracks on the top window.

The cracks up there.

So, obviously, the house is tilting.

And the structural issues continue inside.

One day, I'm going to wake up,

there's going to be none of this here.

It's all sinking. You can see yourself.

Obviously, the house is falling to bits.

There's nothing I can do.

On top of the difficulties

of keeping the building and himself safe,

Paul has no access to heating or hot water.

That's the combi boiler...

..which hasn't worked for about five years.

It's old.

The landlord came with the plumber

and they said it was too old, it couldn't be repaired.

And that's my only form of heating - log burner.

I don't want to have to live like it,

but you have to make do with what you've got, unfortunately.

I know myself there's other people a lot worse off than me.

There's some people ain't even got anywhere to live,

they ain't even got a house.

Without adequate support from the landlord,

Paul's been left to his own devices

in trying to tackle the problems with his house.

Obviously, there's been a lot of issues with the house.

There's mice, there's rats, hence why there's ferrets here,

cos ferrets actually kill mice and rats.

I went into the hallway there,

my dog had got one end of the rat and the ferret had got the other.

The dog didn't loosen it, the ferret wasn't loosening it,

and in the end, the ferret loosened,

the rat bit the dog's paw,

and picked the rat up and walked off with it.

If you come through into the bathroom and look down there,

there's two bricks and a piece of wood.

That's actually stopping rats getting through,

cos there's been rats running round.

I actually found a rat in the toilet at one time.

He got in, went for a drink and drowned.

Paul's clearly fighting a losing battle.

The bathroom's in such a state

that even rats don't want to be there.

You could put me in a field, give me a caravan, I'd be happy.

Somewhere where I'm out the way,

I ain't got nobody to bother me, nobody to pester me.

I've always been a bit of a loner.

I keep myself to myself. I don't give nobody any trouble.

There's no way I can keep living like this.

Clare's been aware of Paul's problems for some time

and has been demanding that the landlord does something about it.

Hi, Paul. Are you all right?

She's already sent the landlord an improvement notice

telling him he needs to bring the property up to scratch.

She's here with colleague Tom to check if anything's been done.

We need to just get a bit of evidence today, Paul,

about bits and bobs, all right?

Really big food safety issues in the kitchen.

No cleansable flooring, no tiled splashbacks.

Large holes in the wall.

Damp and broken plaster.

But, obviously, we've got big problems in here

The property's clearly in a dismal state,

but as the tenant, Clare knows that Paul, too,

needs to take some responsibility for the house.

Because Paul has a lot of things and a lot of stuff,

it is quite difficult to do a full, proper inspection.

But, hopefully, if he gets rehoused

then he will leave a lot of this stuff behind.

And upstairs, the full extent of Paul's hoarding habit become clear.

So, again, Paul's got a lot of stuff.

But, actually, compared to when we first inspected...

I mean, this was wall-to-floor high with bikes.

Massive damp issues here,

again arising from the trees and things

growing in the...side of the wall.

The windows, I can't even get to the windows,

so I can't really test to see if they open or not.

There is a lot of stuff here, yes.

Obviously, everybody collects things,

but I don't think it's as bad as some things you see on telly.

Paul's keeping ferrets in the house

as he thinks that will help tackle the vermin problem.

But is it possible his lifestyle

might be attracting them in the first place?

Again, lots of stuff, so we have asked Paul to clear

and start clearing some stuff out.

But, again, here he is doing it slowly.

But it takes time.

I believe that rats and things are nesting, possibly, in this mattress.

I'm not sure whether there's any in there at the moment.

I haven't seen any.

With the house in such a poor state of repair

and Paul's hoarding adding to the problems,

Clare needs to try to unstick a decidedly sticky situation.

What are you going to do with all your stuff if you get rehoused?

Are you just going to leave it, or what are you going to do?

-I'll take it straight up to the tip.

-OK.

Are you? Are you going to be quite ruthless?

-I've got to.

-Yeah.

-There's no ifs or buts.

-OK, all right, then.

-Things what I'll take is, like, the bed, obviously...

-Yeah.

..and just, like, bare necessities.

So what do you plan on doing?

Are you planning on completely and utterly stripping it?

Straight up the tip.

OK. What about all your clothes and things?

-Well, what I don't need...

-Just what you've got in here?

-What I don't need I'll give to clothes bank.

-OK.

I think what you need to think about doing

is just starting to get rid of it now,

otherwise it's going to be a lot for you to deal with all in one go.

What I'll do is put everything in a trailer, everything in the van,

straight up Cannock tip.

Although Paul must accept some accountability

for the state of the property,

ultimately, the structural problems and lack of heating and hot water

are the landlord's responsibility.

The landlord here needs to do some kind of structural survey,

needs to be doing quite a lot of work with the kitchen and bathroom

to bring it up to standard.

He needs to be managing this tenancy.

At the end of the day, if you find a tenant living like this

then you need to be managing it

through either letters advising how they should be living, etc.

If they're not living in a tenant-like manner

then they need to be pulled up on it.

And if they need support, that needs to be highlighted to the council

so we can give them some support.

Again, we've got issues, things like...

It's just massive structural degradation,

really, here with the plaster.

I spoke to Housing Options this morning

and we're getting there with sorting out your rehousing.

All right? It will happen, OK?

Paul's promised to do his bit to try and improve the property,

but there's no excuse for the landlord's behaviour.

Despite repeated warnings from Clare,

the house remains in disrepair and the boiler is broken,

leaving Paul in a vulnerable and dangerous situation.

Still exactly the same as it was three months ago,

even after serving the improvement notice.

Exactly the same thing with the tyres.

The tyres are still very much...

..down the side.

All still there.

Mattresses still there. Still leaning.

If they find me somewhere, I'd be made.

I should not have to go to people's houses for a bath or a shower.

I think it's degrading, myself, having to ask.

Later, Clare gets more than she bargains for on her return visit.

-Just wait two seconds.

-SQUEAKING

I think there's a rat in here.

I'm in Stroud in Gloucestershire

with housing officer Sophie Smith.

We're on our way to visit local council tenant Sylvia Croad.

Tell me about Mrs Croad.

She's one of our elderly tenants.

She lives independently on her own in a bungalow.

And she's currently got a bath in there

and she's really struggling to get in and out of it.

I had a bath seat put onto the bath

and had problems with that

after falling out onto the floor and bruising myself badly.

I wasn't going to try it again.

It was really embarrassing to find yourself on the floor.

Thankfully, the council have come up with a plan to adapt the bathroom

that'll be safer and easier for Mrs Croad to use.

Sophie and I just need her to agree to the changes.

She's from an older generation that are used to having a bath

rather than having a shower,

so it is going to be a culture change

and we want to be as accommodating as we can for her,

so that's the plan.

Do you find people are sometimes resistant to changes like this?

-Yeah.

-Or do they welcome them always?

-We get a combination.

We get some people who are desperate to have the adaptation

but don't quite meet the criteria, which is a shame,

and we can't help everyone.

I've got a 92-year-old tenant somewhere else in the district

who her whole family are really hoping for her to have an adaptation

and she said, "Absolutely not.

"I am going to have a bath for the rest of my life.

"I can't stand showers. That's not for my generation."

Falls are a common but often overlooked cause of injury.

Around one in three adults over 65 who live at home

will have at least one a year.

-Right, have you got my folder?

-There you go.

-Thank you.

Been looking after that for you.

-It's the one on the end, yeah?

-Yeah, it's just down here.

Hello, Mrs Croad. I'm Sophie from the council.

I think you met me before. And this is Matt.

-He's come along today.

-Nice to meet you. How are you?

Is it all right if we come in? Thank you.

Before we can find out what Mrs Croad thinks to the plan,

Sophie shows me the bathroom in its current state.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Oh, I see. Right, yes.

-Yep.

So, Matt, looking at this bathroom,

talk me through what you think the danger points are

at the moment for Mrs Croad.

Well, you know, this is a lovely bathroom for...

Almost anybody would look at this and say there's no problems here.

But when she's got mobility problems

and it's not easy getting into a bath, when it's as low as that,

for a start, she's really going to struggle, A) getting in,

and then, B) getting back out again.

So that doesn't really work.

Pretty much the same for the loo, cos the loo is right down there,

and so everybody, eventually, is going to need a bit of help

getting down and getting back up again.

So anything that can be done to sort that out as well

is all going to be for the good.

Would you be concerned about Mrs Croad staying here

with the way things are at the moment?

Yeah, I'd be really worried.

I mean, she has had a fall.

She's only strip-washing at the moment, which is not very nice.

If she chooses to use the bath, it's a big risk.

And we have actually had her family doctor involved in that as well.

So it's all sorts of different people getting involved,

and we know that we need to do something

if she stays here long-term.

With it like this then it might not be viable,

so it's paramount that we do this.

It's clear that a walk-in shower is the right solution.

Hopefully, Mrs Croad feels the same way.

OK, Mrs Croad.

It's a beautiful bathroom, but it's got to go.

-That's right.

-Yeah.

By doing this adaptation,

it means that you can completely wash

and live in your home independently.

I just can't wait for you to have it done

and, hopefully, you'll really be happy with it and enjoy it,

and it's going to look really nice as well, which is another thing.

For the last two years,

I've had difficulties getting in and out of the bath

because I need a hip operation.

So I'm glad, really, that something is being done.

This is great news for everyone.

It means that the work can start as planned

and Mrs Croad will no longer have to wash standing up at the sink.

Well, independence is very important

because I've worked in a residential home

and I've seen people who aren't so active as I am

in body, mind or spirit.

And I like to feel free.

It's going take more than a week

for the builders to redesign the bathroom,

and with Mrs Croad happy, it's a great result for Sophie.

When you're dealing with somebody like Mrs Croad,

there is always a danger

that she can feel that events are overtaking her

and that things are happening TO her rather than with her.

And just saying, you know, just simple ideas like,

"If you have any problems, call me,

"this is what's going to happen, this is when they'll be here,"

just give her that confidence

-and a sense of control over what's taking place.

-Yeah.

A few weeks later, and Sophie's on her way

to see how Mrs Croad is getting on with her new bathroom.

We always do follow-up visits.

It's important for a number of reasons.

I mean, first and foremost,

I want to know that it's actually functional,

fit for purpose and working for that person.

And as much as adapting a bathroom might sound quite straightforward,

everyone has different needs and different abilities.

It's keeping that communication open with that customer.

This isn't the end.

I'm going to come back and see them,

make sure that they remember who I am

so that they have the confidence to call me

if they have any more troubles.

Hello, Mrs Croad. Is it all right if I come in?

Thank you.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

Is it all right if we go and have a look at the bathroom?

-We will now.

-Yeah?

Are you happy with it?

-Very.

-Oh good.

Oh, wow! Looks good.

So have you tried it out?

-I have.

-Yeah?

-Yes, I have.

-And you've got your seat in there.

-Mm-hm.

-And are you finding it OK?

-I'm finding it OK, yeah.

-Yeah?

So how have you been using it? Have you been using it often?

-I have, yes.

-Yeah?

-Yes.

And has it changed the way you live here, independently and that?

It does, definitely, yes.

I really like to come in here now.

Ahh, yeah, it's not a fearful time, is it,

going to the bathroom and having to have a shower?

-That's right.

-Oh, good.

And the flooring, you're not slipping over or anything on it?

-No, that's much better.

-OK.

I'm really happy with what they've done,

so I'm happy to sign it off.

-Are you happy to sign it off as well?

-I am, yes.

-Yeah? OK.

Sophie's work is now done here.

Thank you very much, Mrs Croad. All right, bye-bye.

She's removed the dangers from Mrs Croad's bathroom,

allowing her to live safely and independently in her own home.

Meanwhile, back in Wolverhampton,

housing officer Clare Clifft had her hands full

with a property that was not only falling apart...

Really big structural issues.

The landlord here needs to do some kind of structural survey.

..it was also bursting at the seams.

So, again, Paul's got a lot of stuff.

I mean, this was wall-to-floor high with bikes.

After her last visit, Clare made another demand on the landlord

to improve the property.

She and her colleague Suppreet are on the way back

to see if this has been done.

She's also looked at alternative accommodation for Paul.

There was a chance of getting Paul rehoused.

I did some joint working with my colleagues

in Homeless Services and Housing Options

and he was offered temporary accommodation.

But, unfortunately, he wasn't willing to leave his dog,

so Paul's declined the housing offer.

Which means, for now, Paul - and doggie - are staying where they are.

I'm not bothered where I go,

as long as I've got somewhere where I can take the dog.

I'm not going to get rid of the dog.

The dog's never done no harm to nobody,

so why should I get rid of the dog?

Finding dog-friendly accommodation could take some time.

Good morning, Paul. How are you? Are you all right?

While Clare's doing her best

to find suitable alternative accommodation

that will take both Paul and his pet,

she wants to check that he and the landlord

have been improving the property in the meantime.

How are you getting on? We'll just go and have a quick look round.

-Upstairs...

-Yeah.

-Have you cleared a lot of stuff, or not?

-A lot.

Have you? You been mad?

-Where the bedroom was...

-Have you gone crazy?

-..all that's clear.

-There's no rubbish on the floor, nothing like that.

-OK.

-All the bags, everything's gone.

-Right.

The back bedroom up there,

there's a pile of rubbish gone out there.

Right. All the bikes and that gone?

Well, not yet, but they will be.

Although Paul claims he's done his best to clear things up,

Clare believes he might have missed something.

Just wait two seconds. I think there's a rat in here.

SQUEAKING

I think there's a rat in here.

-You can hear it.

-You can hear it, yeah.

Yeah, not a lot, really, has been tidied.

I think he's tried,

but I think it's just sort of been pushed into one corner.

Not a lot has really changed. Still heavily ladened.

OK. So, again, nothing's been cleared.

It's exactly the same as it was beforehand.

I did get a feeling that there were rats in that mattress at one point,

because if you have a look at the nibble marks...

-Yeah.

-..you can see it's been chewed.

No, nothing's been cleared in here. Yeah, so this is kind of...

The rubbish all came out to about here last time,

so he has cleared a lot, and a lot of it was food debris as well.

It is a bit tidier in here, yeah. Marginally.

It seems like every time I come round,

he tries to tidy that little bit more, which is good.

I want to try and encourage him

to make sure that he stays healthy and he stays well.

You know, lots and lots of clutter and hoarding isn't good.

And Paul has clearly tried to make things more hospitable.

-You cleaned your cooker for me, didn't you?

-Yeah.

I know you did. I know you did. You did a really good job, Paul.

But despite Clare's improvement notices,

that's more than can be said of the landlord.

Big damp patch in the left-hand corner.

Big hole leading to outside.

And there's a reminder that with winter here,

and Paul still without a working boiler,

things are only going to get worse.

Do you know what?

I don't think I've ever seen

ice growing on the outside of a freezer before.

That just goes to show you how cold it gets in here at night.

So, yes, I need to do something, don't I, really,

heating- and hot water-wise?

The situation is still pretty bleak,

and with Paul not happy to leave without his pet,

Clare's options are limited.

I understand that you don't want to take the housing offer,

and that's fine, cos of the dog,

but I'm still leaving you here at Christmas-time

with no heating, no hot water and no nothing,

and you're still kind of here.

There's nothing can be done.

The council can't keep paying for you to be here, Paul,

because it's not suitable.

Do you know what I mean? It's not how you should be living, is it?

-I know that.

-You know.

-There's nothing I can do.

I can't force him to do the repairs if he won't do them.

I am going to try and get this heating and hot water sorted for you,

cos I don't think I could sleep at night

-if I leave you another year with it.

-I don't think you'll get it sorted.

It's not ideal and feels more like a compromise

than a permanent solution.

But it shows yet again

the difficult challenges facing housing officers like Clare,

not just here in Wolverhampton, but across the UK.

I might be able to sort out the heating. I will...

Considering how cold it was in there today...

It was probably colder in there than it was out here.

So I will go back, speak to my boss, see if there's any funding

for getting a gas engineer out there and having a look,

just to tell us what the problems are.

If it's going to be too much money, like a whole new heating system,

obviously, that might not happen.

But if it's just a quick fix, something's gone, like a thermostat,

then we might be able to fund that.

It's just so we can get him some heating and hot water for Christmas.

I've got a daughter who lives in Walsall.

My brother lives in Darlaston.

I've got a son who lives with my ex-wife.

I've got two grandchildren and all.

Like I say, I've got a lot of family,

but they don't live in this area.

If they can sort the heating out, yeah, but it's only short-term,

cos I've got to go in the end, anyway.

So then I'm going to be back to square one.

The heating's a good option, cos at least I can be warm,

but that's really not going to help me still.

I need somewhere else to live.

Since Clare's last visit, there's been some good news.

Paul's been moved into a one-bedroom flat with his dog,

although he did have to get rid of his ferrets.

The house he was living in remains in the same condition

and the council have now placed a prohibition order on it,

which means the property cannot be used for residential purposes

until the works have been completed.

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.

In the London borough of Newham,

almost half of the area's housing stock is flats,

which isn't good news for the thousands of families

desperate for decent accommodation.

I'm with housing officers Stephen Pavett and Holly Ripp,

checking up on a property which had been converted into flats.

It's been over three years since the council first ordered the landlord

to return it to use as a family home.

We need to make sure he has.

So what we're expecting to find as we walk through the door

is what looks like a normal family home -

one gas meter, one electricity meter,

you know, a front room,

bedrooms upstairs and a kitchen downstairs.

Exactly - your standard family house.

I actually spoke to the owner last week

who told me that he has reached compliance

so, fingers crossed, this could be a good one for us.

-We're from the planning department from Newham Council.

-Yeah.

So...we've still got some work to be done here.

This still has a kitchen area there

-with a fridge still plugged in.

-That's right.

So this could actually operate quite easily

-as a separate bedsit or flat.

-That's right.

This is a former bedsit here,

so they haven't taken out everything they needed to do.

So all the kitchen cupboards, the fridge,

anything that made it a kitchenette, had to be removed.

-So, as you can see, that still hasn't happened.

-Uh-huh.

-Can I just check through there?

-Yeah.

I think you'll find that's the toilet in there.

So we've got...

We've got a fully functioning shower room, basin, toilet...

with extractor fan.

OK, so early indications aren't great,

and the current tenant seems just as perplexed as we are.

How long have you been in the property?

-Two months.

-Two months?

Has the owner given you any indication

that he wanted to do any further works?

No.

The first room that we've come into...

Bearing in mind this is supposed to be returned to a family dwelling,

which means one family occupying the whole place,

and we come in through the front door, turn right,

and straight away, here's a room which is,

to all intents and purposes, its own self-contained flat.

It's got a very small shower and toilet room,

it's got a little kitchenette ready to go.

So it doesn't feel...

I don't think Stephen and Holly are going to be pleased about this,

is my prediction.

It's not what should have happened.

Now, bearing in mind that this is a family dwelling,

or should be a family dwelling,

there is a clear indication that it's not,

or it's ready to be something other than that straight away.

If you have a look in the cupboard, you'll see...

..not one, not two, but five separate electrical meters,

all with their own keys...

..which means that this is still a house

that's very easy convertible into flats.

I'm getting the impression

the landlord hasn't made much of an effort

to turn this place back into a family home.

Newham Council aren't keen to see any more family homes

converted into flats or shared houses.

With multiple occupants, properties can often fall into disrepair.

The living conditions inside can deteriorate

with poor cleanliness and overflowing bins

leading to vermin infestations.

It can even mean a lack of fire alarms

and safe escape routes through the house.

It's not that bad here,

but the landlord of this place still isn't complying with regulations.

So we come from the main kitchen here, or the kitchen here,

into a living area which has got its own sort of bed area

through a sort of string curtain thing,

then we have a lounge here.

-Are you following all of this with your diagram?

-Not very well!

-Because it's not easy, is it...

-No.

..to try and work out how the rooms relate to each other?

And that's a very dark kitchen through there.

Does this feel to you, as it does to me,

like a conversion that is necessity,

making these different...?

It's been very basically brought backwards

and it would be very easy

to convert it back into the four flats that it was.

You just need to put back up the partitions.

The four meters, five meters, are still there.

And we still have the kitchen/living area.

-I assume that's a bathroom behind us over there.

-Yeah.

To be fair, this isn't your average unsafe and overcrowded shared house.

In fact, compared to some of the places I've seen,

it's the height of luxury.

So this is a nice self-contained flat, really.

We've got a really nice kitchen,

super living area with a bed just off it,

and then this really sweet...

really sweet little bathroom here as well.

Coming up, the evidence that the house

IS still being rented as four flats mounts up.

And then this is the empty room,

which, once again, has got a kitchenette,

it's got a shower room/bathroom and a little sink.

-It's got its own fridge.

-Yeah.

So you can just hand somebody the keys,

literally they walk in here, it's their own flat,

they don't need to go anywhere else.

In Babergh...

housing officer Ian Watson is on his way

to inspect a council-owned property.

The house has been empty since the previous tenant,

an elderly gentleman who lived alone, unexpectedly passed away.

We're off to Sudbury today.

I've got a void property that I want to go and have a look at.

I'd previously been there because of issues with hoarding

and cleanliness of the property.

I haven't been back since

and I just want to go and see what we've got.

The house is a good-sized property in a prime location,

so it's important to get it into a lettable state as soon as possible.

And from the front, things look quite normal.

But as soon as Ian gets round the back,

it becomes clear this isn't going to be a quick job.

Obviously, things have been overgrown.

And unfortunately for Ian,

the untidiness isn't just confined to the garden.

-Cor.

-HE COUGHS

Inside, the house is in a shocking state -

almost every inch of floor space taken up

with piles and piles of things hoarded by the previous tenant.

Well, obviously, the house hasn't been cleared.

He did have dogs, and I think the smell of those has remained here.

The smell is just one item

on a very long list of things wrong with this property.

Rubbish boxes everywhere. I did say he was a bit of a hoarder.

It's the stench that's getting to me, actually.

Flies and things.

It's upsetting to think

that someone spent the last months of their life

living in these kinds of conditions.

And upstairs, things aren't any better.

Oh, my goodness.

Ah!

Cat's muck and stuff on...

There's loads of dead flies.

Ah!

I don't think I can even get into the room

or open the door.

Spider's webs. Uck!

It's going to need more than a skip.

This is an incredible amount of stuff.

That room is just full from top to bottom.

It's not been used as a bedroom or anything.

I've seen some people who hoard, yeah,

and you've got to struggle to get through.

But then bear in mind there has been one skip here,

but I didn't realise the property was in such poor state.

With the amount of stuff in here,

it's going to cost quite a bit of money to clear this.

The reasons why someone begins hoarding aren't fully understood.

It can be brought on by another condition

such as severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Some of the warning signs

are a desire to keep seemingly worthless items,

an inability to organise things,

and difficulty managing everyday tasks.

Somebody's obviously had issues and not sought help.

Some people want help, some people don't.

But I never realised it was this bad.

It's a bit unfortunate. There's just everything everywhere.

And so many boxes.

I mean, it must have taken years... years to get all this together.

I certainly didn't expect this. It's quite sad.

Hoarding disorders are challenging to treat

because many people who have them often don't see it as a problem,

or have little awareness of how it's impacting their lives

or the lives of those around them.

I should think, even if we have the guys in to clear the property,

it's going to take at least a week just to clear it,

and there's no way we could rent this out.

Those walls won't need cleaning. It'll need redecoration.

There's obviously doors to be rehung, by the looks of it.

Might need a new bathroom.

New flooring and everything. All the carpet...

Everything's got to be removed and we'll have to start again.

The state of the property means

it's going to be a big job to get it back up to a standard

where it can let out, and it's important

that Ian gets things moving as quickly as possible.

The longer the house stays empty,

the longer a family in need of a home

will have to remain on the council's waiting list.

Disappointing and sad to see that somebody actually lived like that.

I reckon we're talking six weeks

to bring this property round back to how it should be,

depending on whether we can get rid of that smell that's in there,

whether it's ingressed into the concrete

and the tiles and everything - that's the problem.

Since Ian visited the property, a new kitchen has been fitted

and the entire house repainted.

Once the works are complete,

it will placed back onto the market, ready for new tenants to move in.

Back in Newham, I'm with housing officers Holly and Stephen,

inspecting a property which had been unlawfully converted into flats.

The landlord's already been ordered

to turn the house back into a single family home,

but judging by what we've seen downstairs,

it doesn't seem to have happened.

Perhaps the occupant can throw some light on the situation.

-I mean, this is your home.

-Yeah.

-So how long have you been here?

-Two months.

-Two months?

-Yeah.

-Do you live here alone?

-Yeah... No, with my auntie.

-Two person.

-Can I ask you, how much rent do you pay?

-1,250.

-Per month?

So £1,250 a month.

But there was... And deposit as well?

-And one month deposit.

-One month deposit.

The tenant says he rents the entire house from the landlord

and that it's just him and his auntie living there.

But Stephen's not convinced.

If he sleeps in there or his auntie sleeps in here,

or his auntie sleeps upstairs,

then who sleeps down here?

Because this is clearly occupied.

The bed's made up, we've got food in all the cupboards,

food in the fridge, we've got damp towels here.

We're still trying to establish what's taking place in this house.

It's a bit of a mystery.

And we need to look upstairs to make it clearer.

We need to know how many people, how many individual units,

and how the house is operating.

Again, all the clues... They're not clues.

It's evidence, you know,

that, actually, it's operating as a series of separate flats

and hasn't been converted back to a single family dwelling.

The mystery deepens.

Despite what the tenant says,

all the clues point to this being four completely separate flats,

but to be sure, we need to look upstairs.

-It's definitely occupied.

-Yeah.

And then, once again, as you walk in, it's got things

that normal bedrooms in a family home don't have.

For instance...

That's the shower room with toilet and mini-sink.

-Fridge.

-We've got a fridge.

-And then round the corner...

-Little kitchenette.

A little kitchenette.

So, again, you could lock the door here

-and do everything you need to live a life.

-Yeah.

This is an individual flat with its own electricity meter.

You know, this is...

-Nothing's changed here.

-No, nothing's changed. No.

So I'm really at a loss to know what the owner has done

to comply with our enforcement notice.

But there doesn't seem to be a lot that's gone on, really.

This room's completely occupied.

It's being used as a self-contained unit.

It's marked outside as room 3.

-This is taking the mick.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

-It is, really.

Quite frankly, it's taking the mick.

You could at least move the fridge out, and then...

-You know...

-Or take the kitchen cupboards out, something.

Some token effort to try and pretend.

-But none of that's happened at all.

-No.

-It's a fully stocked fridge.

-It's ready for dinner.

-There's more food in there than in my fridge.

-Yeah!

Let's have a look at the kitchen.

-We've got a kitchen...

-Fresh fruit.

-..cupboard, so this is all occupied.

Another sign - fresh fruit.

-If you're not occupying somewhere, you don't find fresh fruit.

-No.

And that looks pretty fresh to me.

I mean, I know there's such pressure in Newham

that, actually, you don't want to fall out with people,

cos you might find yourself very quickly homeless.

-Mm. I mean...

-I don't get it.

He's stated that he lives here with his auntie

and he said no-one else lives here.

But yet we've already seen evidence of three beds being lived in,

so you've got to think that a third person

is potentially occupying the property along with them.

It's very hard to tell, but it's not just two people.

As if we needed any more evidence,

the fourth flat looks like it's ready to go.

And, like the other rooms, it's even got its own number.

And then this is the empty room

which, once again, has got a kitchenette,

it's got a shower room/bathroom, and a little sink,

-it's got its own fridge.

-Yeah.

You can just hand somebody the keys, literally they walk in here,

it's their own flat, they don't need to go anywhere else.

They don't need to interact with downstairs,

-they've got everything they need in this room to live.

-Yeah.

So as far as we're concerned, it's still a self-contained room,

self-contained flat, and it needs to change.

Why not? Why hasn't it?

-I mean, we're talking about a three-year process here.

-Yeah.

And not the slightest effort, it seems, has been taken.

-You've still got individual numbers on each door of each flat.

-Yeah.

It seems all the landlord may have done

is ask the previous tenants to leave

and then he's just occupied it,

rented it out again, to a new tenant,

but all the fixtures and fittings are all the same.

Nothing's changed.

So there's a lot of work to be done on this property still.

Well, to put it in official parlance,

I feel that that was not compliant.

I mean, to put it in less technical language,

a whole skip-load of mickey is being taken in that property.

Three years since the original enforcement notice

and still clearly four flats ready to go as soon as anyone decides.

Yeah. I mean, he hasn't bothered to disconnect any electrical supplies.

Easy things like fridges could have been removed from the property.

He's done absolutely nothing.

The slightly mysterious side of it is the tenant's point of view

where he's kind of trying to protect the landlord, in a way,

and saying, "No, it's just me and my auntie living here."

Why would he do that?

It could be that he's related

or friends with the landlord in some way.

So, OK, next step, then. What do we do with this place?

So with this property, we'll have two options.

We'll either write to the owner straightaway

and tell him that we're going to take prosecution action

because he's done so little to the property

to comply with the enforcement notice.

Or our other option, we'll give him a call,

have a bit of a chat with him about it

and see, basically, why he hasn't done anything

and what his intentions are with the property.

You know, when it's that brazen

that they've not even taken the numbers off the doors,

you know, there is a limit to how much more chat

we should be having with this guy.

Since we filmed at the property,

Stephen and Holly have been back to conduct another inspection.

They discovered that the tenants we met had moved out

and around 15 new ones had moved in.

Frustratingly, the case lingers on

as they continue to force the landlord to comply with the rules

by converting the property back to a single family dwelling.

That's it for today.

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