Episode 1 The Week the Landlords Moved In

There is a failure to provide enough housing for the people of this country.

But landlords haven't made this problem.

They've just got wealthier on the back of it.

Once a nation of homeowners,

there are now over 11 million people renting in Britain.

And most of the rent is being collected by private landlords.

My philosophy is buy low, rent high.

The truth is, we buy property for one reason and one reason only,

and that's to make money.

But many landlords have no idea what it's like

to live in the properties they profit from.

When you walk in the house,

first thing you can smell is the mould from this room.

For a pensioner to sleep in these kind of conditions,

I think it's just disgusting.

And they can't always rely on the tenants to speak up.

They have the power to say, "Right, you've nagged too much, that's it, you're gone."

I can't make it better for you till you say something.

So to experience it for themselves,

these landlords have agreed to swap their home comforts

for a week in their tenants' shoes.

It's very easy as a landlord to completely detach yourself from your property,

not even to think about what it would be like to live there.

-I'm quite excited now, it's like going on holiday.

-Oh, goodness.

To see the properties through their tenants' eyes.

-Cor, smells a bit.

-Oh, my goodness.

What on earth is this?

We should have been packing for the blasted Arctic.

And live on their budgets.

Money, money, money.

How are we going to eat on 54 quid?

And once they've lived the realities of renting for themselves...

We feel like we've lived like paupers.

A bit upset, really. I think it makes me feel vulnerable.

..will it make them change their properties,

or how they view their tenants?

What's been building up underneath the surface

is knowing that I'm responsible for someone else's living conditions.

I think the expression "Let it and forget it" springs to mind.

Did you or did you not say that at one point?

-I can't remember.

-Oh, come on.

Yeah.

Come on! It used to be your mantra.

-Did it?

-Yeah, "Marc, let it and forget it."

-Yeah.

You can't count on that profit.

You want to be making profit without that room, ideally.

Peter and Marc are a father-and-son team

with a property empire worth over £7 million.

If you can use that room, it's gravy on top, you know?

Coolio.

This pot's really particularly nice, I think, isn't it?

-All those colours.

-We've done really well with the flowers this year.

-Yeah.

When I first started investing in property, it was for a pension pot.

I never imagined it would actually grow as large a business as it is.

Now retired from a career in civil engineering,

Peter and his wife Jan can enjoy that growing pension pot.

High Road to Leh. Black Golden Temple. Isn't that beautiful?

What about looking at something that I've heard of?

THEY LAUGH

Everybody has to live within their means,

and I have the freedom to live within my means.

36-year-old Marc joined his dad ten years ago

to help him grow the business.

I just absolutely adore what I do for a living.

When I was younger, I went from job to job to job, all office-based,

and really hated it.

Now I'm a landlord, well, it's just like night and day, really.

It's just the best way of becoming wealthy.

Some people are saving up for their first house.

I've got 40.

I think we need to do something with this, don't we?

-What can you do with it, anything?

-Mow it.

THEY LAUGH

The pair currently make £15,000 a month profit,

thanks to their winning strategy.

We'll find an area that's up and coming.

We'll find a property that's a bargain, a bit tired.

Have you seen the state of that, Dad?

Going to make that into a shower room, yeah?

We'll put the loo here and the basin in there.

-It will work quite well, won't it?

-Will do, yeah.

We'll refurb it to a really high standard,

and that way we can attract the young professionals,

so we can get the highest rent possible.

They focus their investments on London's East End

and the Essex commuter belt.

In east London, rents have gone up.

For Dad and I, that's the same as us getting a pay rise,

and really, that's what's made us wealthy.

I remember once, I thought I'd chance my arm and see if I could

charge an extra £100 over and above what other people were charging,

and I was really surprised people were willing to pay it.

Then all the other agents fell in line with that,

so I was actually responsible for putting the rents up.

One tenant who has experienced rent rises is 66-year-old Linda.

Linda lives alone in this two-bedroom flat on the London-Essex border.

She'd already been renting the flat for three years

when Marc and Peter bought it.

Over the last two years,

the rent's gone up over £100 and my wages have only gone up about £40.

Linda's rent is now £950 a month.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Hi, Nan.

Despite the rent rises, Linda has not wanted to leave the flat.

Her family live close by and visit her almost daily.

-What's for dinner?

-Chicken, Yorkshire pudding, baked potatoes.

Splendid! My favourite!

THEY LAUGH

To keep putting the rent up all the time, it's not really fair.

I mean, at the end of the day, all right,

it might be close to a train station,

but it's a little two-bedroom flat,

loads of problems with the place.

This tap don't work, and there's no water coming out of it.

The hot tap, that is.

All these rings are no good.

This one, as we see, that's no good at all.

When you walk into the house,

the first thing you can smell is the mould from this room.

This is my mum's room.

The damp is really bad, as you can see, just under there.

Me and my mum have scrubbed that so many times,

but can't get rid of it, it comes back.

The smell really lingers.

Leather jacket, all eaten away with mould.

I think it's just disgusting.

For a pensioner to sleep in these kinds of conditions,

it's not fair and it's not healthy.

To help control the mould, when they took over the flat,

Peter and Marc installed this unit.

They put that in to stop the mould, it's not done nothing at all.

And Linda even thinks it's affected her electricity bills.

Since they put that contraption in, it's gone up by about £40 a month.

As her wages can't cover the rent any more,

Linda receives £120 a month in housing benefit.

But even with this, Linda can now only afford to heat one room.

The lounge.

My mum's 66 years old, she's got osteoarthritis.

The cold and damp does her no good whatsoever.

It leaves her in a lot of pain.

Sometimes she's too cold and her bones stiffen up

and she can't get out of bed.

Linda has been reluctant to complain to her landlords

about the problems in her home

because she is afraid of repercussions.

He can just chuck me out any time.

I haven't had a tenancy agreement in about 13 months.

I did ask for one.

I never received one.

Without a fixed-term agreement,

Linda can legally be evicted with just two months notice at any point.

She lives every day worried that,

"Could today the landlord turn round and say,

"'I want my property back?'" She's got no security over her future.

She's got no hold over it.

It's been 18 months since landlords Marc and Peter have set foot in Linda's flat.

Until now.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

-We still need a Friday and a spare.

-OK.

Right, it just says, "Romford, Linda."

We bought that.

It must have been about four years ago, mustn't it?

-Yeah.

-Linda was already a tenant, weren't she?

-That's right, yeah.

-So we took it over.

She didn't ask for much, bless her.

Right, so, what, are we stripping these?

Take these off for now.

For the next week, Linda will move to a serviced apartment nearby.

Change is a big thing for my mum. She's not young any more.

It's a big upheaval for me.

It's just a week, Nan, and, you know,

that week will probably fly by once it's started.

Our adventure. Off for the week, eh?

Yeah, I think it will be an adventure, actually.

I think it will be a bit different.

-There shouldn't be any big surprises.

-No.

I mean, I never heard from her. I mean, if there was any issues,

-you would expect her to call us, wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

She'll meet her landlords at the end of their stay in her home.

Anxious?

Very.

It'll be all right.

Come on, girls, quick!

Oh, it ain't half warm in here.

This is so cool!

Got heating.

Ensuite bathroom, lovely.

It's nice. There's no smell of mould, it's warm, it's comfortable,

and it's sort of all I would want in that flat.

While Linda settles into her new home,

Marc and Peter are about to experience tenant life.

Here we go.

Cor, smells a bit.

Oh, she's rearranged it differently to what I remember.

There's that unit we put in, look.

Yeah. You can hear it going.

Yeah, seems to have done the trick.

We haven't got any mould or anything in here.

-There's bits of...

-Bits of mould there.

Yeah. That's mould.

And up there, look, see?

-Gosh, there's quite a bit of it, isn't there?

-Yeah.

You wonder what the hell we've paid for with that unit there.

-It's not working at all, is it? That hob's a bit...

-That looks a bit dead, doesn't it?

-Look at that.

-That's dangerous, isn't it?

-That's knackered.

-Yeah.

I don't know if that's even safe, Marc.

-No.

-Right, bathroom.

Right, that's great. So, there's no hot water coming out that tap.

That's nice, isn't it? All that mould on the wall.

-What's all that?

-Jesus. You can smell it as well.

-That's not good, that.

-Here we are, second bedroom.

Mould again, all low-lying on the wall.

Yeah. So, do you think it's got to be to do with the wall?

I haven't a clue, Marc, I really haven't a clue.

I pride myself as being a good landlord

and this isn't the impression I would like to paint.

I don't want anybody living in these conditions.

Let's open that.

"Dear Marc and Peter, being as you are staying here,

"I have a few requests.

"Could you not put the heaters on in the bedrooms, as I can't afford for

"the electric bill to go any higher?

"Since you've put the ventilator in, my electricity bills have doubled."

-Right.

-So, that is massively expensive...

Well, that... That is a broken solution.

-I'm upset about that. I think that's a shame.

-Yeah.

They have been given Linda's budget for the week.

"£54.12, which is what's left after

"all of the bills have been paid. Yours sincerely, Linda."

Crikey.

55 quid. £54.12.

-Dear... Bloody hell.

-54 quid.

-Jesus.

-How are we going to live on 54 quid?

That would be a round of drinks for me.

All right, so I guess we're going to go and get ourselves some food.

-Yeah.

-And I think you're going to be busking, Dad,

outside to top the pot up.

Yeah, I am. I'm going to get a coat on as well, I'm freezing.

Tonight is going to be grim. Having a night's kip.

It is, isn't it? It's going to be bloody freezing.

The scent of success.

100 miles away, there's another landlord

who has agreed to give up his luxury living for a week.

It's always a bit of a hive of activity

at Success HQ, as we call it.

Paul Preston has made millions over the past ten years from his rentals.

Have we had the flight times through?

-2nd of April, yeah?

-No, March because ski trip's first, isn't it?

-And you need to think about the champagne reception.

-Yeah.

40-year-old Paul lives in an exclusive apartment

with his personal trainer girlfriend Priya.

My name for Priya is Queen P,

so... I don't know how it started, but it's definitely stuck.

THEY LAUGH

I like the finer things in life.

Paul likes the finer things in life, just to make me happy.

This is Priya's special going-on-holiday handbag.

This is a limited edition.

We have a fantastic lifestyle.

Lots of great holidays.

Thailand, Sydney, Melbourne, Val d'Isere...

I couldn't even give you a figure as to how many times we go away a year.

-Ibiza...

-Oh, yeah.

-New York.

-Yeah.

-Dubai.

Our outgoings per week come to about £1,500.

My Jimmy Choos.

-Look at that smile!

-HE LAUGHS

A girl's got to have her shoes and her handbags.

Paul has made his property fortune by splitting up houses

and turning them into HMOs - houses of multiple occupation -

where he can rent out the rooms individually.

So, as always, we're on 100% occupancy.

-It's just natural turnover.

-Yeah.

And he has a team to manage his HMO empire.

I don't think that it's essential

that you know your tenants personally

in order to run a good business.

Because I don't need to be that hands on,

I can really follow my passion and do what I really love doing,

which is helping other people to achieve the life of their dreams

through property investing.

Hey, it's Paul Preston here, the HMO guy,

and welcome again to New York City.

When you can combine vocation and vacation,

that's really the ultimate.

Paul's property mentoring earns him a healthy second income

and thousands of followers on social media.

Do a press-up now.

Not tomorrow.

You pause the video now and do one press up now.

Paul's about to step out of his high-flying life for a week.

Just getting together my, I guess, business essentials, really.

Laptops and a phone and we'll be ready to rock and roll.

And with his Queen P...

Gym kit scales.

..step into the shoes of one of his tenants.

I think I'm going to learn about what it's like to live as a tenant

and, of course, I've done that myself in the past,

but not in recent years.

I'll hopefully learn more about my business and about the properties.

I'm excited about the opportunity and...

Queen P living on a budget!

THEY LAUGH

That's the best, that's going to be the funniest bit.

SHE LAUGHS

-PHONE RINGS

-There we go.

Right. Ah, OK.

It is close to the town centre.

-OK, good.

-Cool. I look forward to finding out what it's like.

Paul will be moving in to one of the HMOs he runs in central Milton Keynes,

home to 29-year-old account manager Hayley and six other tenants.

When I first moved in,

I wasn't told who already lived here.

I've been here now 18 months and I still don't know anything about

anybody that lives here other than their names.

Unlike a traditional house share,

tenants in HMOs have no say in who moves in.

It would be nice to know who you live with.

So I don't even know who's walking around the house that I'm in.

This is Hayley's first experience of renting after a new job meant

she had to move out of her family home 200 miles away.

Before, when I thought "shared house", I thought maybe

a living room, everybody knowing each other. I'd never known anything

about an HMO before and didn't realise that's what this was.

This is the only room in the house that anyone would be able

to socialise in other than their own bedrooms.

The table is more a shelf for what people have cooked, or for utensils

that don't fit in a cupboard. So, this is like a storage area.

People store their bikes and their rubbish and the recycling.

Obviously, the walls are covered in mould.

The windows aren't very secure.

It looks disgusting.

It looks dirty, it looks grubby.

Not anything that you'd want to associate with a kitchen.

This is a makeshift washing line out of Ethernet cable,

a telephone wire.

This used to be where we stored the bin bags,

but the door seems to have come off.

It would be nicer to not have the rubbish in the kitchen and have it

out here. It would be nicer to see from my room that it wasn't so...

Such a mess.

And the tenants have spotted that all this rubbish has been

a welcome invitation to one kind of guest.

By chance I did speak to some tenants last week,

who had informed me that there was a rat in this room,

and they had to fight to get it out.

And I know they've been seen in the garden before.

Hayley pays £575 a month to live in the house,

but spends every weekend with her family.

This house does not feel like a home.

I would much rather drive for two hours on a Friday night

to my family home

than have to spend the weekend here in my room alone.

And after 18 months of living in the house,

she's still not met her landlord.

To be honest, I don't think the landlord has ever considered us.

Probably only sees it as whether a room is vacant or full.

I would be surprised if there were problems in the house

and there were things that needed sorting and fixing.

Like, I would be surprised.

For the next few days, Hayley will move into a holiday let nearby.

Very, very close now.

All right. I'm a bit nervous, but excited.

I think it's this one on the end.

-In you go.

-OK.

So, home for the next few days.

-OK.

-Shall we go and have a look at our room first, then?

-Yeah.

-Cool. So, the stairs look like they need a hoover.

Yeah, they do need a clean.

Come on in, baby.

-Oh, wow.

-Oh, this is nice.

It actually looks like she's made it like home.

Have a look at this.

"You are braver than you think, stronger than you look,

"more talented than you know

"and twice as brilliant as the brightest star."

-Ah!

-That's my sort of thing.

-HE LAUGHS

I think I'm maybe going to put this somewhere a little bit

more prominent because that's... You know, to make it ours.

That's what I'd like to wake up and see.

Do you want to sit here, baby?

OK. There's some money in there.

-Ooh!

-Right, OK, let's have a look.

"Welcome to my room.

"I hope you enjoy your time here.

"I prepare and eat all of my meals in here,

"as I don't really use the kitchen."

OK. "I'd like to tell you about the other tenants,

"but I don't actually really know anything about them.

"My weekly budget is £99.23."

I'm sure, over the course of a year,

our personal, social fund budget is more, of course,

but £100 a week for food and,

you know, maybe a night out, having drinks with a few friends, you know,

is more than manageable.

It'll be fine, be fine.

-Shall we have a look downstairs?

-Yeah.

-Cool.

OK. What do you think?

It reminds me of being in a student house.

I guess it's... It's not spotless.

I think it could use a little bit of a tidy up.

With the table pushed against the wall,

I would sense that maybe not everybody sits round it to eat together...

-So, you know, maybe they do their own thing.

-As a housemate living here, I might be tempted

to do what Hayley does and do my things in my room.

This was here when I bought it.

Yeah, that maybe is a bit of mould, but...

This, I mean, think about this as a shed.

It's just where you put your bike.

I don't necessarily think that's any issue to be aware of,

but I will get it looked at.

I will look completely favourably and open-mindedly on any request,

any suggestions. We haven't had any. I don't live here.

I'm here to learn and I'm here to observe and I'm here to get

that perspective and maybe the learning is -

everyone's really happy with this, it's great.

I have to say, I'm feeling a little bit like a rabbit in the headlights at the moment.

-Yeah.

-I mean, it's not just the budget,

it's the facilities we've got.

-Yeah.

-To deal with it.

In Essex, Peter and Marc are getting used to life on their tenant's terms.

Right, let's just do what we need to make one or two meals,

because this is a learning curve. We're both out of our depth.

See, that's £1.59.

-There's nothing to it, is there?

-No.

I'm thinking pasta, some tinned tomatoes and some meat.

I don't even care what it's going to taste like.

I just need stodge inside me, you know?

I just need to get through tonight.

-Go round this way.

-The budget is so small for the week.

It feels just like a mountain to climb.

I'm sort of thinking of phoning Jan up and saying,

"Jan, help, can you bring me this, can you bring me that?"

I'm more in a survival mode right now.

-Oh, that stinks!

-Yeah, it does.

Every time we come through that door, I get hit by that.

I'm too cold to take my coat off. I'm going to leave...

I'm going to cook in my coat until it all warms up.

We should have been packing for the blasted Arctic.

Peter and Marc's tenant Linda requested

that they don't heat the bedrooms as she can't afford it.

-I'm going in here, then.

-Right, you can have that room.

You've whinged about being here more than I have.

Well, normally I sleep naked, but...

..it's just too cold.

I've got a thermal socks on, I've got jogging bottoms,

a T-shirt, a hoodie

and a fleeced zippy hoodie.

I just want to make sure that I'm warm so I get a good night's sleep.

So, this is all right.

OK.

Oh...

While Peter and Marc are living in her flat,

Linda is carrying on with her normal routine.

My first alarm goes off at 4.30.

Second one goes off at 4.40.

And when the third one goes off, I get up.

Linda works three jobs, caring for children with special needs.

She needs to take two buses to start her first shift at 7am.

I'm 66 now. I would have liked to have been retired,

but I can't afford to retire.

I work to pay my rent.

-INTERVIEWER:

-When do you think you'll stop working?

-Whenever everything stops going up!

-SHE LAUGHS

I woke up about 5.30.

Blasted alarm went off at 5.30, so I don't know...

I don't know if that's the sort of time she gets up.

If I was living like this for a year...

-Maybe...

-I don't know, I can't imagine living like this for a year.

I'd get depressed.

We were out there, we did a bit of exercise. OK, it was cold,

but Dad and I, our mood was fairly buoyant and uplifted.

And then we walked back through this door

and you're in this environment again

and suddenly, straightaway, it's just like, "Ugh..."

Like that. That's how I felt walking through the door.

But that's not about landlord or a tenant,

it's not about being a rich person or a poor person,

it's just about how the property is.

You know, how it's been looked after.

Eurgh!

It just hasn't been cared for.

There's maintenance issues which haven't been reported to us.

You know, easy jobs to quickly fix.

I'm a little bit disappointed in Linda in not coming forward.

If we look here, the silicon seal's gone.

And it's leaked down and that shelf has bowed,

the chipboard's blown and it's all started to rot away.

That is where the asset has been damaged

because someone's not just phoned me up

and I haven't had a chance to send somebody round

and do a ten-minute job for six quid.

So that's just cost me about 400 quid.

It's upsetting, you know?

It's an indication of people not having respect for it, you know?

While Peter surveys the damage...

-Hi, I'm Marc.

-Nice to meet you.

-How you doing, all right?

-I'm fine, thank you.

..Marc wants to know how much they could charge for the flat

if they improved it.

Two-bedroom flat, ground floor,

original kitchen and bathroom.

At the moment, it's... It's in a bit of a tired condition.

We're only getting 950 for it.

For an average two-bed in the local area,

you are looking in the region of around £1,200.

-Really?

-Yeah, so...

-Wow.

-And the demand is definitely there for it

at that price. That would be in line with

having a refurbishment at the property.

On the London-Essex border, Linda's home is just 30 minutes on a train

from the City of London. And five minutes from the station by foot.

Bloody hell, look how close it is, Dad.

It is, isn't it? It's right on top of it, literally.

Two years' time from now, this is going to gentrify.

You're going to get the coffee shops,

you're going to get all the things that the commuters want.

All the landlords are going to start

going for those young, professional tenants.

The demographic's going to change

and the market's going to change with it.

We've done better than I thought we'd done on this one.

-Absolutely, we have, yeah.

-Yeah.

In Milton Keynes, landlord Paul and girlfriend Priya

are adapting to their tenant's habitat.

It's a little bit dark here, isn't it?

It's actually a bit hard to...

I'm in now, but again,

I guess that's part of the learning,

and a lot of the other houses have got security lights

that pop on under here.

Oh, my legs!

I was a bit surprised when she said she prepares most of her food here

because, obviously, there aren't, you know... There's no hob,

there's no sink, there's no "cooking facilities".

But some people like to do their own thing,

maintain their own level of privacy.

Could it be because it was a little bit messy downstairs

and she's obviously not a messy person?

It could be.

This probably isn't how we would dine together ordinarily, of course.

It's a bit weird, like, eating it on your lap, though, cos I'm not...

-I know, if you were...

-I'm just not quite sure how to sit.

-As a woman...

-It's like I need to sort of put my legs together

to make a table and that doesn't feel...

As a woman, you cross your legs and, look, I've got a nice table.

If you cross your legs.

This is how I would normally sit, but I'm thinking,

I'm balancing my plate on one knee.

That's not... This is only going to go one way and that's wrong.

I would probably, definitely need a little table and chairs here,

yeah, rather than sitting on my lap every night. Yeah.

But if it's working for her, seems happy enough, the place is great,

so, you know, something's working here.

OK, got it.

After 24 hours of limited heating,

Marc's asked his mum to come to their rescue.

The reason I asked you to bring all this stuff...

-Yeah.

-..is because Dad hasn't packed anything...

I've packed for a fashion parade, I've not packed...

And Dad doesn't have any warm clothes.

I don't know why you're so cold. It's warm in here.

-Right.

-Go and stand in that bedroom.

OK. And you're not allowed to heat the bed...

-Oh.

-There's other things as well.

Just give that a tap.

Oh. It's dangerous, isn't it?

I think you've come in here not too soon, really.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. Well, there's other things that we...

Aren't you surprised that one of your places is...?

I'm horrified. And I'm looking forward to getting to the bottom of

-what's going on.

-I don't think it's her fault, I think she needs help.

-Yeah.

-So, how old is Linda, do you know?

So, she's middle...

What's middle-aged? Come on, 40 or 60?

All we can say is that she's got a couple of grown-up kids,

-maybe late 20s.

-So in her 50s, maybe?

-Yeah.

-And does she work?

She works at the council, doesn't she?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Really?

-The council, yeah. It's not a lot of money.

We got a statement from her employer

-and it actually said what her annual salary was.

-And it's not a lot?

-And it's not a lot.

-This is a completely different property

to any of the others I've ever be then.

The others are all really, really well-kept.

They've mostly got young professional couples,

and if there's anything wrong,

it could be 11 o'clock at night and you'll get a phone call,

"This isn't right, that's not right."

And they're in, getting it fixed straightaway,

as is the way you'd want to live.

I still can't see why anybody would not report things

that are only going to make it better for them,

because it's not like you're going to charge her for mending her taps.

Maybe a leaky tap is the least of her issues.

-Maybe, financially, she's struggling.

-It's all a bit of a bombshell, Jan.

I think, you know, bombshell, shell-shocked.

We need to think about what we're going to do

and I think refurbing is... part of that.

I think it would be a wasted investment.

-What are your concerns, then?

-Listen, listen.

It's going to cost you about 9K to gut and refit the kitchen and bathroom.

In two years' time, we would bin the whole bloody lot.

Why would we have to bin the whole lot?

Because I don't think Linda would look after it.

Don't you think there's an ethical issue here?

No. I don't want to get too emotionally involved,

I want to steer away from that.

There's a lot to think about. My head's spinning.

The good business sense is to refurbish this place

and find a young couple or a family who have the affordability,

but the issue here is that we bought this place with Linda in it

and she considers it her home.

Oh.

I live a really nice life

and I owe that to my tenants, so I...

Yeah. It sucks.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What sucks?

-It's...

It sucks to... It's almost like a poverty trap,

and I've been living in a bit of a bubble.

I've just realised.

I thought it was about being cold and all the problems and the drama,

but actually, what's been building up underneath the surface is...

..knowing that I'm responsible for somebody else's living conditions.

I never imagined it would be like this.

Morning, baby. Love you.

-Little Queen, Little Prince.

-Zero...

-Little fluffy princess.

-Big guns.

-No, it's "Big King" you're supposed to say.

In the Milton Keynes HMO,

Paul and Priya are waking up to their tenant's life.

Nice day outside, baby.

-Oh, yeah.

-So far, I'm happy doing everything in one room.

At home, do we have separate work space, separate living space,

separate...? Yeah, we do, but therein lies the trade-off.

I know that my cost of living is certainly a lot higher than this now.

-This one's yours.

-Cool.

Breakfast of champions.

But from now on, Paul will be cooking for himself.

Priya's going back home to their luxury flat...

Love you, Queen Bee.

..so Paul can experience HMO life on his own.

Love you.

THEY LAUGH

Little Queen.

-Love you, Little Queen.

-Love you.

Maybe it will feel a bit different being by myself, I don't know.

I don't necessarily believe that the model is isolating, at all.

I don't believe that. I think people make personal decisions

as to how much they want to interact with others or not.

-Hi, mate, how are you?

-Good, thanks, you?

Yeah, good, I'm Paul, how are you?

Housemate Lewis has lived here for three years.

Do you know people, do you spend much time together here,

or do you more do your own thing a bit?

We don't really spend much time outside of the house.

It's kind of, inside of the house we meet in the kitchen, but, yeah,

-not really socially as such.

-OK. If there was a wish list,

is there anything that you think would make a real difference to

-living here?

-Definitely the area out there.

-OK.

-The window's pretty rotten now.

-Right.

-And it's not very secure.

-OK.

-I've got two bikes out there

that I've spent quite a lot of money on, so I do worry about that.

Have you mentioned that, or raised that as a maintenance issue

to the other Paul or to the team at the office?

I haven't personally, no.

I know the other guys had done it previously, so I kind of thought,

well, you know, they already know about it.

Other than that, happy with everything here?

We've got a bit of a rat problem as well.

-Right, OK.

-I think there's a bit of a large family living in the shed.

Oh, right, OK, OK.

One of them's pretty big as well.

Right. All right.

In respect of the furry family,

it is something that happens in built-up areas,

so you're only ever ten feet from a London rat, or something.

So there's obviously a balance of, we can fix what we know about.

I think one or two of these issues,

I think we could have probably visually picked up,

but, equally, a couple of those things, people are saying,

"Well, it doesn't bother us and we never reported it."

So how would we know as well?

With everyone paying around the £600 mark,

that's a lot of money for five different rooms to be spending,

so it is a little bit disappointing when you've asked for things

to be done and it takes so long, when you know that the profit

that they're getting out of it is quite high.

Landlords want to invest in Milton Keynes because of the high demand

for rentals in the commuter town.

Where I'm actually taking you now is the first HMO I actually acquired

as a deliberate investment.

This is actually one of mine.

This one here's another one of mine.

That's another one just here.

This is actually another one of mine.

Paul has over 100 tenants in the town,

making him tens of thousands of pounds' monthly profit.

When you've found a property model that works, a layout,

a floor plan that works, you don't need to go somewhere else

and try and reinvent the wheel again.

Just get more of those properties in the same area.

This is the very first HMO I actually bought myself,

where it all started.

This particular property is an example.

If it was rented out as a single-let property,

it would probably fetch around about £1,000 a month in gross rent,

so maybe that could make

approximately £500 per month profit.

However, by converting the property into a multi-let property

and renting the rooms out individually,

the profit goes up to between £1,000 and £1,500 a month

on exactly the same house.

In recent years, the local council has started

to limit the number of HMOs in the area.

What they're worried about is maybe suburbs becoming overcrowded

or maybe a bit more like ghettos.

I think that's one of the words I've heard used.

Then, equally, it's the same council that are saying,

"We've got a waiting list for property, we haven't got enough accommodation."

And yet there's landlords here that want to provide accessible, affordable accommodation.

You could look at an HMO and think, "Wow, that one house actually houses five or six people now.

"Great. So we've got six units of accommodation out of one property."

With demand for housing in Milton Keynes growing faster than supply,

rents in the town are 4% above the national average.

But for this week, Hayley's enjoying her temporary accommodation.

It's nice to have an oven, it's nice to have...

..a microwave out of my bedroom.

It's nice to have a big fridge as well.

I feel like I could do maybe a week's shop, rather than a few days.

Being in this flat has definitely made me wonder

what else is out there.

One bedroom apartment, all bills included. £1,600 a month.

It's expensive. If I wanted to get a one-bedroom flat in Milton Keynes,

it looks like I'd have next to no...

..spending money. All of my money, it looks like,

would have to go onto rent.

Since 2008, the housing crisis has made it

increasingly expensive for young renters.

Landlord Paul was also hit hard by the recession

when he lost his first business -

a multi-million-pound recruitment agency.

I lost everything. It went fast.

I actually found myself working as a cleaner, you know,

making around about £6 an hour.

I knew I had to do something different in my life

to get out of that place that I was in.

To keep his head above water,

Paul started to rent out his five-bedroom house by the room.

Although I wasn't doing it to be an investor,

I was doing it because I was desperate at the time,

that was kind of like the light bulb moment.

I just needed more of these properties, because I could

quite easily see that even with just a couple of them,

I could actually be more than back on my feet.

I probably stumbled across the solution, really,

not because I thought I was a clever investor,

but because I was desperate at the time.

Come on in, Patrick. This is the main bedroom.

Before Peter and Marc can make any long-term decisions,

they need to get to the bottom

of what's causing the mould in Linda's home.

Look, there's damp. It's travelling down this side wall now, as well.

Would you advise that the tenant keeps this room

-at a certain temperature?

-Yes, of course, yeah.

-Right.

-It shouldn't be turned off and then put on sporadically.

You know, these walls need to keep...

They need to be dried.

Even if we did this to a real high standard,

without adequate heating on,

it's just going to end up with mould on the walls again.

So the tenant who lives here

has to be able to afford those energy bills.

-All right.

-Cheers.

-Thank you. Bye-bye.

-See you.

These are Linda's bills.

-Oh, right.

-Her actual bills.

So, basically, she is paying 30 quid a week for electric.

And then some real clear indicators that Linda's struggling.

To be honest, whether we do new kitchen, new bathroom,

-or whatever...

-This ain't going away.

-This ain't...

-This is an issue that needs rectifying.

-Yeah, yeah.

If you can't afford to put the heating on, you can't afford to live here.

Maybe it's time that she thought about moving into

a smaller property, then, you know, a one-bed flat.

But... Dad, we're coming at it from some pretty different perspectives,

-because I'm actually concerned...

-I've just found out...

I'm concerned for Linda,

but I'm also concerned for us and I'm concerned for our business.

Tomorrow, Peter and Marc will be meeting Linda

to discuss their concerns.

How are you feeling about tomorrow, Mum? Honestly?

I am worried what's going to be said.

I want to stay where I am, I don't want to move nowhere.

Because it's close to all my family, my children.

I'm afraid that after all this has happened, he's going to put me out.

Not having a tenancy agreement, she's living here on borrowed time,

basically. The landlord can come in and kick you out whenever he wants

and don't have to have a reason why.

Do you think he would do that, though, Mum?

If he did do it, then I'd have to go.

Well, I'd have nowhere to go, wouldn't I?

Linda's worries are justified.

The ending of a short-term tenancy has become

the single most common cause of homelessness in Britain.

One of the things we want to find out is, how realistic is it

that she can actually continue to live here in the future?

Because if she is having difficulty heating it, that's an issue.

Here we are, Marc, this is it.

I want to find out more about Linda's situation.

Looking at those bills yesterday,

we suspect that she's struggling financially,

and it's never easy having those conversations.

I want to know what the situation is.

We may not like what we hear and we may not...

..be comfortable with the solutions.

Linda is bringing her son Les with her for moral support.

Well, Linda, we had a few shocks.

We came in and we found that, you know,

a few things weren't working and that, and we also found the damp.

-It's got worse.

-And it's a real shock to us.

-I'm just surprised you haven't phoned us.

-You knew about the damp.

That was there when you bought the property.

When we put that unit in, did it actually address the problem,

-did the damp go away?

-No. Only the living room.

Part of the damp problem is to do with the fact that

if you're not affording to heat your house...

We were wondering, is there a wider issue going on -

because we did see the electric bills -

and whether you can actually afford to live there?

I'm managing. But I go without food and everything,

as long as I've got my roof over my head. That's my main priority.

I'm sure you understand it wouldn't be ethical of us

to let someone live there if they were struggling every single month.

I needed my tenancy agreement so that I could go down to the council and show them

my rent had been increased and that I needed more help with my rent.

-Yeah.

-I couldn't prove it, because I didn't have the tenancy.

-The one you got originally.

-Yeah.

-As soon as it goes beyond 12 months,

it goes on what's called a rolling contract.

It's been a great worry.

Worrying if she was going to lose her home.

Yeah, it goes on in your mind.

-Yeah.

-Being as I'm old as well, you know...

You say that you actually get housing benefit already?

Yeah, I get £120 a month.

Have you considered moving into a smaller flat?

I don't want to go into an actual smaller flat,

because I have my family come round.

There's always a room available for someone to be there,

just to make sure she's all right. I mean, with her arthritis and that,

it does play her up at times.

-Arthritis. Right.

-She's got osteoarthritis.

-Right, OK.

-She's contacted the council.

The only thing they'd be able to offer would be sheltered housing.

It's like years' waiting list.

-Right.

-So, you know, she's got no option.

I'm 66 now, I'm still working, doing my three jobs.

My first priority is my rent.

How long do you intend to keep working for?

-I'll keep working until they tell me I can't work no more.

-Right.

-Right.

We found out a lot in that meeting.

It turns out that Linda's 66 and still working.

I'm 66, I'm still working.

I suppose the difference is that I choose to do what I do.

I've always had a sense of freedom, a sense of independence,

a sense of choice.

And to absolutely have to work to pay the rent,

it sounds like a hard life to me.

-INTERVIEWER:

-How do you think you'd feel if you were in that position?

I don't know how I'd feel. I don't think I'd feel good.

To give them more time to decide what to do, Peter and Marc

have asked Linda to stay out of her flat for one more week.

They stated they didn't have any idea that it was that bad.

-He looked at the electric bills and that.

-Yeah.

But then he started questioning me

whether I can afford to live in the flat.

Are they looking at not renewing her tenancy?

-No.

-For me, I'll be honest, where he's brought up her finances

makes me feel that he's pushing whether she can live there or not.

There was no malice involved in it.

OK. There's a new rail they're doing that's meant to be a quicker train

into London and they're doing it on the rail that Mum's living at.

They're going through Chadwell Heath.

I'm just saying, like, that's the only time

he can put that rent up more,

is when that train rail goes through.

She can't afford no more than 950, Les. That will make her homeless.

It's still the unknown. She's got no control over

what the landlord's going to do to the property,

or what he wants to do for the future.

She is powerless.

In central Milton Keynes, Paul is preparing to meet his tenant.

I'm looking forward to meeting Hayley,

to find out about her experience living here as a housemate.

Of course, I'm going to ask her how does she think we can improve,

are there any issues that she's got that she'd like to raise to us?

I hope he's had the real experience, he's had to...

..hear people moving around that he doesn't know,

he's had to sit in his room because there's nowhere else to go.

I hope he's seen that if he wants people to stay, then...

there's changes that need to be made and standards that need to be kept.

This will be the first time the two have ever spoken to one another.

Your room is immaculate.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-THEY LAUGH

Clearly you're ultra-houseproud.

And then when I went down into the communal kitchen,

I was like, "Uh." And that did...

It did kind of, like, bring me down a little bit.

-I don't like to use the kitchen.

-Yeah.

Just because of how it looks.

-OK.

-So I pretty much bypass the kitchen entirely...

-Yeah.

-..and go straight to the room.

-OK.

-I think it would be nice

to be able to sit at a table with another person.

As it is, I wouldn't invite another person into that kitchen.

I got the impression that you didn't really know the other housemates

-that well.

-No, not at all.

When I first moved in, I think I met one within the first two weeks.

-Since then, there have been changes.

-Yeah.

But I haven't really seen or met them or spoken to them.

-Would you feel more comfortable, and it would be better for you if you did?

-Absolutely.

-The initial first meeting's normally bumping into each other...

-Yeah.

It would be weird if it's someone you've never seen before and they're suddenly inside the building.

-Exactly.

-Should they be inside the building, has someone let them in accidentally? So it would be nice.

What I think our process is, is that when someone new is about to move in,

everyone in the house will get a text saying,

"Just to let you know, Dave's moving into room two on Tuesday,

"feel free to say hello." Are you saying that you don't...?

-Never seen that, no.

-That's why I thought it was happening.

I don't know if you've been out of the house while it's been dark

and then tried to get back into the house while it's been dark.

I have, actually. It was fine in the day,

but when you come back at night, it is...

-It's pretty dark.

-It can be quite intimidating.

-OK.

-And your heart does kind of stop until you get inside the door.

OK. When you're actually in the house, in your room,

-would you feel safe enough then?

-Yeah, I tend to lock myself in.

I wouldn't necessarily leave anything out outside, or anything.

-Sure.

-Downstairs. I don't know if you've seen the back window.

Yeah, I have. I think it's something

that we probably should have picked up

when we were inspecting earlier, as well,

but I don't think anyone's ever mentioned it.

It's easy enough for somebody to text,

but you're relying on maybe eight rooms of people to text.

Maybe somebody's already done it.

Now Paul has met Hayley,

he has to decide how much he wants to change in the property

before she returns home.

PHONE RINGS

-'Hello.'

-Hi, Queen Bee, it's me.

-'How did it go?'

-It was really informative.

I think overall, my biggest take away is that I think, historically,

perhaps we've been looking at the functionality of these houses

and is everything working OK?

But I think what I'm really learning is that we should very much be

focusing on these properties as HOMES

rather than just houses to live in.

I think he's got to be true to his word now.

If he's saying he's noticed something, then I think,

as a responsible landlord, he would want to make that change now,

so we'll see.

This week has really taught me a lot about gentrification.

My attitude before this week was, "Well, what's the problem?"

You've got a rundown area,

the government invests money in that area,

you put all the nice coffee shops in,

you get the young professionals in there,

and the people who live there currently,

yeah, they can't afford it, but that's fine, they can move.

Living here, I see it's not as simple as that.

-It's more complicated than that.

-It's so complicated.

After spending time in their tenants' homes,

the landlords are about to leave.

Anything else I can take to the car? Suitcase?

So the tenants can move back in.

I'm feeling really excited. I can't wait to see...

..what changes have been made, if any.

-Looking forward to getting home now?

-I am, yeah, of course.

-Seeing Yogi.

-Yeah.

Yes. Little bear.

That was an experience.

-Yes.

-An eye-opener, wasn't it, really?

-Epic.

-We can't allow properties to get in that state.

-No.

And we can't go on the happy assumption

-that people will call us.

-No.

The week in the flat was brutal all the way through.

I'm happy to be going home.

A bit unaware of what's going to be there when I get there.

What has been done and what hasn't been done.

If they put the rent up, I will never be able to afford that.

Because that would then totally take away my weekly...

You know, that's what I live on.

After you, baby.

Yogi Bear!

Ah, Yogi Bear!

Good to see you. Ahhh!

The light! I can actually see where the key is!

So he's added on a maintenance check.

One's already on there, so I won't need to report it.

Oh, wow!

He's changed everything.

It's all bright and clean.

So much fresher now. So much nicer.

Such a difference.

So we've got a table we can fit more people round and a TV.

I think it's great.

I think it will create more time spent in here

with the other tenants.

Oh, we've got proper dustbins.

You can walk to the bottom of the yard

without having your head chopped off.

You can already see that people are using the washing line,

whereas before, I don't think anybody used it.

It's much better.

Aw!

"Dear Hayley, thank you so much for allowing me to stay in your room this last week.

"I've learnt a huge amount from the experience

"and I've definitely learned that I should see my properties

"as shared homes rather than shared houses.

"I would also like to pay you all to go out for dinner

"and get to know each other better.

"Going forward, I plan to be more hands-on

"and will personally inspect the property every six months.

"There will also be a six-monthly professional deep clean of the communal spaces."

I think in the past, I've looked at renting rooms to people

like a transaction with clients.

And I think maybe that's a bit too business-like now.

Having had the experience of living there,

I actually realise just how valuable human interaction is for people

and, as a landlord, I definitely want to ensure that I'm creating

an environment which is much more conducive, you know,

to friendships, warmth, you know,

familiarity, than maybe that we have done in the past.

In Essex, Marc has decided he wants to be there when Linda moves back in.

I'm nervous about meeting Linda today.

I'm nervous about how she's going to react.

I hope she understands our decision

and I hope she's happy with what we've chosen to do.

-Hi, Linda, how you doing, all right?

-I'm fine, thank you.

-How are you doing? All right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, good.

Let's just walk round the property

-and we can have a chat about a few things, yeah?

-Yeah, OK.

Oh, it's bright.

What we've actually done is, we've completely refurbished the property.

New kitchen, new bathroom, decorated throughout.

Really...

It's beautiful.

SHE SOBS

It looks nice.

We've also completely rectified that damp issue.

All the mould's gone, it smells nicer and brighter.

It's all lovely, it really is.

Like a plush hotel.

It's even better than a hotel.

-Running water.

-THEY LAUGH

For me, my point of view, it had to be done.

That place needed to be transformed and, having experienced it,

I don't want anybody to live like that.

I agree with that, I agree with that.

One is always aware that these are real people

with real lives and real feelings.

-Thank you, Marc.

-You're welcome. You're very welcome.

This has been an experience for me as well, you know.

And, to be honest, I think I had my head in the clouds a bit, you know.

And I've really learned what responsibilities I have as a landlord.

You know, what it's like for some people.

I know you wanted some security and you were concerned about

rent going up, etc, so I've done a contract for you

and I've done it for 950.

Even though the standard contract is six to 12 months,

I'm happy to do a two-year one.

-Thank you.

-Gives you a bit of security.

-Yeah.

-Definitely puts her mind at rest.

We've fixed Linda's rent for the next two years.

At that rent, we're still making a profit,

but we're making less of a profit than we could do.

However, it makes business sense, what we've done,

because it's added value to the property.

So we've done all of this and the whole point is that this place stays

warm and dry, so to keep the mould away, we're going to have to keep

the place warm, keep the heaters on a set level.

Now, I don't want you to be concerned about your energy bills,

so we'll work together to get you on the best tariff

and if it does look like your bills are going to go up,

then I'll quite happily pay the difference.

Let me know and we'll do that,

so that you can enjoy a nice living environment.

Thank you. I didn't expect nothing like this.

It's out of this world, really.

Got a new flat, Mum.

HE LAUGHS

-What do you think?

-Oh, it's lovely. This is nice.

It's better than last time.

THEY LAUGH

I've taken a lot out of this experience.

What I'm feeling right now, I'm really, really lucky.

I'm so lucky, because I have control of my own destiny.

That could have been me.

If Dad hadn't taken the steps he's taken in his life,

I could be living on 50 quid a week. But I was really lucky

to have that head start and have the opportunities I had.

Yeah. That's the first time he's ever said that, by the way,

-about being lucky that he had a head start.

-HE LAUGHS

I...