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Video footage shows shocking conditions inside rented home shut down by Newham Council
A dangerous and dilapidated three-bedroom house rented to a family with two young children has been closed down by Newham Council.
The council’s private rented sector licensing team visited the property in mid-March and found evidence of it being partially gutted for renovation works while still being rented out for £700 a month to a couple with two children living on the ground floor.
During the inspection of the property in Manor Park, council officers found hot water from a bath in the tiny kitchen being used to clean crockery in the kitchen sink, exposed electrical wiring, walls stripped back the brick work and missing ceilings in unoccupied upstairs bedrooms.
They also found chimney breasts removed in rooms occupied by the family downstairs, but no supporting steels had been put in place and a fridge freezer in use in the back garden.
During the inspection, council officers took video footage of the conditions that has been published and can be viewed below. The conditions are truly shocking.
Following the inspection, the council issued the landlord with a prohibition order, banning anyone from living in the house until it is made safe.
Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, said:
“This was truly a house of horrors. It was unsanitary and unsafe. The ceilings could have collapsed at any time, the wiring could have sparked a fire, but this landlord saw no problem putting this young couple and their children in grave danger and charging them for it.
“Without our licensing scheme we may not have come across this family and been able to take them out of harms way. And now this landlord will pay for his negligence.“
Newham Council’s data warehouse, which uses information from across council services and from outside agencies, helped the team to identify this property as being rented out.
We understand that the landlord who did not have a licence will now be prosecuted under the Housing Act 2004 for failing to have a licence. If he allows anyone to live in the property before it is declared safe by the council’s building control team he could also face a further prosecution with an unlimited fine.
