Photo:Landlord Rents Out Squalid House With Tree Growing Indoors

A three-bedroom semi detached house in Clapham, south London, was rented for up to £40,000 a year by rogue landlords despite having a tree poking through the wall in one of its rooms.

The property is among a handful which slipped through the hands of Lambeth council in the 1970s when local authorities did not have enough money to refurbish them.

Passed on to housing associations and cooperatives, it eventually fell into the hands of a rogue landlord who has illegally extended the property into the garden, failing to chop down a large tree.

Worryingly the landlord, who has not been named by authorities, used the tree’s branches as a router for electricity for its eight tenants.

The ‘appalling’ conditions were discovered by the council when officials visited the site to take back ownership of the run-down house.

‘It is shocking that someone can make money exploiting people by illegally renting out such dangerous accommodation with no regard for the safety of the people living there.

‘We have 21,000 people on our housing waiting list, 1,800 families in temporary accommodation, and 1,300 families who are severely overcrowded.

‘With this housing need, it would be irresponsible to spend our money refurbishing shortlife properties which are in a very poor state of disrepair – particularly when they are being misused for these exploitative and illegal purposes.’

The house, which has been illegally converted into flats, had only one bathroom with a single bath and filthy toilet for occupants to share.

It is located on a quiet residential street in south London where the average property costs £715,000.

Though very little detail about the landlord and tenants is known (all had fled by the time authorities arrived at the property), experts estimate that each room may have been let out for around £100 a week – pulling £41,600 a year.

Forty years after falling into the hands of negligent owners, the flats and houses are being reclaimed by the Government.

Source – DailyMail

Posted by Staffreporter on November 30, 2014. Filed under WEIRD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.