Look at this poor man's council flat 😢

[charabanctrip]

And he lives here with his elderly carer (? mum) and a cat.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59302526

I don't think this is a simple housing issue. I think the council is correct in saying the tenant has unmet needs - he probably needs to be living in a supported flat. I don't think the flat would have got into that state with a typical tenant.

However they should of course be inspecting and maintaining their properties to prevent these situations arising.

It's entirely possible tradesmen have refused to enter the property because of the mess though. Not proud of this but my Dad has some mental health issues and is a hoarder who smokes and his flat is dirty and untidy. He likes to live this way and we have tried everything in terms of intervention over the the years and we do have a system of one thing in one thing out now, and regularly go in to clean for him. That said his annual gas check was refused a few years ago because the guy took one look at the place and refused to enter. As others have said there is a lot going here, and it seems this person has fallen far under the radar - also for the comments about it being the carets responsibility - you often find the 'carer' is just in name. Someone they know who they agree to call the carer so they can claim carets allowance and not be forced to look for work. It's surprisingly common.

Whatever was going on in the background, it’s shocking that this old chap was left to live in such conditions for a long time. I do agree with others who have said the Carer holds some responsibility - if s/he is being paid to care, then a little bit of tidying up and throwing away rubbish shouldn’t be beyond their capabilities. If it is, they aren’t able to be a carer.

The flat is the way it is partly through disrepair but also due to tenant neglect. He has not done anything to minimise or address the issues himself. That is not judgement, clearly his health means he is unable to maintain the property. I see this a lot, and while housing conditions can be very poor, in many cases the situation reaches crisis point because the tenant is unsuited to be responsible for a tenancy. Alternative options such as supported living are not always easily accessible and if they are, as the council claims in this case, tenants can be reluctant to take them. While there are clearly issues with substandard housing by far the more significant issues is the lack of support for vulnerable people, particularly those who apoear to meet the minimal criteria to be condider to have capacity, and so slip through what is left of the net.

You judgey fuckers do know that living with black mould causes depression?

Yes the flat is also messy, I’m sure you’d all be keeping it immaculate despite the mould and 3 inch lake in the kitchen but maybe if you try you can have some empathy for how someone might lose the will to keep on top of stuff while suffering long term depression from constantly breathing in mould

@SomePosters

You judgey fuckers do know that living with black mould causes depression?

Yes the flat is also messy, I’m sure you’d all be keeping it immaculate despite the mould and 3 inch lake in the kitchen but maybe if you try you can have some empathy for how someone might lose the will to keep on top of stuff while suffering long term depression from constantly breathing in mould

I don’t think posters are being judgemental I think they are just pointing out that there is more going on than just ‘terrible council letting people live like this’.

BTW I have worked as a housing officer for various local authorities and have managed social housing. My job was to 'keep tabs on' if you don't mind me putting it that way, people who were hoarders, people who were vulnerable and people who just didn't have a clue. if I felt someone wasn't managing I did my best to find a solution, but ultimately I had to strive to keep the property in a reasonable state of repair. We really did try hard to sort things out. I was told that my job wasn't about sitting at my desk all day but being out and about and being visible so that tenants could find me and talk to me, because I was a face not a voice on the phone. I think some of the issues I have seen recently are down to the management not being kept in house but being contracted out. The ethos is different.

It sounds like his carer was/is unfit to be his carer, so lots of links broke in the chain here. If you 're in council housing because you're vulnerable, you are probably going to be less able to agressively advocate for yourself, and clearly his carer was useless in that regard too.

My sister in law is in the US and works for an agency related to social care and she is assigned vulnerable adults like this - her job is to make sure that they aren't falling between the cracks the way this man has and to make sure that they know what they should be getting and helping them advocate for it.

Heads should roll in the council team responsible for this though, on a number of scores.

Even if you look at it coldly, if I owned and was renting out an apartment building and had hired a management agency to handle the maintenance and tenancies, and this happened, I would sue them for EVERYTHING. Not just the abuse of the tenants, but the severe damage to the building. It's appalling.

Clearly this has come about partly as a result of poor maintenance by the council and the unaddressed needs of this gentleman and his elderly career (who I infer might themselves be vulnerable).

I don’t understand how it got to this level surely they have some annual inspection at least or someone overseeing their needs who entered the house and saw the state of it.

It is dire…..but I can imagine my parents living like this were it not for me keeping on at them.

There's clearly another side to the story!

@SomePosters there is no evidence to suggest black mould causes depression, people living with black mould seem to be more likely to be depressed but no causal link established: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072855/
It’s really not helpful to peddle misinformation like that.
Black mould can cause significant respiratory problems, particularly for those with asthma and skin conditions like eczema. It’s awful that this man and his career were living in such conditions through the pandemic.

@5128gap I agree - I think that most of us, if faced with a leaking pipe in the kitchen and an completely unresponsive landlord, but were paying so little rent that it was impractical to move out, would make the repairs ourselves or get a handyman in. We'd ask a neighbour for a recommendation or look at videos on youtube - we'd solve the problem one way or another.

To LIVE with the water freely flowing into the kitchen for a number of years until the flat was like this suggests significant lack of coping abilities, and this man should have been under much more careful guardianship than he has been.

I can't believe that after watching that video, some posters are focusing on a few empty bottles! That level of mould is caused by serious structural issues, stop trying to point the blame at the individual living there.

It's an absolute disgrace that people in this day and age are left living in such conditions

What's the carer supposed to do? The man said that he had been complaining about the conditions to the council for 2 years. What other possible recourse could they have??? Their only way of getting the repairs done was to request the council to fix it, which they didn't do.

There's way more than 2 years of water leak going on there. Grime on every surface, ground into the door, up into the top of the walls, all over all the cupboards and appliances.

Whilst I'm sure there ARE huge gaps in maintenance/repair provisions, I'm sure that any contracted professional has a duty (either contractually or even just morally) to report such living conditions as a safeguarding/health and safety/adult social care/welfare worry. Certainly there is a lot more going on here than a leak, even if it has been going on for 2 years.

Its shameful that a vulnerable adult was living this way. Those of you berating the carer, social services wanted my FIL, who has dementia, to be the carer for his wife who had osteoporosis.
That didn't end well .

The article says that he'd tried repeatedly to get help, but none was forthcoming.

Awful to be without water or heating - the council should hang their heads in shame. However, it appears he also has issues around general cleanliness and rubbish hoarding. On one picture there are several empty bottles and general rubbish on the floor, which is going to make his situation worse. So it appears he may also need referral to social services for some assistance with this issue too.

It looks like that room hasn;t been touched for 20 years. No signs of food or anything.
There will be a back story.

It is daft to draw conclusions just on one article. The level of mess and dirt in this flat is way more than a leak would cause. The man is not "old" (as a pp asserts) he is 55. So clearly has mental health difficulties, as probably does his carer to live with him like this.

The council cannot bodily force someone (or two people) out of their home if they choose to live like this. We have no idea how many times the council has been involved and to what extent. To put this flat to rights would require the occupants moving out, and possibly they refused to do this.

Yes a leak should be repaired, but honestly most of that was self inflicted by not cleaning for years and not doing anything to try and catch the leaking water.

@Pennguin

It's horrendous but I suspect there is other stuff going on here as well. Looks like he's a hoarder and there are general hygiene issues. And as soon as the council found out what was going on and the state of disrepair he was moved. I've seen elderly people live like this in their own houses for various reasons so it's not necessarily the council's fault. Just very sad that they lived like this at all.

I thought that, it’s absolutely horrible but the empty plastic bottles and bags and papers everywhere suggest hoarding. I think maybe the state of his living conditions probably brought about poor mental health which led to the hoarding. So glad to hear he is in temporary accommodation away from that, with the stagnant water, the mould and flies. 😥

Councils can go to court in order to force people to vacate their property if it's at risk of serious damage. A hoarder in the next town to me is currently trying to remain in his council house which the council are forcing him out of. Local people in the community are helping him clear his house and garden to enable him to remain.

There's obviously a lot going on there on all 'sides.'

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'elderly carer' isn't a parent who's managed the son's physical and other difficulties most of their lives trying to push them towards taking over responsibilities to prepare for independent living, and has slowly aged out.

Whatever the story I hope they and their cat, get the help they need and a better quality of life.

I was assuming some kind of dodgy private landlord

Yes, a lot of people would make that assumption

Mould needs three things to appear- damp/wet surface, dirt or dust on the surface and a little bit of warmth.

That level of mould would not exist from a leak alone. You can see outlines of spills and such never wiped up. Cobwebs, etc.