Kids sleeping in basement

[Vvyy54]

Would you do a social services referral for this? Doing an end of tenancy clean for a house in which a woman with 8 kids was just evicted from. Bailiffs involved apparenently but she had absolutely nothing packed when the bailiffs arrived to remove her. Apparently she only had two children when she moved into the house over 10 yrs ago then continued to have children despite the house being unsuitable.

The house is a three bed but it has a fairly large basement. Most of the stuff was removed by a clearance company but there were four sort of camping mattresses in the basement. All soiled. They aren't proper mattresses but were all laid out as though they'd been used for children with loads of toys, blankets and other stuff down there which indicates it had been used as a bedroom.

This really is not a suitable room for use as a bedroom. It's unconverted and has a concrete floor. It's full of spiders and is really unclean.

The rest of the house is absolutely filthy too and there were loads of empty bottles of alcohol left lying around.

I don't know where she's living now but I'm sure she's had to report to the council as homeless to be rehoused. Would this automatically be on the radar of social services or is it worth me making a referral for the conditions the kids were sleeping in in the basement?

Yes I would.

The thing is, if I report it, it will probably come back on the landlord as there's only me and him who have been in the house to see it apart from the clearance company. I know she's already being threatening and abusive to him.

Yes def report to social services. I did exactly the same - we give tenant notice to quit - they were not paying rent, causing havoc with the neighbours. Already had three children and then had a fourth while renting from us. When she left it was like she just nipped down the shop. Left furniture, clothes, kitchen stuff, her weed stash. Place was filthy, soiled nappies in bedrooms, mouldy food. I took photos and sent to social services. No kid should live like that. I hope that they helped her to sort herself out.

So the choices are that she incorrectly accuses her landlord of reporting her, but the children are, hopefully, helped. Or her children continue to be neglected as nobody reports it?

I will report it. Just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't have already been flagged anyway as part of a homeless assessment.

Why would you report it? The children are not living there anymore. If your council has licensed properties that spells out how many people in which rooms can be used legally. The landlord is probably exhausted would have taken close to 2 years for the whole process to go through; landing this on them is a bit harsh. I’d speak to the landlord first

The family will be given accommodation according to whatever criteria that council uses where they lived in the past it’s kind of irrelevant isn’t it? They don’t live there anymore.

You have real first hand evidence of the home conditions in the basement. Please report. C&F do quite often get referrals of concern from private landlords and this situation, where they have already left and there is nothing to gain for the landlord from the report, is really helpful in making a case for the family needing enquiries and support.

Yes, I would definitely report. Soiled mattresses and a bedroom unfit for sleeping in - those poor kids.

It’s really hard to do, but you are 💯 doing the right thing. I spoke to a friend who was a social worker and asked for advice before I was confident enough to report it fully.

It sounds as though the landlord has had a battle to get her out. While they've reported it, social services might take it more seriously if you - an independent person - also report. Rightly or wrongly, they might see the landlord as being vindictive.
Your report might mean this family getting much needed help.

So you think because they'll be given a bigger house then they'll suddenly have proper beds and will keep things spotlessly clean. You think they'll become less dysfunctional? Of course not.

Op you should definitely report it. The health and wellbeing of the children is far more important than the family thinking the landlord reported.

If they were still living there the reason to report it would be that they wouldn’t have ventilation. It wouldn’t be a habitable room. I’m assuming wherever they are reused that situation wouldn’t arise.