Lambeth  Council was shocked  to find a "tree house with all mod cons" that  had been illegally rented out by rogue landlords. Officers  discovered that the "rogues" had allowed  a massive branch to grow into the living room in the three bedroomed house in Clapham.

The conditions for the eight people who lived there were “appalling and dangerous" and despite the branch "being part of the furniture", were paying out  in the region of  £40,000 a year in rent.

 

When taking back  possession of the house the Council officers could not believe their eyes when they saw the huge branch growing into one of the rooms from a neighbouring property. What was even worse was that the people living there  were actually using electricity from a cable  passed through a hole drilled into  the branch.

The property was one of 1,200 houses licensed to cooperatives and housing associations on a short time basis back in the 1970's. The term for this type of property "loan" is a "shortlife" and the agreement is that any of these properties can be returned to the council when requested

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Lambeth Council, only a week previous to finding the tree house, had also found another shortlife property where electricity was in fact being stolen from. A number of cables ran from the house illegally supplying electricity to other houses in the vicinity.

The electrician, who was contracted by the council, to check the safety of the house,  was horrified when he found unsecured cables and unsafe connections. He said it was the worst thing he had ever seen in his 35 years of working in the trade, and he was surprised that no one had been killed.

Lambeth's cabinet member for housing, Councillor Matthew Bennett, said: “The conditions the people in this illegal HMO were living in were truly appalling, and represented a genuine danger to life and limb.

“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.”