Kate and Nigel's House

Many of you will remember that Kate and Nigel moved last March, and there was a lot wrong with the house. I was so horrified that I took pictures. The landlord keeps promising to repair the property but the repairman doesn't come. The house is unsafe in many ways but what concerns me most is that the electricity is not earthed. The light switch in the kitchen is loose and when they opened the cover to tighten it all up, they saw that the wires were separated by a piece of cardboard from a breakfast cereal box.

After a lot of discussion with the Council, they finally decided to ask the Council's Environmental Health team to come and examine the property, and the Officials came today and took photographs. They were also handed the photographs that I took as they were moving in.

The Environmental Health people said that the landlord was notorious at the Council for his dangerous properties and the Council were taking action against him for quite a few properties. The neighbours' house is even worse, and they rent from the same landlord, and Environmental Health are planning to time the official notifications to arrive on the same day. Kate and Nigel have been told to expect a Notice to Quit from the Landlord because he apparentlty prefers to have his houses empty than to repair them.

Kate and Nigel have done a lot of repairs and improvements themselves, such as removing protruding nails on the wooden floorboards and laying carpet. However, they really aren't in a position to have the house rewired or to have the roof repaired and other big things like that. On the advice of the council officials, they are starting to look around for somewhere else to live. I hope they get the right place for them. Of course, if they move away, they might have to change Wendy's nursery school again.

Who knows what the future holds?

Here are a few photos I took before they moved in. Most of these problems they have sorted out themselves, but the landlord really can't argue that the place was in tip top condition when he let it to them. Most of these were taken in the baby's bedroom.