Crackdown on Birmingham tenants who wreck council houses

Jun 7 2009 by Neil Elkes, Sunday Mercury

THESE are the shocking scenes which greeted Birmingham housing officers after council tenants had moved out, fled or died.

On a daily basis they find homes piled high with rubbish and filth, broken furniture and soiled belongings.

In some cases they discover houses vandalised with graffiti, fixtures and fittings such as taps, door handles and light fittings torn out, and boilers, cookers and fires dangerously broken.

In extreme situations, such as one pictured, everything, including the bath, doors and even the ceiling had been stripped out – leaving a shell of a building.

And in one case a tenant fled leaving a dog behind living among his filth. The pet had to be fed and watered through the letter box by a distraught neighbour until the housing department freed him.

Not only does it cost the city taxpayer an average £6,800 per property to clean up, but it can also take more than three months before the houses are fit for habitation – at a time when there are 30,000 people on council waiting lists.

Now housing bosses have launched a new crackdown on the home wreckers and have vowed to charge as many as possible for the mess they leave behind.

At the same time they are also offering a rent rebate of £100 for those who leave their council houses in spotless condition when they hand in their keys.