Raid uncovers 20 men living in squalid three bedroom home

A LANDLORD who housed more than 20 men in a single three-bedroom property is wanted by police.

The house in London was stuffed with 26 mattresses, which the council said were jammed up so close to the doors that it made it difficult to get inside.

Those who lived there were housed in ‘appalling and unsafe’ conditions, officers added.

Brent council said the property, in Kingsbury, north-west London, was ‘one of the worst’ illegal houses in multiple occupancy it has ever encountered.

Police are now hunting the landlord, who was taking home £1,000 a week from the racket.

The property was raided by police and council officers yesterday morning after neighbours complained about the volume of people seen coming and going from the property.

Officers found that every room, except for the kitchen and bathroom, contained bed spaces – including a ‘tiny, windowless’ loft area. The property also had faulty smoke alarms and poor ventilation.

A spokesman for Brent Council said: ‘Aside from seeing rodents or cockroaches it is one of the worst we have seen. The loft was just appalling.’

Councillor Eleanor Southwood said: ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy against landlords who exploit tenants by housing them in slum-like conditions. No tenant should believe that they are powerless against a landlord who takes their money in exchange for squalor.’