Claims Weymouth tenants evicted after complaining about condition of their homes
Weymouth GP and councillor Dr Jon Orrell says he's seen it happen to several families
Private landlords in Weymouth are evicting tenants who complain about the condition of their homes – according to local councillor and GP Dr Jon Orrell.
He said the one thing he often wished he could prescribe for his patients was a warm and secure home.
His comments came during a discussion about the state of some of the rented housing market in Dorset – both the cost of renting and the condition of some properties.
It was also claimed that rental prices are now so high in many areas that even young professionals, including junior doctors, audiologists and dentists, are unable to afford to live and work in parts of the county.
Dr Orrell, a Green Party councillor, said that until the county was able to sort out its housing problems it would be unable to tackle many of the other social issues.
Dr Orrell said that in his Melcombe Regis ward, which includes the Park District, there were over 1,000 properties listed as homes in multiple occupation – usually flats.
Poorest ward in Dorset
He said his ward, which he described as the poorest in Dorset, had less than 40 rented properties which were registered.
The the rest, mainly two storey buildings, were not, and neither were they licensed after the council dropped plans to make landlords sign up to a registration scheme, which would have allowed greater powers of inspection and set basic standards.
“Probably the majority are well run but there is a substantial number who aren’t. If there’s one single thing that, as a doctor, I wish I could prescribe, it wouldn’t have been antibiotics, or surgery, it would have been a warm, dry house,” said Dr Orrell, adding that he usually wrote one or two letters each week about the housing problems of his patients.
Black mould
Cllr Orrell said that black mould, which had been found by a coroner elsewhere in the country to have contributed to the death of a child, was often present in local rented homes and could lead to respiratory problems and heart disease.
“We need, somehow, to find a mechanism to encourage landlords to keep their properties warm and dry…just relying on complaints is not sufficient. With the worst landlords if people complain they are evicted and turned out on the street, probably illegally. That’s the truth of it. I’ve seen several families where that has happened, so we do need to find some way of intervening in the private sector because the power is too much in the landlord’s hands and they don’t always provide homes fit for human habitation,” he said.
The council’s people and health scrutiny committee, was told that the council had no right to inspect a private rented property without the owner’s permission, although there are schemes to help landlords to improve their buildings.