Nightmare as tenant leaves piles of rubbish, poo and collapsed ceiling at Swindon house

Landlords Vic and Jane Shoulders were devastated to discover the Toothill property they wanted to live in after retirement had been completely wrecked.

Bedrooms were full of a mixture of general rubbish, takeaway packaging, dirty clothes, human faeces, children’s toys and mouldy food. An outside ivy plant that had been allowed to grow out of control was encroaching into the house and the bathroom and toilet were left in an horrific state. 

The kitchen suffered the most damage after a large water leak which had caused the ceiling to collapse, the cooker hood to fall off the wall and potentially serious damage to the structure of the house itself as everything was damp. 

The couple have filled 200 bin bags so far as an expensive clean-up operation begins.

Vic, 63, said: “Some of the things we’ve found have been unbelievable. There was a hoover that had a dead hamster in it, bags of shopping that had been delivered and  just been left laying around, all of the carpets were ruined. 

"There were takeaway boxes in every room. Upstairs there was a children’s truck with faeces on it.

“I’ve used three bottles of acid on the toilet so far and it’s still not clean.

“I was lost for words, there were no no words, I couldn’t even come in the house, couldn’t even look.

“We’ve filled up 200 bags of rubbish so far. I estimate we’ve probably got another 100 to go.”

The tenant moved in in January 2020 and the Shoulders received only one month's rent before payments stopped. 

But, due to current law, landlords must give tenants three months' notice before they can be evicted. 

Then the pandemic happened and tenants could not be evicted during the lockdown, so they were unable to do anything. Legal proceedings were eventually started in June 2021 and the tenant was legally evicted on August 12. 

“We had to call a locksmith to get in because she had changed the locks,” Vic said.

“But when we finally got in I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The smell straight away was horrendous and there were flies everywhere. 

"I managed to film a quick video but could only stay in there for 20 minutes.”
Vic and Jane, as well as other members of the family, had spent two weeks cleaning up the house since regaining access, having purchased shovels, body suits, gloves, masks, fly traps and an abundance of bin bags. 

"Both of us were shocked,” said Jane, 60.

“We’re reasonable people, we would have fixed anything that was wrong, but to leave the house like this is heartbreaking. 

"It was a nice house. Now I just want to get a match and burn the whole thing down.”

“How can someone have lived like this?” she asked. 

The family are still clearing out the rubbish, so they have yet to gain a good idea of the true extent  and cost of the damage caused. They expect the water damage in the kitchen will set them back thousands of pounds. 

“When you consider that we’re already out of pocket because we’ve not received rent for 18 months and then add the fact that it’ll cost thousands to fix this place, it’s devastating to us.” said Vic. 

Jane revealed that Andy Angell from Connect Flooring Swindon has offered to replace the carpets for the family, and they are overwhelmed by the messages of support they’ve received already.

She said: "We’re very grateful to Andy for his offer, and if anyone else is willing to help we’d appreciate it.”