Britain's dirtiest flat

[Ck]

Piles of cigarette stubs and 1000 burger cartons crammed studio flat.

When he visited an apartment recently vacated by a tenant, the entire living area of the flat was crammed full of discarded polystyrene burger cartons worth £5,000.

When he did manage to clear a path through the rubbish, he was in for a further shock.

In the bathroom a large pile of cigarette stubs appeared to be carefully stacked on the side of the sink.

Stunned by the state of his £100,000 studio flat, Mr Dowling called in professional cleaners and decorators to sort it out.

They shifted the burger carton mountain and takeaway detritus into a large van, packing it to the rafters, before visiting a nearby tip for disposal.

The tenant had accumulated the mess during over about two years. There were more than 1,000 takeaway cartons and containers in the 15ft by 11ft living area of the flat.

Mr Dowling, who runs 46 homes, said: "The tenant had been smoking without opening windows and there were nicotine stains dripping from the walls. It smelt like a giant ashtray.

"There were McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken containers everywhere. I couldn't get through to get to the kitchen and they were stacked all around the bed. You couldn't see any part of the floor in the living area.

"In all my 15 years of running properties I have never come across anything like this before and we see all sorts."

Mr Dowling said he had rented the flat in Slough, Berks, to the single man in December 2005 through an agent. Satisfactory credit checks were completed and the £450-a-month rent was always paid on time by standing order.

source

[Earl]

Looks all right to me.

[A_B]

A quick whip round with a duster is all that needs.

[Earl]

I know, some people just like to make a drama out of nothing.

[Alpha]

Fucking hell!

[Ck]

I rented a house out a few years ago to a young woman with a baby. She lived there for two years and when I went round for the rent the house always seemed spotless, never any clutter and it looked clean.

When she moved out I went round to check everything was ok before I advertised it again, everything looked fine... until... I opened the back door and went outside.

She mustn't of ever ever put her rubbish bags out for the binmen, not ever! The rubbish, some in bags and some not, was stacked about 9 foot high against the fence and was about 10 foot wide by 10 foot deep.

[A_B]

I'm surprised you didn't end up with rats.

[Ck]

There might have been

I started to try and clear it but after moving just a few bags the smell was horrendous. When I disturbed the pile it was clear that a lot of the contents had turned to juice. Amongst other things there must have been two years worth of dirty nappies in there.

I had to get someone to move it for me in the end because it was just too much.

[Hutchybee]

Ck, that is just GROSS!

[Ck]

I'm just glad the inside wasn't as bad.


Next time I rented it I went for an older couple. They seemed really quite nice, he had a limp so didn't work and she seemed like quite an old fashioned homely type person.

Turns out they also had 4 large dogs who liked to chew carpet and kitchens, and I don't know what they did to the stairs but there was barely anything left of them by the time they'd finished. And they did a runner owing me a load of rent.