Nightmare tenants turn flat into rubbish tip as landlord couple say they can’t evict

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A couple plagued by nightmare tenants who turned their flat into a rubbish tip have been told they can’t evict them ‘because of the pandemic’.

Zoey and John Wingfield have spent tens of thousands of pounds trying to repair damage to their Grimsby flat, adjacent properties and shop below caused by their tenants’ behaviour.  

The Wingfields say the tenants have strewn piles of filthy rubbish onto a flat roof behind the flat – directly above another renter.

When Mr Wingfield, 67, asked for it to be cleaned it up, the male tenant punched him in the face, the couple claim.

The Wingfields have desperately tried to evict the tenants so they can begin repairing the damage and have taken the matter to court.

But a judge said they have to wait at least six months under current guidelines.

The couple’s business – which is directly below the problem flat – is suffering extensive water damage caused by leaks due to blocked drains caused by nappies and cigarette ends.

Mr and Mrs Wingfield are desperately trying to evict tenants – and have even called social services as they were ‘so worried’ about a baby living in the property.  

The stress is so bad, they fear it lead to Mr Wingfield’s heart attack, which left him in hospital.

Mrs Wingfield said: ‘We’ve taken them to court because of the way they are treating the flat, we just wanted them out so we could repair it and make life better for our other tenants.

‘The judge said we can’t evict them because of the pandemic, he said we’ll have to wait at least six months before we can get them out.

‘This has been going on since August last year, we just feel like everyone has let us down at the moment, we really don’t know what else we can do but watch them destroy our livelihoods.

‘If the damage to the shop carries on then there is a chance that we’ll have to close it until this is sorted out and then that is all of our staff out of work too.’

Horrifying images show the extent of the abuse outside the flat with piles of rubbish strewn across a flat roof.

Inside the couple’s business – which is also below the flat – there is extensive water damage to one wall where the couple say there are frequent leaks due to blocked drains in the bathroom.

According to Mr and Mrs Wingfield the tenants clogged up the toilet with used nappies and allowed the water to spill over and also completely blocked up the bath with cigarette ends.

Mrs Wingfield added: ‘The man came into our shop and he was threatening to put me through the window and smash my head in just because John had asked him to clear up the rubbish on the flat roof.

‘John came down to see what was going on, they went out the front and he punched John in the face, luckily a police officer was passing at the time.

‘John is 67, he shouldn’t have to be dealing with this.

‘It has been so stressful that John ended up having a heart attack earlier in the year. 

‘He was in Castle Hill Hospital for a bit because he was so ill.’

The couple have tried numerous routes to deal with the mounting rubbish, damage to their business and nuisance to the other tenants caused by late night rows.

A tenant who lived below the problem flat – but was able to move to one of the Wingfields’ other nearby properties – said the noise was unbearable and would wake his children up in a fright in the middle of the night.

The couple said one of their main concerns was the safety of the young child in the flat.

They said they were extremely worried about their health with the state of the property.

Mrs Wingfield said: ‘Honestly you just wouldn’t believe that people live like that and it is so awful because there is a young child up there too, I just don’t know how they do it.

‘We called social services five times because we were so worried about the baby up there and another that has been visiting that can’t be much older than one.

‘The state the property is in, it isn’t fit to be bringing up a child in. 

‘We really don’t know where to go now, it seems like nobody wants to help us with this. 

‘Every time we manage to get someone in the flat to fix something we come back and they’ll have had the locks changed again.

‘At the end of the day as much as these two are doing our head in, we really don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone and with the state that the cooker is in and the fire exits blocked we’re worried it could be a real fire risk.

‘We just feel helpless now, I really don’t know what we’re going to do.’