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The hidden housing crisis: NHS staff, teachers and low-income workers reveal the realities of being a property guardian

i investigates guardianships, once touted as a solution to the housing crisis by allowing people to live in disused buildings for cheap rent

Aside from the young man wandering around in his dressing gown at 1pm, there is nothing to suggest I’m not entering a working primary school as I’m guided through a set of double doors with toddler-height handles.

I’m here to see the now-disused Harrington Hill Primary School site in North East London’s Upper Clapton, Hackney. There are no lessons being taught in this building anymore. Instead, it is home to ‘guardians’ who pay a monthly fee to live there. They live there as part of a security service property guardian companies offer to owners of empty public and commercial buildings.

Guardianships, like the one I am here to view today, are controversial. Guardian companies present themselves as an ‘affordable’ alternative to renting for an ill-fated generation while critics brand them ‘exploitative’ of people on low incomes. They have grown while house prices have skyrocketed, pushing more people into the private rented sector where rents have been rising far faster than people’s wages since 2011.

Today, according to the Property Guardian Providers Association, there are approximately between 5,000 and 7,000 guardians in the UK, the majority living in London. This is not an official figure and may be higher. Guardianships are touted as a win-win solution to Britain’s housing crisis – in theory they allow property owners to save thousands on the cost of security and upkeep of buildings, empty spaces are filled, and young, hip guardians extol the virtues of renting below the market rate while getting to live in an ‘unusual’ or ‘quirky’ space.

Guardians: not just young millennials

People are living in Harrington Hill Primary school as part of a property guardian scheme (Picture: Vicky Spratt)
People are living in Harrington Hill Primary school as part of a property guardian scheme (Picture: Vicky Spratt)

Analysis from the Mayor of London’s office shows people looking to rent a one bedroom place in London – the sort of people who might turn to guardianships – would be hard pushed to find anything under £950 a month in zones one to five.

But this is not just a London phenomenon, nor is it just young people in the eye of the storm. Amid a burgeoning housing crisis, i has found property guardianships being advertised in 53 cities and towns such as Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool, Leeds and Hull. Many of the property guardians i spoke were in their mid to late 30s.

According to flatsharing website SpareRoom, the number of people living in flatshares between the ages of 35 and 34 has risen by 400 per cent since 2008. The number of people living this way aged between 45 and 54 has gone up by over 600 per cent 

Guardians like Jane*, 37, an adult education teacher on the equivalent of a zero hours contract. She’s been a guardian since 2012 and has seen the price of private rents rise steadily, only able to look on as she becomes trapped in guardianships. “I would never have thought in a million years that I’d be three years off being 40 and I wouldn’t have a secure job or a secure home as a teacher.”

Or guardians like the teacher his 30s who is trying to save for a house and is living in an old police station. “There’s a university lecturer living here,” he tells i. There are trainee teachers. The oldest person in the building was in his 60s but he decided this wasn’t for him. There are people in their 40s and 50s too. For some of them I don’t think this is a choice – they seem jaded by it. They can’t afford to live anywhere else.”

A room in an old school with no heating: yours for £475

People are living in Harrington Hill Primary school as part of a property guardian scheme (Picture: Vicky Spratt)
People are living in Harrington Hill Primary school as part of a property guardian scheme (Picture: Vicky Spratt)

Back in Upper Clapton, Cat* a representative from Global Guardians, is whizzing ahead through the school corridor towards the gym. “I just need to make it clear that there is no heating in this building,” she informs us.  “No heating?” I repeat, shocked and forgetting for a moment that I’m posing as a potential guardian. It’s freezing.

“Obviously we’ll provide a plug-in heater for every unit,” she says, “but there is no heating anywhere in the building.”

“Right…” I manage, “and how much is it?”

The smallest unit is £475 a month including bills, Cat explains. The ‘unit’ in question is a small former office with a huge whirring IT server box overhead and desks nailed into three out of the four walls. The bathroom is across the hallway and consists of a flimsy temporary shower unit. There are two of these between seven people. The communal kitchen contains two hotplates, microwave ovens, a sink and a fridge but nothing resembling an actual oven.

I ask Cat whether the desks will be removed. “I’m waiting for an answer on that from the client,” she says brusquely.

“But I’ll struggle to get a bed in here if they aren’t?”

“Oh God, I know. You decide to take the room, I’ll let you know what maintenance says. The server is definitely staying though,” she replies, shrugging. “I’m hoping it will be resolved,” she adds.

£475 seems too much for what’s on offer here, even though it does include bills, and that’s before you’ve factored in Global Guardians’ fees. Cat explains I’d need to pay my first month’s licence fee up front, a deposit of one month’s licence fee, £75 for a fire safety pack and £95 to be vetted by Global Guardians.

Few rights, and you can be evicted at any point

The disused police station Ryan is living in DO NOT REUSE
A disused police station Ryan Bassil lived in with more than 30 others

Giles Peaker, a solicitor and housing expert at Anthony Gold solicitors who helped to draft the recent Homes (fitness for human habitation) Act, describes property guardian licences as a legal grey area which fall outside most of the regulations that apply to tenancies and protect tenants. “A private tenancy can only be ended on notice – two months notice if there is no fault – followed by court proceedings. Any tenant’s deposit has to be protected in an approved scheme. The tenant has rights about having repairs carried out, about their privacy and being able to exclude even the landlord from their home.”

Meanwhile, a licensee or guardian “only has the right not to be evicted without four weeks notice and faces court proceedings if they don’t go. Their deposit does not have to be protected and can be very difficult to get back.” 

A clause in a licence agreement by South East Guardians is another stark example of the lack of rights guardians have, even down to the room they sleep in. It reads: “By signing this agreement you accept that representatives of South East Guardians and/or the legal owner of the property have the right to enter the living space including the room you and your fellow guardians have chosen to sleep in, at any time. Under this agreement they legally share rights to that space with you.”

Houses in multiple occupation

The disused police station Ryan, a property guardian, was living in. His room was £600 per month
The disused police station Ryan Bassil was living in. He paid £600 per month to live in the building.

Now, the most pressing question is whether property guardian companies should be registering their properties as large Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) under new legislative guidelines.

Large HMOs require a licence from the council to operate and the accommodation must meet a nationally prescribed standard. The law states that a home is a large HMO if all of the following apply:

  • Five tenants (who are not from the same family) live there, forming more than one household
  • You share facilities like the toilet, bathroom or kitchen with other tenants
  • At least one tenant pays rent

This licence is an important measure for ensuring the safety of tenants. “For a licence to be granted, the local authority must be satisfied the property is safe (including fire safety measures), that rooms are of sufficient size, there are enough bathroom and kitchen facilities for the number of people, and the managers are ‘fit and proper’ people to fill that role,” Mr Peaker explains. He believes property guardianships should be classed as HMOs and fall under the terms of the Housing Act 2004. “The definition of HMO refers to ‘units of living accommodation’ and payment being made for that occupation. Occupation under a licence certainly falls under those terms.”

Harrington Hill does not have an HMO licence. A spokesperson for Hackney Council said their “new property licensing measures mean every HMO in Hackney must apply for a licence before 1 March 2019 or risk hefty fines or court action. Harrington Hill Primary School does not currently hold an HMO licence but, if found to be rented out as an HMO after this date, will be subject to enforcement by the Council.”

When pressed, Hackney Council confirm they own the building.

‘Do not talk to the press’

The disused police station Ryan is living in DO NOT REUSE
The disused police station Ryan was living in with more than 30 other people

Ryan Bassil, 26, is editor of millennial lifestyle website Vice’s music section, Noisey. Until recently, he was living in a former police station with LOWE Guardians, paying £600 a month to live with more than 30 people. “Part of my bedroom was an old office and I had so much space,” he says. “LOWE Guardians put in sofas and a pool table which was a nice touch.

“The downside is there were only three kitchens between 30 or so people. There was almost enough space but you couldn’t really cook properly in there and it was always a total mess.”

A kitchen in the disused police station Ryan is living in

LOWE Guardians confirmed the police station is not licenced as an HMO. The company said each local London council deals with HMO matters separately and it is “having discussions with the local authority” about the issue. LOWE Guardians added that “the need for a licence is driven by how long the building is likely to be available for guardianship use,” but the definition of an HMO is based on the number of people occupying a property and not the length of time they occupy it.

For guardians, if a property is unsafe, overcrowded or without proper facilities, it can be risky to speak out. Many guardians like Ryan have to sign licence agreements banning them from speaking to media. Ryan says the police station he lived in had rules stuck to walls. “One of them very clearly says: ‘Do not talk to the press.’”

When asked why its guardians are prohibited from speaking to press, Lowe told i legal owners of the property have “agreements” with LOWE and the company is also not allowed to do media on or in their clients’ buildings without seeking their permission. A spokesperson added: “All LOWE is doing is complying with building owner regulations and protecting tenants.”

The disused care home now at the centre of a court case

Nicola Gillin in her room at The Old Rectory

The lack of legal rights and regulation mean conditions can be poor for guardians, and even dangerous.

Colchester Council is currently prosecuting Camelot Europe for failing to licence an HMO and various breaches of HMO regulations at a disused care home called The Old Rectory in Lexden.

Until January 2018 Nicola Gillin, a 33-year-old research assistant at Anglia Ruskin University, was living as a guardian at the care home. She could no longer afford private rent for a flat in the Colchester area, where she grew up. “My options were either become a property guardian or move back to my mum’s house,” she explains. “The licence fee was £320 and I’d been paying over £600 in private rent.”

The Old Rectory, a former care home, where Nicola Gillin was a guardian

When she was first moved into the care home in March 2017, she was the only full-time guardian. “By June there were six of us. I remember really clearly speaking to Camelot Europe and saying: ‘Enough now – we’ve got one working kitchen and one shower. No more people.’

“They assured me they wouldn’t move anyone else in. But then we got to the stage where we had 30 people living there, still with only one working kitchen and one shower we felt was safe to use. It was awful.”

Later that year, it transpired the building was not licensed as an HMO when a private company arrived to check the fire alarm system. They alerted Essex Fire and Rescue who, in turn, contacted Colchester Council. After an investigation, they deemed the building not fit for people to live in.

“The nearest fire escape to my bedroom had been nailed shut,” Nicola recalls. “A broken toilet was flooding the laundry room with human waste. It was dangerous.”

‘I said from the start that an NDA was my red line’

Water damage to a floor in the Old Rectory
Room nine in the care home which was uninhabited because of flooding and water damage. Nicola says residents later found a leak was coming from a broken toilet directly above

Read Nicola’s story here

Camelot Guardian Management Limited (a division of Camelot Europe) is due in court in March this year. A spokesperson for Colchester Council told i they believe this is the first prosecution to be taken against a guardian management company for these offences. “When we believe that accommodation is not being managed responsibly, the council will always take whatever action is necessary to resolve this and keep residents safe in their homes.”

Camelot Europe did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mr Peaker said: “The importance of fire safety in properties with many occupiers shouldn’t need to be emphasised in this time after Grenfell. Anyone failing to ensure safety standards is putting lives at risk.”

Nicola was pursuing a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) to recover the £2881.70 she spent while living at The Rectory herself via a property tribunal. In a phone call, a senior figure at Camelot Europe asked if she would settle out of court. She declined because it would have required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Last week, Nicola says Camelot Europe sent her an unsolicited cheque in the post for £2,000, followed by an email asking for her tribunal to be dismissed. She told them: “The cheque was for the wrong amount” and she that would like to go ahead with the hearing. Following this, they sent her a cheque for £962.01 and she is no longer pursuing a tribunal.

“I said from the start that a non-disclosure agreement was my red line,” she says. “Property guardian companies try to wriggle out of their duties by arguing that property guardians aren’t tenants and, therefore, that now housing laws apply to us. The whole experience has been really traumatising.”

‘We had deep concerns about our safety’

The nursery school Gemma and other guardians were living in
The nursery school Gemma and other guardians were living in

Until November last year, Gemma,* a 26-year-old who works at a council-run art gallery and earns £19,000, was a property guardian in a disused nursery school owned by Southwark Council. She licensed the space – “an empty open plan area the size of several garages” – with her boyfriend from Global Guardians for £850 a month. For months she has been locked in a dispute with the company over her deposit and compensation for water damage to her possessions after she was served what she believes was a revenge eviction notice for complaining about conditions.

After paying her deposit and fees, Gemma tells i Global Guardians postponed the move in date because the building was unsafe. “It was only when I requested all of my fees and deposit back that I was told we could move in.”

From here, things only got worse. “We had deep concerns about the safety of the property. We raised these with Global Guardians on numerous occasions and were ignored.” She says the only fire escape was “wedged shut,” safety assessments only took place weeks after she had moved in and she only realised these were taking place when “unidentified workmen banged and tried to kick in our front door one weekend, clearly thinking the property was still vacant”.

Glass everywhere and faeces on the floor

A toilet in the care home Gemma lived in
A room in the care home Gemma lived in

“When we viewed the property we were told it was going to be repaired and cleaned so it was in a decent state before we moved in,” Gemma recalls. “But when we moved in there were broken windows, glass and debris everywhere, wastewater and even faeces on the floor. We had wastewater seeping across our bedroom floor for a month. We were told time and time again that it would be solved but no action was ever taken.”

Gemma says she was left without electricity for almost one week during the winter and when she raised concerns with the safety of the building’s electrics, an electrician attended the property and declared them “an immediate risk” but no further action was taken by Global Guardians.

A toilet in the disused care home Gemma was moved into
‘This is what ended up being our only working toilet, says Gemma. ‘This is how we found it when we moved in’

Gemma is worried about speaking out because she is now using a different guardian company. “These companies scour the internet for any kind of report from their guardians, so I really can’t be named. I know people who have been evicted for speaking out and I can’t afford private rent. I’m between a rock and a hard place.”

Global Guardians told i all their properties are visited by property inspectors each month and their findings are documented. “During her occupation of the space no such issues were found and certainly nothing that had a potential Health and Safety impact. We have robust processes in place to ensure our properties are in possession of the legally required documentation such as Fire Risk Assessments, Gas Certification and Electrical Certification.”

A kitchen guardians had to use in the care home Gemma lived in
‘This was the only kitchen,’ says Gemma. ‘There were leaks and cupboards full of rodent droppings when we arrived’

The company said Gemma’s complaints were raised a month after she gave up her role as Guardian and “have also been linked to a clear request for financial compensation.”

“We have followed through with her complaints and are awaiting her response to many of the requests we have made to her so we can finalise this.”

Gemma also had a clause in her contract, seen by i stating guardians must not “speak to the media…without prior written permission from G100”. Global Guardians denied having clauses in its current Licence Agreement “that in any way prevents a Guardian from speaking with the press”. When pressed on this, the company said it had removed this clause from contracts “some time ago”.

I’m paying £550 a month to live in a disused school – the nearest water was disconnected and we had no smoke alarms

The Government must choose which side it is on

'This is a window that was broken,' says Gemma. 'And that’s a plastic bag that had been shoved in the window. We found it like this the day we moved'
‘This is a window that was broken,’ says Gemma. ‘And that’s a plastic bag that had been shoved in the window. We found it like this the day we moved’

The evidence of a need for a rigorous examination into the property guardian industry is mounting. Liberal Democrat Peer Olly Grender, who successfully campaigned for legislation to ban tenants fees, has raised her concerns regarding fire safety and legal protections for property guardians with the Government. She told i: “More and more people are living as property guardians in buildings that are dangerous and insanitary and the law doesn’t protect them. Safeguards must be introduced before the Government has another tragedy on its hands like Grenfell. This is a hidden crisis for people caught in a trap of poverty and lack of decent housing and needs urgent attention.”

Labour MP Karen Buck, who has worked on conditions in the private rented sector, is unequivocal that the Government needs to act to protect guardians, telling i: “[While] property guardianship may have worked well for some people, we now see the evidence piling up that others are being put at considerable risk from unsafe conditions, without the legal rights to protect themselves.

“The Government must choose which side they are on – they acknowledge the sector exists, but won’t act to protect those involved.”

When asked for comment on the situation, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson told i the Government has no plans to stop the use of property guardianship schemes and believes people should “be free to make their own housing choices”.

They added: “We are committed to ensuring best practice in the sector, and that individuals understand their rights and responsibilities when deciding to become property guardians.”

The money being made from housing people like this

'Broken glass in the door when we moved in' - Gemma
‘Broken glass in the door when we moved in’ – Gemma

Some councils, which would otherwise be shelling out thousands for private security companies, also receive a cut of the money made by property guardians when their public buildings are used.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests put into London councils by i reveal in 2017, Camden Council received £1,235,129 from guardianships, which they say was split equally with the guardian company. A spokesperson for the Council said guardians “help the Council to prevent squatting and also to avoid the cost of security guards or patrols” and that the money is used to pay for running costs.

Waltham Forest said for the period 2018-19 they received £63,019.30 from property guardian companies. A spokesperson said: “The guardian operators give us a monthly contribution towards running costs in accordance with the number of guardians in occupation.” Barnet Council told i it received £8,580.00 in 2015, £37,260.00 in 2016 and £47,084.65 by property guardian companies in 2017.

Read more: What councils receive from guardianships

Hackney Council is phasing guardianships out, having reduced the number of council-owned properties occupied by guardians from 217 in 2014 to just one in 2018. Where possible, they are trying to use “empty properties ourselves to provide better quality and cost-effective temporary homes to homeless households as an alternative to nightly paid accommodation”.

Southwark Councillor Victoria Mills, Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Brexit, told i the lack of rights for guardians as tenants is a “worry” for the council and so, “as an authority, we are considering both our future use of guardians and, if we do continue to use them, how we can ensure the safety of guardian.”

Guardianships are no quick fix to the crisis

'As an ex-primary school Harrington Hill poses its own challenges. Within this property are very large, totally clear spaces that lend themselves well to temporary occupation, others are not as immediately viable', says Global Guardians
‘As an ex-primary school Harrington Hill poses its own challenges. Within this property are very large, totally clear spaces that lend themselves well to temporary occupation, others are not as immediately viable’, says Global Guardians

My tour of Harrington Hill Primary School (or what’s left of it) draws to a close. “So, are you interested?” Cat asks me. She’s got another viewing on the other side of London to get to.

“I need to think about it,” I say, and leave.

Walking away, I scroll back over Global Guardian’s website. “This property will go fast,” it advises. The listing describes the school, with its flimsy temporary shower cubicles, lack of heating and rooms you can’t get beds into as “an amazing opportunity to live in the city of London at a fraction of the cost”.

Perhaps, for someone, it would be just that, but, as I make my way home I keep thinking of the people who can no longer afford private rent. I think of Gemma’s nursery nightmare, Jane’s worries about the future and Nicola’s fire safety ordeal.

Guardianships might seem like a quick fix, but they are to the housing crisis what zero hours contract are to employment: a sticking plaster on a broken leg. “Being a guardian doesn’t solve my problems,” says Gemma. ”It’s in the contract that you can’t have kids and be a guardian. I’m worried about turning 30 and still needing to live like this because of money.”

The industry says it is self-regulating, according to a report from the London Assembly’s housing committee supported by the University of York Law School, but as we know with the private rented sector, turkeys will never vote for Christmas.

The systemic issues which are particularly acute in London but being felt across the country – increasingly unaffordable rents and house prices – won’t be solved by guardianships. The closing down and selling off of publicly-owned buildings has fuelled business for guardian companies just as the social housing shortage has been a boon for private landlords.

Perhaps, then, guardianships in their current form are not so much a ‘solution’ to the housing crisis as a symptom of the problem.

A spokesperson for Global Guardians said: “Each of the properties currently under our management are very different, some offer modern, well equipped and open plan spaces, others are in period properties with the quirks typical of these buildings. As an ex-primary school Harrington Hill poses its own challenges. Within this property are very large, totally clear spaces that lend themselves well to temporary occupation, others are not as immediately viable. As a security company we do not force people to take rooms that are unsuitable for occupation but do show the variety available in each property.

“One of the key benefits for individuals pursuing Guardianship is a greatly reduced cost when compared to traditional tenancies, this cost is impacted by the spaces available as well as the required flexibility within the temporary living license arrangements. Our available spaces all conform to the minimum requirements laid down in law, i.e. 6.51m2 when occupied by a single person. We ensure that all occupied spaces have windows to the outside, are easily ventilated and [have] power for heating etc. It must be stated that [what] is viewed as an acceptable space is very much a matter of individual choice and many individuals are grateful for the low cost of the spaces available via Guardianship.

“With regards to security of tenure for a Guardian we comply with the “Protection from Eviction Act 1977” in that if we require a notice to quit, and the Guardian is unwilling to vacate after the standard 28 days’ notice period, we petition the court. By this process we voluntarily submit to the regular scrutiny of the courts. This provides peace of mind to our Guardians and our Clients (the owner of the property).

“Global Guardians believe wholeheartedly in raising, and enforcing, the standards in which Property Guardian companies operate. As a company we are active members of the BSIA, are ISO9001 accredited amongst others and operate in a fully transparent way. We have engaged with the Government directly about introducing regulations that bring confidence and security to the Property Guardian sector and the Guardians themselves.”

A spokesperson for LOWE Guardians said: “LOWE believes there is a role for guardian companies to provide housing for people on lower incomes and young key workers. LOWE is also committed to ensuring high quality guardian schemes – LOWE have worked to establish the newly formed Property Guardian Providers Association of which LOWE is a founding member the PGPA was welcomed by the House of Lords in a recent review and debate and the PGPA have produced a white paper to establish standards and procedures for good guardianship.”

Additional reporting by Elsa Maishman.*Names have been changed to protect identities

i has been investigating the conditions faced by property guardians across the UK, who live in disused buildings for below market rent. i heard from teachers, NHS staff and low income workers who have become property guardians after being priced out of normal renting. We will be telling their stories this week. 

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