Nightmare West Midlands tenant left 3,000 beer cans and bags of human faeces leaving cancer patient landlord to clear up

Shocking footage shows the 'inhumane' state of extreme squalor which greeted a vulnerable couple as they reclaimed a West Midlands property back from a slum tenant, after seven years.

Thousands of beer cans, many filled with urine, can be seen strewn across almost every room as well as bags of human excrement and piles of empty takeaway boxes.

Leased affordable flat to 'friend in need'

Landlords Sandra Considine, 58, and her husband Chris, 70, rented out the two-bedroomed flat in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, to a friend in need for just £30-a-week in 2018.

But the couple say the man went silent just weeks into the lease - before he blocked access to the property for the next seven years, refused to leave and never paid rent.

The unnamed occupier eventually left in January this year and Sandra and Chris were able to regain access to the two-bedroomed flat last month.

Flat smells like 'stale urine'

The nightmare tenant had also caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to the carpets, walls, furniture, kitchen appliances and the bathroom sink and toilet.

The disgusted couple say the whole apartment smells like ‘stale urine’ and they now facing a hefty cleaning bill on top of the cost of fixing the damage.

Cancer patient left to clean up mess

Chris, who has been diagnosed with incurable cancer and had to give up work, says he is too ill to deal with the aftermath alongside his wife, who is also frail.

The former DPD worker said: “You just can’t believe it when you see it.

“We can only guess how many cans there were amongst the rubbish, it must be thousands. Because they’ve been there that long it’s eroded the can metal because the wee is like acid."

Bags filled with human faeces

He added: "Thankfully most of the human waste was tied up in bags so at least that was something but the state he was living in was inhumane."

The couple regained access to the flat in June, and were greeted with 'thousands' of cans in every room. 

Grandmother-of-three Sandra said: “It’s waist height, a mixture of all sorts, it’s shocking. You can’t move stuff in case a can falls because they’re full of fluids. It’s ever such a long job.

“We had to clear a lot of it quickly because it was stale urine that had been there God knows how long, and we didn’t want it smelling in the heatwave.

“The smell was horrendous. We had to be careful we didn’t knock it and let it spill down to the flat underneath.

“There were bags of human faeces found as well, but luckily not as many. How can you live like this?”

'Horrendous' smell

The tenant was a colleague of Chris's at DPD who fallen on hard times and was about to be made homeless.

Feeling bad for their friend, the couple moved him into their flat to keep him off the streets with the agreement that he’d help paint the walls.

They charged him £30 a week - but he soon stopped paying any rent. 

Sandra said they kept getting 'fobbed off with excuses', and that he 'seemed to know his rights'.

Stopped paying rent 

“It got to the point where I said I needed to do an inspection but he wouldn’t let me in. I never got anywhere. He was in there for seven years.

“I never looked at myself as a landlord or him as a tenant, I saw him as a mate. We felt sorry for him.

"We were trying to be kind but in the end we just feel utterly exploited.

"I just hope I don't have to pay for the water and electricity bills he's built up."

 GoFundMe

The couple's daughter Rose Considine, 25, has since started a GoFundMe to help the family who don't have the financial ability to pay for professional cleaners

To donate visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/elderly-couple-taken-advantage-of