A vulnerable family-of-three living in a mouldy annex in West London were told by their landlord to let him evict them so they could approach the council for a bigger property.
Ali Hersi lives in the home, which is an annex to a house in Southall, with his wife and teenage daughter and claims the conditions are exacerbating their health problems which include asthma.
While Ealing Council has now ordered repairs to be made to the property following a visit by officers, Mr Hersi’s landlord, Mohammed Salim Mussa, had encouraged the family not to let the council workers in. He also suggested they could get a bigger property from the council by letting him evict them and presenting as homeless.
A recording made by the family in October 2024 and shared with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) indicates that the landlord told the family he had nowhere bigger than a studio property to move them to while the works are carried out to address the mould issues, and that “only the council will give you a two-bedroom straight away”.
Mr Hersi, 66, lives with heart failure, diabetes, and is on kidney dialysis. He told the LDRS: “I feel like we’ve been treated inhumanely. The worst is because I wasn’t able to do anything about it, it makes me feel really bad.
“I feel like my life is in a bad state… it feels like the landlord abused us in terms of how he treated us. We also received no help from the local authority, the landlord wasn’t helping – I felt stuck.”
In the recording, Mr Mussa says: “What I’m saying is yeah, tell the council that ‘look, we need to move, then you can repair’ – simple. Then I can speak to them, I’ll tell them the same thing… tomorrow what we will do is we’ll give you the notice for you guys to move – finished. Then, they can’t do anything [inaudible].”
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Later in the recording he adds: “Now, this house is going to continue getting worse while you guys are here, but, if you guys bypass me and keep going to the council, I’m going to have a bigger problem. Then I can’t evict you.
“What I can do for Mr Hersi, which I said I’ll do, is I’ll get you the court papers, simple as. Leave that to me. But if the council keeps coming [inaudible] – only the council will give you a two-bedroom straight away, with your condition, her asthma and your family, only they will help you. Because, honestly, I don’t have anything.
“If I’m gonna move you it’s going to be another studio. Nobody is moving now because everything, Mr Hersi, has become expensive. A two-bedroom now is £1,500. Council will not pay you full 1,500 let me tell you now. Okay, so if you trust me give me two weeks, okay, tell the council that ‘we don’t want the work done until we move’. Say ‘we’re looking for another place’.”
The recording was made by Mr Hersi’s wife who claims she did so because of broken promises from Aadams Property Services, of which Mr Mussa is the Director, regarding the repairs which they claim they’d been requesting for a long time. It was shared with the LDRS after Mr Mussa told us the family had requested to be made homeless. He also told the LDRS the family was “refusing work” which is why the mould had not been addressed.
Mr Mussa was later asked by the LDRS about the comments made in the recording, however no response was received.
The property comprises a small kitchen, bathroom and two other rooms used as bedrooms. Each room has issues relating to mould, as witnessed by the LDRS, with Mr Hersi’s bedroom having a hole in the roof which he says causes water to leak onto his bed.
Since the recording was made the family claim they have been locked in a stalemate with the landlord for months, with him not addressing the mould issues, while claiming it’s the family who are refusing the work.
Council notice issued
Ealing Council officers visited in November 2024. They found the home was unlicensed as a rental property but carried out no enforcement around this on the basis the licence was subsequently applied for.
An inspection also found it had inadequate ventilation which was contributing to mould. A notice to address this was issued by the council to Aadams Property Services, based in 52 Norwood Road, Southall.
An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “In November 2024, our officers found this property was rented but unlicensed. After we issued the managing agent with a warning they obtained the necessary licence. After an inspection, we served the agent with a notice to remedy mould in the home, which was exacerbated by inadequate ventilation.
“Rehousing the tenants while works are done is entirely the responsibility of the owner, and the property’s managing agent has booked a hotel for the tenants to move to temporarily, to allow them to carry out repairs. However, the family has decided to remain in the home, so the work has not been done.
“Discussions between the managing agent and tenants are ongoing, and we are continuing to liaise with both parties to try to reach an agreement to enable the works to be completed as soon as possible.”
Mr Hersi claims the point about the agent booking a hotel is untrue. They claim the firm promised to do so but never followed through, and when they did stay in a hotel this was because for a short time the council’s children’s services had put them up. However Ealing Council insists the landlord booked a hotel for them in January 2025, with the family refusing to move there, which they refute.
Regarding their living situation, Mr Hersi, who says he has slept in his car on occasion, or spent time driving around to avoid being in the property, said: “This is not what I imagined life would be like living in London, I feel like I’m in the worst kind of place. We’ve all developed health conditions, especially me… I feel like I’ve been left to die.”
When initially approached, Mr Mussa told the LDRS that he is trying to fix the property and trying to work with the family. He also claimed that he did not know that Mr Hersi’s wife and daughter lived there, having originally let the property to him as a single tenant, something he believes contributed to the mould.
The LDRS asked the landlord about the claims he was attempting to “unlawfully evict” the family. He responded: “I must state in the clearest possible terms that we strongly reject and deny all allegations contained in your message.”
Agency previously fined £300k for unlawful lettings
Mr Mussa’s father, the previous director of Aadams Property Services, was prosecuted in 2020 for breaching multiple enforcement notices related to properties he was letting. Between 2010 and 2015, Ealing Council served a total of 18 planning enforcement notices on properties owned by Salim Mussa Patel in the Southall area for the conversion of dwellings into multiple flats and the use of rear outbuildings as further self-contained residential units.
In 2017, Ealing Council raided six properties related to the company and found multiple breaches of these enforcement notices. One property included a family of four living in an outbuilding, all of whom were sleeping in a single room in a double bunk bed.
The council discovered that the children slept in the top bunk, where loose electrical wiring had been taped to the ceiling to prevent it hanging over their bed, in a room riddled with damp and mould. At another address they found a total of 18 people living in a converted three-bedroom dwelling.
Mohammed Salim Mussa was not involved in the company at that point, however, and it was his father who was ordered to pay more than £300,000 in fines and costs. When this was put to current Director Mr Mussa, he said he took over from his father in an attempt to improve the practices and conduct of the company.
The Hersi family is being supported by Community Lighthouse CiC, a group made up of only four members of staff, proactively working across the city to support people living in dangerous or poor accommodation.
A spokesperson for Community Lighthouse CiC said: “We stand with the Hersi family… their experience was not only heartbreaking but a reflection of deep systemic failures and a lack of basic human compassion. No one should ever be forced to live in conditions that strip them of safety, dignity or hope.”
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