The ultimate deadbeat
We’ve all had roommate problems, but few have faced the complete lack of cooperation experience by the flatmate of this Bristol (UK) council housing resident, as reported a while back by The Guardian Weekly:
An inquiry was under way last night to discover how the body of a dead man lay on a sofa for at least eight years while an elderly tenant continued to live in the same warden-controlled council flat.
Now that’s a lead sentence that says, Keep reading!
The corpse of a former lodger was discovered on January 30 by council workers after neighbours reported a bad smell emanating from the
There’s more, as the Daily Mail reported:
Neighbours described Mr Derek as a “down and out” who had lived without electricity for nearly 20 years.
Neighbour Reggie Askins, 76, said: “The pair had met in the local pub. They were around the same age and would have a good laugh. I know that the guy was struggling to find somewhere to live and that Alan offered him a place to sleep on his sofa. “But when they came home one night the other guy died. Alan was too scared to tell anyone about it.”
“He knew he shouldn’t have had a lodger – he hadn’t told the council and was worried they would stop his Giro. [Pension benefits -- Ed.] So he just turned the sofa over and forgot about him. When I was talking to him after the body was found he said ‘I can’t believe it. I just forgot he was there’.”
Among the many very poor people who need affordable housing are some who, like Mr. Derek, have difficulty with the basics of daily living.
A source at Bristol City Council said: “This is a very peculiar case, possibly the strangest we have ever come across. The flat itself is absolutely filthy. The walls were covered with dirt – he’s obviously a very disturbed man. I’m not sure if he kept the body in the flat for company, but after looking at the state of the property I would say that he obviously struggled to carry out basic daily tasks.
In recent years, with affordable housing scarce, there’s been a movement toward permanent supportive housing (PSH). This raises delicate questions, as the humane desire to assist those in need runs up against privacy laws and respect for a person’s property:
The tenant in the
Alan Derek, who is aged in his late 60s, is said to have offered the dead man a place to sleep on his sofa a decade ago.
Wake up, the rent is due!
But the man died after a drinking session – and Alan told neighbours he was “too scared” to inform the council in case they punished him for having a lodger.
Alan Derek, who lived with a dead body for 10 years, enjoys a pub [Daily Mail caption]
Some people keep to themselves, and that is their prerogative. (We all have some skeletons in our closets, don’t we?)
It’s a little small, but very cozy
Addled or not, they have rights:
Tenant Alan, a former council binman, only let them in after they agreed not to touch the sofa.
Yet if a household, even an informally assembled one, is living in regulated affordable housing, the landlord normally has a duty to inspect the apartments once a year, and to verify the household configuration. That duty the housing authority failed:
“He doesn’t have any friends and we don’t know of any family relatives. We were only alerted to the problem by a neighbour who said a smell was coming from the flat.”
Not taking proper notice of Mr. Derek meant that he lived a miserable existence:
Council workmen who found the corpse said it was still in an upright sitting position on the sofa and resembled “a pile of dirt with bones sticking out”.
One official who entered the flat this week said: “It seemed that the man had been sitting on the sofa in an upright position when he died and had just been left there. When we went into the lounge the body was totally decomposed. It didn’t even look like a human being – it just looked like a pile of earth with bones sticking out. The flat was in an absolutely terrible state. It was disgusting.”
When people live quietly, they can live deplorably, because on the outside, all is calm.
Mawdeley House, where Mr. Derek lived
According to the workman, a council clearance team had been sent into the flat in 2002 because neighbours were complaining about the stench.
Somehow they missed the corpse on the sofa.
Under the sofa, in the waxworks …
[The
As Monty Python might have put it, “we thought we had the problem relatively under control.”
Charities today called for the council to explain why it took years to discover the decomposed body.
A spokesman for Help The Aged said: “This is an extremely distressing case and I think the agencies responsible need to ask themselves some serious questions as to how a dead body was lying undiscovered for so long. This was an older person, and the local authority who have a duty of case should have responded to concerns from neighbours. The council has some difficult questions to answer.”
The Housing charity Shelter said: “This is a shocking case. This is obviously a very extreme situation but it highlights the need for councils to listen to the concerns of housing tenants. The smell of a decomposing body must have been terrible. Tenants have a right to live in a clean environment. If tenants had raised concerns about it to the local authority, these concerns should have been responded to.”
A couple of summers ago, a squirrel fell into our chimney, and eventually died. It took us weeks to get him out of there — eventually I groped into the soot and pulled out his desiccated stiff form — and during that entire time, the smell permeated every corner of the ground floor.
Pretty sure that’s a lease violation
What is our duty to one another?
Albert Townsend, a resident of Mawdeley House, said: “I only just found out today … I did used to see him day by day, but had no idea what happened.”
Now that you’re dead, I’ll want my keys back
Are we required to be busybodies?
Peter Crispin, a former Labour councillor for the area, said the incident reflected the “lack of community spirit” he had experienced in high-rise flats. He demanded a “vigorous” investigation by authorities.
Crispin said: “There are many matters which remain unresolved, but I do think these tragic events reflect the lack of community spirit we see in some high rise flat blocks.”
I don’t follow that at all, particularly as it seems clear Mr. Derek shunned the spotlight:
Yesterday [February 9, 2008 -- Ed.] he refused to comment about the body when approached at his local pub nearby.
He said: “I’m not talking about this. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t know it was there.”
No wonder Mr. Derek had so much trouble getting his share of the rent.
Better clean that kitty box
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