A prominent ITV celebrity has apologised to tenants living in property owned by his £4m firm who claim they’ve lived with damp and mould for years.
Some of Stephen Mulhern’s tenants have told the Big Issue magazine that they feel “bitter and alienated” and allege their complaints have been ignored for two to three years.
Pictures of a refurbished bungalow obtained by the Big Issue show walls covered in damp and mould, which the tenants – one of which was a key worker during the pandemic – said affected their mental health.
Mulhern says he had no idea about how bad the flats were and is “absolutely mortified” and is paying an independent management company – identified by some media outlets as Connells – to fix it “as a matter of urgency.”
Mainstream media reports say Mulhern owns JFDI Productions, which has £4.3m in assets bringing in £5,750 a day from seven properties.
JFDI Productions reportedly purchased the bungalow in Leicester in 2020 for £165,000 and now lets it through Connells for £775 a month.
Tenants are reported by the Big Issue to have said: “The agent merely recommended that we ventilate properly and keep the house warm during the winter. We did, but the damp gradually worsened. We remained patient, sending polite emails at first. In later conversations, my remarks became a bit sharper.”
A Connells spokesperson has told Letting Agent Today: “As agents we work on behalf of the landlord and we continue to work with the landlord’s representative to address the issues raised.”
The revelation about the star’s investment properties follows similar controversies surrounding Labour MP Jas Athwal, the biggest landlord in the House of Commons.
He has pledged to cover the cost of repairs and renewals after black mould and ant infestations were found in some of the rental properties he owns.
Athwal, the new MP for Ilford South, claimed to have been “shocked and sickened” after being exposed in a BBC report as the owner of London flats with a string of safety failings, including faulty fire alarms and a washing machine dumped next to a stairway.
