A local authority has stepped in to take over the management of an HMO.

An Interim Management Order has been served by Camden Council on the property, called the Happy Vale Hotel, in Mornington Crescent, London.

Seventeen people, described as vulnerable, live in bedsits in the property, which will require a programme of emergency repairs.

The council’s environment health officers found raw sewage, cockroach and mice infestations, fire doors wedged open, and extensive disrepairs.

The council acted after the owner, Stephen Gethin, was found guilty of managing an unlicensed HMO and convicted of 14 other housing offences at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court in April – where some of his tenants turned up to support him, saying he was the only one to have cared about them over a period of time.

He was ordered to pay a fine and costs of more than £20,000 and deemed unfit to operate an HMO.

The council gave him five weeks to find someone else to take over the management of the property.

No one was put forward and a decision was taken to serve the Interim Management Order.

Subject to any appeal, the council may later seek a Final Management Order which will allow it to manage the letting and refurbishment of the property for five years.

Cllr Julian Fulbrook, cabinet member for housing, said: “The conditions the residents of this property have had to endure are atrocious.

“Our intervention will ensure their health and well-being is no longer put at risk.”