"The property was deteriorating," Ms Spencer said. Her team's main concern was over a potential fire.
Fire alarms were not working, she said, while some doors were not fire proof and the building's electrical system was already being overloaded. She feared worse was to come in the winter as tenants switched on electric radiators.
"I've been doing this job almost 25 years and the scale of it was the most extreme I've seen," she said.
But some of the work could have been fixed easily, she added, including one criminal offence Sutton eventually pleaded guilty to regarding handrails being dangerous.
In 2004, Sutton’s wife, Ayse, a member of the Turkish royal family bought a mansion in Horsham, East Sussex, set in 84 acres.