Hundreds of asylum seekers have been crammed into a network of “guest houses” provided by a Home Office contractor that are overrun by cockroaches, rats and mice, the Guardian has learned.

Lawyers shown footage recorded by the Guardian – which reveals that families of four are sharing small double beds and are being crammed into spaces so small that they are barely able to walk around their rooms – said that the conditions could constitute statutory overcrowding and an environment unfit for human habitation.

One lawyer branded the conditions “depraved” and accused the home secretary, Priti Patel, of being “slum landlord in chief”.

The buildings of the Maharaja Guest House in Southall, west London, are infested with tens of thousands of cockroaches, which feed on the residents’ food. In one of the kitchens seen by the Guardian, more than 100 cockroaches scattered when just one cupboard was opened.

The managers, Mylondonlets.co.uk, advertise rooms priced from £40 per night. The company is paid by the Home Office’s accommodation contractor for Wales and the south of England, Clearsprings Ready Homes, to house asylum seekers. The MyLondonLets website says it is “working in partnership” with a number of councils including Ealing, where the properties seen by the Guardian are located.

The website appeals for new properties and states: “HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) are far more profitable to run than other types of residential lettings with rental incomes often two to three times those of single households.”

But that profitability appears to come at a cost. Residents of the four buildings that constitute the Maharaja Guest House interviewed by the Guardian say that rats gnaw through the plastic of bottles of cooking oil to drink the oil, while mothers reported infestations of mice and say that large rats run up their children’s legs and walk across their faces while they sleep.

It is understood that there have been recurring issues with the property. The buildings were inspected earlier this year by UK visas and immigration (UKVI). Infestations were found but it was claimed that they had been cleared.

Ealing council said on Wednesday that it would be organising new inspections as soon as possible.

One mother of two said: “We are just breathing here, we are not living. The beds are not just where we sleep but our living room, our dining area, our laundry drying area and the study area for our children. The springs on the mattresses are oozing and they are full of bugs. The bed has become our whole world.”

She said that the accommodation providers expected her two children, a girl and a boy, aged eight and nine, to share a bed.

“I think the Home Office encourages this type of thing,” she said. “It’s all part of the hostile environment. It’s as if they’re sending a message to us saying: ‘if you can’t take it here go home’.”

Play Video 0:25 Hundreds of cockroaches roam freely in kitchen of Southall accommodation - video

The rooms seen by the Guardian are so overcrowded that typically an entire family’s living space is all but taken up by a double bed that they share. There is just one washing machine for hundreds of asylum seekers. A notice in the kitchen threatens anyone who leaves unwashed dishes in the sink with eviction. In some parts of the building up to 10 residents are expected to share one small bathroom.

Outside the property, piles of rubbish constituting a fire risk are stacked up behind a gate.

Conditions at the Maharaja Guest House have come to light at a time when the Home Office is implementing new accommodation contracts following criticism of previous arrangements. In its investigation into Home Office accommodation published in January 2017 the home affairs select committee found that the contracts were not working after finding many problems with vermin, unclean surroundings and inadequate support for vulnerable people. It branded some of the accommodation a disgrace and said it was shameful to place vulnerable people there.

The Home Office is legally obliged to provide accommodation for destitute asylum seekers – most fall into this category. The department has just published a booklet for asylum seekers outlining what they can expect in their accommodation. According to the booklet “promoting your wellbeing” is a key priority.

Asylum seekers are told they can expect a table, one dining chair, one armchair or sofa seat per person and reasonable access to laundry facilities. Those amenities did not appear to be generally available to residents in the accommodation seen by the Guardian. Asylum seekers use suitcases as wardrobes in the absence of sufficient storage space and to protect their belongings from cockroaches.

Toufique Hossain of Duncan Lewis Solicitors said: “These conditions are depraved. The secretary of state is the slum landlord-in-chief. We are talking about deeply traumatised people. They have seen and experienced horrors that they will never shake. And here they are, in the United Kingdom, made to sleep with cockroaches. It is inhuman and degrading.”

William Ford, a specialist housing solicitor at Osbornes Law, said the conditions were “very concerning”. While he said that it was typically difficult to enforce housing standards for asylum seekers, he added: “The conditions described are likely to breach environmental health legislation as well as statutory rules on overcrowding.”

A second woman who has a baby and a seven-year-old is living in a small room. “We have had to go without heating or hot water for months at a time,” she said.

A third woman said that she and her two daughters aged four and seven were all forced to share a small double bed in a room so small they can only manoeuvre themselves around the bed sideways. It is impossible for the girls to play in the room so they have to play in the dirty corridor or on a filthy staircase.

An official report published last November into standards of asylum seeker accommodation said it had been challenging to extract necessary information from the Home Office. It found that the Home Office’s contract compliance team had just nine contract compliance officials to inspect 1,691 initial accommodation bed spaces and 11,719 dispersed accommodation bed spaces. Of 8,313 properties inspected over nearly two years just 1,988 – 24% – were compliant, with 43% assessed as “not fit for purpose” or “urgent”.

Alice Lucas, Advocacy and Policy Manager for Refugee Rights Europe, which has carried out research on poor standards in Home Office accommodation, said the findings were “shocking”. “Worryingly, this does not appear to be an isolated incident,” she added. “It is high time that the UK government take urgent steps to improve conditions.”

A Home Office spokesperson said the department took the wellbeing of asylum seekers “extremely seriously”.

“We demand the highest standards from our contractors and their accommodation,” they said. “Where there is any suggestion they are not meeting the terms of their contract we will take immediate action.”

An Ealing Council spokeswoman said: “These four properties are licenced to house 80 people in total. We have not been made aware of any issues outside of a single, anonymous complaint in relation to uncollected rubbish and possible pests at one property. But with this information we will be issuing notices to inspect all properties as soon as possible.”

Clearsprings Ready Homes and MyLondonLets did not respond to requests for comment.