Within the house is the scoundrel (7)
I believe the answer is:
villain
'the scoundrel' is the definition.
('villain' can be a synonym of 'scoundrel')
'within the house' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'within' could be 'in' and 'in' is located in the answer.
'house' could be 'villa' (villa is a kind of house) and 'villa' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for villain that I've seen before include "He may rob you" , "Bad person in story/play" , "Criminal person" , "Evil-doer" , "Principal fictional baddie" .)