Charlie Hendren, private tenant
According to housing charity Shelter, over 125,000 renters suffered harassment, threats or assault by a landlord in the last year. And these are just one charity’s figures.
The scarcity of affordable housing means more and more landlords get away with exploitation and abuse of their tenants.
Any private renter will tell you ‘rogue’ landlords – who take our cash but neglect their duties – are normal. As if our unrelenting, ever-rising rent costs are not enough!
Shelter also reports over 17,000 helpline calls from tenants reporting “chaotic” problems with their landlords. Too many tenants suffer landlords intimidating them by cutting off utilities or worse.
I, along with many friends, have experienced similar scenarios. My previous house had countless problems: dangerous electrics, broken floors, two mattresses in the garden, a broken oven and more.
The landlord was mystifyingly negligent, despite numerous complaints, and took no interest in our living standards whatsoever. When we withheld our rent in protest we were hypocritically threatened with legal action!
At my current flat, I have been given two months’ notice to vacate and find a new home. My housemates and I weren’t given any reason. As we have a rolling contract, we have no legal ground to stand on.
Idle
Many landlords are parasites who own multiple properties and do as little work as possible. Our hard graft pays for their idle lives.
The Socialist Party supports tenants who organise rent strikes, and demands compulsory registration of all landlords. We fight for rent controls in line with social housing. And we campaign for a mass programme of quality council home building to end the housing crisis.
Tony Saunois @chetony
On the housing crisis
“Housing crisis. In EU there are 11m empty homes. In Spain 3.4m, 2m in France and Italy – and 700k in UK. Speculation. Take them over. Crisis solved!”
