We need to stop unfair Covid evictions – Jacqueline’s Story
Generation Rent supporter Jacqueline tells her story of facing eviction from a Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction during Covid.
The reality of Labour’s housing policy
Labour has carefully crafted an identity this election as the party of housing. But if you look at the details, what they’re proposing is terrifying for the average person.
By Lindsey Garrett of the New Era Estate
Guest Blog: Calling all private renters in Kensington and Chelsea
Our friends at Kensington and Chelsea Social Council are undertaking a project to look at the issues affecting private tenants in the borough – particularly in the clear lack of affordable housing in the private sector. Part of this is an online survey that they’re asking all private renters in the area to complete.
In the run-up to the London Mayoral elections, work like this is vital to help support renters across the capital and make sure no one is priced out of London – wherever they live or work.
What we could learn from the Swedish renting model
The coalition always seem very keen to look at what’s happening in Sweden and see what we could all learn from how they operate. Free schools, equality and healthcare are all models that have been viewed by jealous eyes in Westminster of how to do the right thing affordably. David Cameron himself is a close friend of the Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
The one model that has never been mentioned in the UK politics debate is the Swedish housing model.
I have lived here in Sweden for three years now and I have discussed housing & renting with many Swedes whose eyebrows rise when I explain to them how the UK private rental sector works and the sums of cash involved.
I also have experienced first hand how housing works here and there are some startling rules that govern both buying and renting homes, I’m not certain if it’s a deliberate ploy to keep prices in check or simply just the “Swedish” way.
Before you rent: How to protect your legal rights
Finding a flat to rent in England can be tough. The stress only compounds when things don’t go as planned. When I lived in London, I got caught out when my landlord insisted on “renegotiating” the tenancy terms after I had paid a holding deposit (a troublingly common practice in the market).
Here are twelve things tenants can do to protect their rights, which helped me succeed in my legal claim against my landlord.
Rate your landlord and more on Marks Out Of Tenancy
Ben Yarrow is Founder of Marks Out Of Tenancy. For more useful websites for renters, visit our resources page.
Ask anyone who’s renting, everyone’s got a story to share. Whether it’s good, bad or just plain ugly; every renter has had their own experience with a landlord or a letting agent that can give us insight into what can be expected as a potential tenant of theirs.
Now, while it can be fun to wax lyrical about rental horror stories, we wanted to figure out how this exchange of experiences could be harnessed to the benefit of generation rent – so we created Marks out of Tenancy.
The UK’s first online landlord checking service
Paul Munday is the founder of RentProfile. For more useful websites for renters, visit our resources page.
A few years ago my brother David was the victim of a rental scam. It was this experience that led us to research the scale of the problem and start to think about ways to raise awareness and maybe even prevent this kind of fraud from happening in the first place.
We realised there is a compromise when seeking a rental today: either go through a letting agent which may charge excessive fees, or use a listings site where there’s a chance of being scammed. It wasn’t difficult to find fake listings on websites. Renters told us they were daunted by paying out thousands to a landlord (who is a stranger) but did so as they had little choice.
Want your letting fees back?
Michael Green is the founder of CaseHub.
Over the past six months, I have been working with some of the country’s leading barristers to put together a lawsuit that proves how most letting fees in England and Wales are unlawful.
The good news is that they agree.
We now need to take that case to court. The good news is that if it wins, renters will be entitled to get their letting fees back, and in future some of them might be stopped entirely.
Guest post: attitudes to rent control in Ireland
In an effort to increase transparency and help Irish voters make an informed decision in tomorrow’s general election, we have contacted all election candidates and asked them to say where they stand on a range of issues, including rent control. All candidates’ answers (or the answers provided by their party in some cases) are publicly available on the website www.whichcandidate.ie. Voters can also answer the questions and see which candidates they agree with in their constituency.
We asked candidates whether there should be tighter controls on rent, and candidates are almost evenly split on this question. 43% (188 candidates) said that rent increases should be capped in line with inflation; while 44% (193 candidates) said that current controls on rent were adequate. (The remaining 13% of candidates were either opposed to any controls on rent, or selected none of these options.)
Don’t let mess get in the way of your deposit
This is a guest post from Joanna White of Property Principles. To write for our blog, please contact us.
Moving house is stressful enough – finding a suitable flat, packing up your things, trying to avoid paying double rent for too long. And then there’s the question of whether you’ll get your deposit back.
According to the Tenancy Deposit Service, 56 per cent of deposit disputes are about cleaning. Many of these end with tenants losing all or most of their deposit. It’s in everyone’s interests to reduce the number of cleaning disputes. Here are my tips for avoiding disagreements when you hand over your keys: