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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Tenants vent their renting experiences

Renters are publicly shaming their landlords over 'rip-off' rent prices in London in a new social media campaign.

The hashtag #ventyourrent was launched by campaign group Generation Rent, which has urged fed-up renters to tell their stories using the hashtag on Twitter, or by uploading photos to the Vent Your Rent Tumblr page.

Tenants have tweeted photos of themselves holding up pieces of paper and card, on which they have written how much they have paid to live at different locations across the capital and the problems they have experienced.

One person Tweeted: “Rent: £700. Location: Brixton. Worst renting experience. Letting agent broke the lock, locking me out. Immediately before closing for a week over Christmas.”

Another renter Tweeted: “One week’s notice before decorators started work, two months living in a building site, 0% discount, 30% rent rise after.”

On Tumblr one renter is holding up a piece of cardboard saying: “Rent £700 pcm, location: Deptford. Landlord continues to refuse to treat mould-infested flat, I’d move but I can’t afford to. Also the landlord insists we pay our rent in cash.”

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

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    What amazes me is how one sided these arguments are. You can name and shame business's and Landlords, but don't dare name and shame tenants who trash places, don't pay rent or are anti social; allowing they to move onto the next landlord to do the same.

    Jon  Tarrey

    Does the truth hurt, Graham?

    Yes, this is a one-sided look at the tenant-landlord dynamic, but it's still a pretty damning one. It's not always the tenants' fault - in the vast majority of cases they have to put up with shoddy, substandard accommodation. They have a right to shout out about that, don't they?

    Truth is, there are more shoddy landlords than there are shoddy tenants. This campaign highlights that. Two wrongs don't make a right. You can't say "well, tenants are as bad as us", as if that's some kind of excuse.

     
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    As a landlord, if a tenant trashes your property you are just supposed to suck it up. It's 'the cost of doing business', apparently.

    As a tenant, if your landlord treats you unfairly you are classed as the poor helpless victim of the greedy, heartless elite. Really? My heart bleeds.

    Renting a property is a contractual agreement between two parties. Nobody is forcing anybody to sign on the dotted line. Both parties have the same rights in the event of breach. There are clear remedies in law. Maybe Generation Rent should give tenants a slice of the same advice they are always dishing out to landlords.

    'Stop winging and get on with it.'

    Jon  Tarrey

    "Nobody is forcing anybody to sign on the dotted line"

    Yeah, but I think that's the point. Many are forced to rent because they have no other choice but to rent. If they could afford to buy - which most people, especially in London, very definitely can't - the only option is to rent or live on the street. The very least they expect is decent accommodation. Clearly, in London and many other parts of the UK, that is not the case. And they're being charged a fortune for the privilege. And endless rent rises. And endless landlords whinging about a vindictive campaign against them.

    Solution to this issue - don't offer bad accommodation or take years to react to tenant problems and you won't have any complaints. Just look at the issues being raised here - they aren't minor and they aren't isolated. Surely landlords have to recognise that there is a problem within the industry - that rogue, greedy, unscrupulous landlords do exist.

    Yes, there are bad tenants and tenants who treat properties poorly - and landlords probably aren't protected enough in that regard - but do whine and moan and say it's all somebody's else's fault just won't cut the mustard. Renting, in this day and age, should be affordable and of a high quality. In many cases it isn't. Wonder why that is. And I wonder we so many stories on here if landlords being fined or jailed for failing in their duty of care to landlords. Don't see too many stories about nightmare tenants, do we?

     
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