By Maya Hashmi*
We have moved three times since 2013. We rent so it’s been an absolute nightmare doing that with children but has really opened my eyes in a lot of ways into the problems faced by many families all over the country. Tenants go into their tenancies completely blind.
We are being thrown out of our current property which we have been living in for three and a half years simply for asking the landlord to fix things. It’s so unfair, and we have to go, but we have made it our home and it’s the only real home my kids have known. Landlords get their references and credit checks, where are ours? How do we know who we are entering into business with? We have no assurances whatsoever. The lettings agents do their bit and get somebody in the property and don’t have to take responsibility for anything else. Renters should be able to rate the landlords like on Ebay or Trip advisor.
The first property was managed by the letting agent so that was fine, at the next the landlord kept turning up at the house and wanted to up the rent after six months after doing no work and then harassed us constantly.
We are now in a nice suburb. But again, another rogue landlord. It’s a beautiful property structurally but nothing works in it. Bathroom light short the whole floor when switched on, electrics are pretty much sub-standard all over the house, decking outside that is rotting it’s so old, a gate that has blown off in the wind months and months ago that they won’t fix, we have to put three wheelie bins in the gap when the kids are playing outside, windows that leak, Saniflo that leaks faecal matter downstairs, a shower that has a mind of its own and only works when it wants. I could go on.
We have been trying to get out after a year and a half. So instead of telling us to leave then when we first mentioned the issues, they kept us hanging on, getting their thousand-plus a month. Stringing us along, telling us to leave, then apologising and telling us to stay. Properly fucking us about. We never stopped looking but it’s so hard to find somewhere that will now fit all our furniture in. We have bought a cooker and fridge because the first property didn’t have one, a washing machine because this property didn’t have one. Now we have to find a place for these things. We can’t possibly be the only ones.
“I’m going on a mission”
I feel like I’m going to be on a mission once we are out of here. Don’t ask me what I am planning but I feel like after what we have been through we need to start helping others in the same situation. We had no idea about our rights; we have a fairly good idea now. Tenants are on the whole woefully uninformed. Something needs to be done. At the very least a landlord needs to put the deposit in a government approved scheme. Only the first landlord did that and that’s he was having his property managed by the lettings agents. The other two private landlords did exactly what they wanted and it went straight into their bank accounts. Why is this allowed? I don’t even think they were registered as landlords and paying tax on the rent. I highly doubt it anyway. The whole system is fucked.
Then you get the Tories voting down bills in the Commons to even make rental properties habitable? This landlord also put £100 on the rent just as we were about to sign the contract. We were homeless, he knew it, we couldn’t say no. It just makes me think OK, we could afford it, what about people who are less well off? What do they do in these situations? It really pisses me off that landlords are running around doing whatever the fuck they want, getting away with it.
Labour has to start taking on these private landlords before they turn whole areas into slums. A good start would be to make it law that ALL rental properties should be fit for human habitation and have meaningful inspections. At the moment there is about as much chance of a house being hit by a meteorite as being inspected by the council. And rent controls – otherwise they just charge what they like.
September 17, 2018
*With additional material by Andy Ford
