London...WTF

[DanieMarie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/09/london-landlords-desperate-tenants?CMP=twt_gu

This isn't the first article I've seen like this. I've been seeing lots of stuff lately about people living in horrible apartments in the UK (mostly London), but the sources are getting more and more reliable. I think this is totally uncool. People shouldn't be living like that in a developed country. They need more affordable housing in London for sure, but they also need far better tenants rights. The rule that it's legal if no one complains in 4 years is BS...landlords can just rent to people who they know are in no situation to complain, and get away with it. People shouldn't be living in sheds, or cramped up in houses like that. Germany has the best tenants rights I've seen anywhere, but you just can't do that here. If your apartment isn't in a certain condition, they legally have to fix it. They don't have to give you much here...things like kitchens, stoves and even light fixtures are often provided by the tenant...but they have to have safe,working wiring, proper windows and insulation, and working heat and plumbing. If any of these things aren't up to par, you're allowed to reduce your rent until it's fixed (the logic is that if your apartment is not in 100% working order, you are not obligated to pay 100% of the rent, and tenants laws back you on this). Ultimately, they have to fix it, because you can complain to any number of authorities, or join a renters union (which is really cheap), which will do the work for you and often get them harsher punishments (even threatening to join one will often get the job done!), and they can be fined a lot of money. I've seen, and even lived in, some really crappy places in Berlin, but none came close to the conditions I'm hearing about (sometimes from actual people) in London.

I know that this also happens everywhere to an extent...back home, a friend looked at a 'duplex' in college that turned out to just be some guy's insulated garage (she didn't take it), and a friend used to share an apartment in Vancouver (where rents are also high) and it was basically a 1 bedroom with a really large hall closet that they'd turned into a bedroom (it fit a bed and had a high ceiling, so she put up shelves to keep her stuff on)....but nothing like this. Tenants laws back home may not be what they are in Germany and people do find creative ways to share apartments to pay high rents, but it's nothing that would cause problems or be a safety issue...

[Caelia]

Re: London...WTF

Azazel and I ran into this type of stuff in Virginia. I agree that is total BS. It's amazing what folks will do sometimes.

[DanieMarie]

Re: London...WTF

Yeah I just think it's totally unacceptable. It would never happen here or in BC...I think the closest thing you get is where people squat in abandoned buildings, but those aren't -rented- out by someone so they can make money on charging rent for those kinds of conditions. Over here, you really see how tenants laws can positively affect stuff like that. Back home, that's not as strong and there are some crappy apartments, but you at least get some basic level of protection from being totally exploited by your landlord. In London, they can basically charge you whatever they want, and rent control is minimal (if it even exists at all)...prices are really high, so you have landlords trying to squeeze everything they can out of their properties, because they totally can. Sucky that this is happening in the US as well

[Caelia]

Re: London...WTF

There are some restrictions, it's just renters aren't informed how to fight back. You can turn them into to state departments (and I've resorted to that a couple of times), but most folks don't know they can do that.

[Jembru]

Re: London...WTF

It really bothers me too. Landlords have all the power here. It is amazing in Germany, because tenants have SO many rights, but here.. we're not quite so lucky. When my friend's daughter was only 2 years old, her landlord gave her a letter telling her she had a month to move out. Why? His daughter was moving to the UK (they were Turkish) and he was giving the flat to her. This wouldn't be acceptable in Germany. She tried to fight back but even then, free legal advice is rubbish here. We have the CAB but they are not legally trained: they just read from a computer. She ended up homeless.

My sister is currently trying to find a new flat. Her flat has appauling damp. The whole place smells of mould as soon as you walk through the door. She is a smoker, but you smell the damp over the cigarette smoke. She has asked her landlord to fix it many times and eventually refused to pay her rent. They took legal action against HER, and she is still stuck in that horrible place (with a 12 year old daughter).

Oh I could go on but I won't or I'll just get mad. I honestly HATE this country and I'm not always a massive fan of its inhabitants. It's kinda why I kept trying to leave: the grass honestly IS greener elsewhere.

[DanieMarie]

Re: London...WTF

I was talking to my mom yesterday about this and she was telling me that things are getting worse in BC as well. They can't subdivide properties like that and get away with it, but if they're not making profits from their apartment and they can't raise the rent (there's some semblance of rent control there...while someone is living there you can only raise rents 5% annually), they just let everything slide and it gets kinda slummy.

I've just never seen anything like what I hear about in the UK though. And a good chunk of Berlin apartments (though fewer since I moved here) are still heated by coal and have showers placed in the kitchen (because traditionally apartments didn't have showers and the bathrooms weren't large enough).