To think flats without a living room should be banned?

[rampacious]

I am helping DD look at flats in central London. The amount of times a flat looks promising, but then it turns out that the sitting room is one of the bedrooms. Some of these flats have tiny kitchens, with no table et cetera. So the only place that people have to eat would be at their desk, on the loo, or sat on their beds.

Does anyone else think that flats should be banned from being advertised as a two bed flat, when really it is a one bed with the living room 'converted' into a bedroom. Quite a few of these are not even significantly cheaper either.

Not a hope of that happening in London!

I don’t follow- banned why?

Surely it’s obvious from the description / floor plan? Or just ask the question before viewing

It's easy enough to look at the floor plans before you go for a viewing. There is no point banning anything - just be more careful with your shortlisting.

Or are you talking about flat shares rather than whole flat rental/purchase? Most/all of the flat share sites have a box to tick for whether or not there is a living room - you can even sort by that criterion. So there again - just be more careful with shortlisting.

I think what you want is some sort of standardisation around how they are advertised.

And yes, that's useful in general and saves people a lot of time - it would be sensible for websites to do this IMO. There are a few ways you could approach it it, maybe the simplest being to simply list each room with its dimensions - then you would see that there was no separate living area.

Why ban it? Just look at the floor plans, if you don't like, move on.

I assume she would be renting the room and using shared kitchen and bathroom. What used to be called a 'bedsit' and not really a flat share.

I'm not talking about banning the practice as a whole, but how they are advertised. Some listings don't have floorplans either.

Heck, otherwise we would all live in 7 bedroom houses with no reception rooms!

You're not from round these 'ere parts are you?

I've lived here donkeys years and still can't get over people living in £££££££ properties and still eating in their living room (I'm from the sticks).

Most rentals don’t have floor plans when they are advertised.

In Paris, all adverts have to include floor area in the details, it's then easy to compare different flats

Op is this house shares she’s looking at?

I know what you mean OP - it is misleading.

However it's just about description rather than flats not having a living room. Even when I was at uni we turned the sitting room into a bedroom to cut the rent. Mind you we had a decent kitchen and we were out all the time - it would be miserable in Covid times, with a galley kitchen.

London rental listings tend not to have floorplans. I actually think the practice should be banned too. Some communal space is essential!

Read the London Rental Opportunity of the Week.
www.vice.com/en/article/93wxy3/flat-seven-sisters-london-rental-opportunity

Enjoy.

When I was in my 20s I lived in places like this. Common in London as the landlord can pack more people in, and it lowers the cost for the tenant.

Bedsits have been around for decades.

If you want a separate bedroom you pay more

I remember being shown around a '2 double bedroomed' property which turned out to in what looked like a converted office block. In the 'main bedroom' I stretched out my arms and touched 2 walls at once (I am 5'8).

In the living room I said 'where's the kitchen?'... and the agent walked over to a pair of those shutter doors and opened them with a florish 'voila!'... to a large cupboard - so literally a sink, small cooker and hob and that was all I saw (didn't seem to have space for a washing machine).

He seemed most put out when we started giggling and guffawing. It was really expensive too!

Their called studio apartments

It sounds like its studio flats that you're looking at? You can filter out studio flats when searching on property websites so you only get flats with bedrooms separate to the communal area(s).

It's very similar in New York City. Flats are tiny and expensive.

@ListeningQuietly

Bedsits have been around for decades.

If you want a separate bedroom you pay more

Yes, I’m wondering if it’s a room rental the ops daughter is looking at.

I agree OP they should make it clear as often no floorplans.

And no I don't think OP means studio flats. It's common in central London for 3 young professionals to share a flat which has three rooms (used as bedrooms) plus bathroom, plus tiny kitchen. Nowhere to sit and eat and socialise except in bedrooms.

I think I know what you mean OP. I’m in Edinburgh where houses and flats are converted into HMO and some LLs use the living room as a bedroom to get maximum return. I’ve seen some that even convert what would have been the kitchen into a bedroom and put the kitchen into a large cupboard. It’s pretty poor practice and greedy. I agree with you. I don’t know why it’s not considered overcrowding.

Welcome to London.