The woman who lives in a shed: How London landlords are cashing in.

[Ryoko]

Article from the Guardian HERE

I'd just like to say it's all very well and good the councils moaning but what they are going to do other then put people out on the streets?, these people would be homeless or stuck in bedsits and B&Bs for years on end while languishing on the council housing lists.

My former flat was a studio one in a converted Victorian house, 22 flats some with there own shower/toilet others shared one on the ground floor, bed bugs, mice and carpet beetles, faulty fire alarm system that the fire brigade threatened legal action over several times and no lock on the main door, next door to me lived a family of 4 who washed their baby bottles in the communal washing machine, a man died after falling thru the banisters on the 2nd floor when drunk. Yet the council thought the place was fine, they inspected it several times, by the time I moved out about a quarter of the residents where put there by Ealing council while they wanted for a council place.

We need change, I see "Luxury apartments" springing up everywhere, yet years down the line these places still have the sales suite open, I see so called affordable housing being built that isn't affordable for those earning less then 30k a year (the national average is 24k) and even if they could afford them they are unsuitable for a family with young children as they have open plan kitchen and living room areas (what idiots design these things?). We need real affordable homes and a massive increase in council and HA places, we need to shake off the obsession with dolls house style homes and embrace the fact we are a massive city and the only way we can build is up with more high rise buildings.

Shocking :( and I fear it will get worse (or rather more common).

It's like going back in time.

That article could have been written in the early part of the 20th century. It's disgusting.

"We need real affordable homes and a massive increase in council and HA places, we need to shake off the obsession with dolls house style homes"

Absolutely.

I couldnt read the whole article it was too upsetting.

£350 pcm! How does that man sleep at night

Soundly considering the average rent in London for a studio flat is £600pcm.

For £350 pcm you might be able to get a bed in a house/flat share, depends how many people are involved, I know someone in a flat share which is the third floor of someones house, 400 pcm with 3 people sharing, there is a fire escape type metal stairs to get in and out.

And things are only getting worse, we pay £800 pcm for a large one bed flat in a listed building (large by London flat standards the rooms are about the size of those in my parents council maisonette) if the place wasn't listed the landlord probably would have show horned 2-3 bedrooms in here with a kitchenette in the living room and a shower room instead of a bathroom and charge over a grand for it like everyone else does.

£800 PCM for a one bed self contained flat is fucking cheap BTW.

We need caps on how much people get charged it's stupid, the rich want us here to clean the streets and serve them in shops etc but they don't want to give us a living wage or stop taking the piss with the rents so we can actually get by.

It is like something from the Victorian era. It really does feel that this country is moving backwards.

...and we need to get away from thinking in bedrooms rather than square feet or square meters...

...oh, and minimum requirements...
we were viewing quite a few properties recently and often the 'third bedroom' was too small to fit a standard size single bed.

Where is mra de verre? This is what happened next door to her and the council sounded useless.

If some councils can inspect and stop this happening, why can't others?

God, it sounds like a Victorian slum house.

Stop this happening? what by shutting the places down and throwing people out onto the street? any roof over your head is better then none, throwing people out of illegal rentals doesn't fix the problem that rents in London are way out of control.

There needs to be a cap on what landlords charge, not on the amount that tenants can get help with. Someone needs to look at the empty houses and allocate those to the people who are vulnerably housed. When Thatcher sold off the council housing stock, where did all of the money go? It was a stupid idea to sell them off in the first place but why wasn't the income generated invested in more houses?

I live in a London bedsit with dh and ds. We've lived here before ds was born 2 years ago and we are on the council waiting list, though we are not seen as high priority as we both work.
Our rent is £550 per month. We pay for electric by meter.
The average rent where I live is £1400 per month for a 2 bedroom flat and increasing fast (last year £1200)

Dh works full time and I part-time.
If we moved into a 2 bedroom flat - I wouldn't be able to feed my family let alone the rates on top.

We have sought help, the only advice offered was for me to give up work so we would be entitled to housing benefit.
We are caught in the middle.

Something needs to be done.

For £350pcm you can rent out a two bed flat where I live! Not sure why people feel they need to stay in London - does it not make more sense to move out of the city - head North?

I would love to live in the heart of Edinburgh but sadly could not afford to do that....so guess what, yep, have property in a different town (not near Edinburgh). That's life. You either get down about it, or you do something about it. We get more value for money where we live at the moment.

I would love to. Unfortunately dh isn't young anymore so his employability is limited.
Also my family live here and I rely on them for childcare. I also work anti social hours so nursery is not an option and very costly.

The differences between private and local authority rents are truly shocking. I am in a private rented place and we are about to be homeless. The cap on housing benefit means we can't afford a local place and no landlord will take us either. Even if I worked full time in a job I'm trained for with 10 years experience I'd never be able to afford the rent as a single parent.

I'm shocked that they are still selling houses off whilst putting families like myself in B&B because of a housing shortage.

And as far as I can see, no local homes are being built either so this will never change.

It's just going to get so much worse. Areas around here are becoming more and more segregated by classes.

The whole system is screwed :(

I find the rent amounts shocking.

I pay £395 a month for a nice sized 2 bed house with gardens in a quiet street. Obv you can tell from this price I live up north!

I agree there should be a cap on what landlords are allowed to charge.

£1400 for a 2 bed flat?

I knew London was expensive but I didn't realise just how expensive.

How do people afford to live there?

I often wonder the same thing Tequila. I think most own their property in these parts.

I don't even live in central London.

The sale prices must be extortionate aswell though?

I live in a biggish 4-bed detached up North and pay £850 a month, I thought that was expensive until I came on here!

When I lived in London I bought a bedsit (ex-council) for £95k. That was in 2003. It's recently sold for over £160k.

My exact thoughts Tequila.