Londoners take to Twitter to shame landlords over 'rip-off' rents

Fed-up: A Mile End tenant shares her worst experience of renting
@paologerbaudo
Hatty Collier27 April 2016

Londoners are publicly shaming their landlords over 'rip-off' rent prices in a new online campaign.

Frustrated tenants tweeted photos of themselves holding up pieces of paper and card, on which they have scribbled how much they have paid to live at different locations across the capital.

Renters shared their worst experiences of renting including horror stories of living with rats, cockroaches, damp and mould for upwards of £550 a month under the VentYourRent hashtag.

Others described being forced to pay full rent while builders and decorators carried out renovations and prices being increased dramatically at short notice.

The hashtag was launched by campaign group Generation Rent, which has urged fed-up renters to tell their stories using the hashtag, or via uploads to the Vent Your Rent Tumblr page.

One person wrote: “One week’s notice before decorators started work, two months living in a building site – no discount, 30 per cent rent rise after.”

One sign shared by a tenant living in Brixton @paologerbaudo

Another note, scribbled onto a piece of cardboard in felt tip, said: “Old Kent Road. £460 (exc bills). Toilet that leaked into kitchen. Nightly dinner accompanied by mice.”

A female tenant held up a sign, which read: “Rent: £570. Location: Mile End. Bed bugs and cockroaches.”

Another renter shares her experience of living in Deptford

Suzanne Thomas tweeted a photo of another horror story: “Shared house, 10 people, £820 per room, Clapham. Boyfriend and I had no fridge for two months.”

A Brixton resident posted: “Rent: £700. Location: Brixton. Worst renting experience: Lettings agent broke the lock, locking me out immediately before closing for a week over Christmas.”

Rebecca Winson tweeted: “Moved in in January, to find no beds, heating or curtains. Plants were growing through the kitchen floor. £600pcm, SW17 #ventyourrent.”

Emily Pearce shared a snap of a post-it note: “£620 – zone 4. More than 2/3 of my wage. #VentYourRent.”

Generation Rent has asked Londoners to keep sharing their stories ahead of next week's London mayoral election.

Dan Wilson Craw, Policy Manager at Generation Rent, said: “The candidates for Mayor describe London as the greatest city on Earth, but as long as growing numbers of people are paying huge sums to live in squalor, they'll have a lot of work to do to make that a reality.

"The hashtag #ventyourrent is unearthing the scale of common problems like damp and mice, all the way up to the most shocking experiences like poisoning, ceilings falling in and bullying landlords and letting agents. When London goes to the polls, the two million renters in this city need to make their voices heard.”

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