Trading in Human Misery: - London in 2012

Guardian exposes "tenants" living in garden sheds!

A disturbing story appears in today's Guardian and I highly recommend reading it. It is an excellent report: -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/09/london-landlords-desperate-tenants?mobile-redirect=false

In summary the article deals with Landlords renting out accommodation consisting of what can only be described as "sheds". This highlights the crisis in housing, which is at it's most chronic in the Capital City.

21st Century Squalor

Anyone reading the report can only be but disturbed at the conditions that families are expected to live in. Overcrowded, dangerous, and dirty these "lettings" don't come cheap! Prices are being charged that are equivalent to monthly rentals for a 2 bedroom property in the north of the UK. This demonstrates everything that is wrong with housing provision in the South East.

Time for Rent Controls

Your blogger is not an interventionist by nature; however, the time has clearly come for some sort of rent controls to be imposed. The Coalition have capped housing benefits yet the so called reduction in rents is simply not happening. Families are being moved out of the Capital en masse to new locations in the Midlands, where those affected have no local connection. Towns in the Midlands are then facing shortages of basic services due to the influx of new residents.

Judicial Cat firmly calls on the Coalition to legislate in order to "rein in" the out of control rents now seen everyday in London. If this is not done then this country faces an impending social tragedy. There will be families on the streets, it really is as simple as that. This should not even be about politics, it is a moral issue. A government should ensure it's citizens are adequately housed. They are able to do it in continental Europe, so why not in the UK?

Defend ALL Housing Possession Cases

One way of bringing this matter to the attention of those in power is for tenants facing eviction to defend EVERY case on every single possible ground. Usually possession cases are listed for no more than five minutes in the County Court. Over 95% of these cases are undefended (with the tenant not even turning up).

If only half of these cases where defended then the system would not cope. Other work in the Courts would grind to a halt. Landlords would face months (or even a year) of delay and frustration. Quite simply the government would very soon get the message!

The situation whereby housing benefits are cut but rents continue to spiral out of control cannot be allowed to remain. It is this sort of social "hand washing", which allows certain unscrupulous Landlords to trade in the "human misery" so eloquently reported in today's Guardian.

Political Evictions? Be afraid, be very afraid.

I was browsing the Twitter-sphere last night and came across a right old "rumpus" about a guy being threatened with eviction from his rental property in Bow, East London. His crime? Well he was the person who exposed the Ministry of Defence's plans to site surface to air missiles on the roof of residential premises near the Olympic Park.


Forget for a moment the over the top nature of such a daft idea. Is it not something of a "coincidence" that here we have a tenant, threatened with eviction, for exercising his right in a free country to question a decision he has serious concerns about. 


Question "authority" lose your home:- think about this just for a moment!


This is not some "tinpot banana republic" this is the United Kingdom in the early 21st century! How is this possible? Well it is all down to our easy to evict Housing Laws!


The Housing Act 1988 offers no form of proper security of tenure. Tenants can be asked to leave their homes after 6 months, no reason needed. This leads to a lack of stability at a time when rented accommodation (especially in the Capital City) is at a premium and renting is now becoming the "norm". The above example is extreme and, at the time of writing, there are signs that the landlord and letting agent concerned may well be having "second thoughts". That being said every single day tenants' stability is routinely threatened by summary eviction for simple things as asking a landlord to carry out legally required repairs. As we move into the final weeks before the Olympic games there are even some reports on Twitter of landlords demanding that tenants vacate within 3 weeks!


Despite the appalling like of security of tenure tenants do have some rights. Firstly a tenant with an Assured Shorthold Tenancy CANNOT be asked to leave in 3 weeks if there is no breach of the agreement on the tenant's part. Pursuant to Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 a Landlord must first serve written notice seeking possession. The period of this notice is a minimum of TWO MONTHS. A landlord may never simply "evict" a protected tenant. A court order is ALWAYS needed and even then a Bailiffs' Warrant of Possession must be obtained.


Any landlord breaching these strict rules faces tough civil penalties and will almost certainly be committing a criminal offence.


So whilst life in the private rented sector is indeed tough the landlords don't always have it their own way. Learn your rights and fight back!