Renting in London has long been an arduous and expensive affair. High rents, dodgy accommodation and lazy landlords. With the mayoral election next week many tenants have had enough.
They’ve been sharing photos depicting their renting experience on Twitter and Tumblr with the hashtag #VentYourRent, which was launched by Generation Rent to highlight the issue.
The result is an outpouring of horror stories, featuring damp apartments, mice infestations, absent agents and sky-high costs. Rent can take up to 72% of a Londoner’s salary, a survey last year revealed.
Here are some of the issues highlighted by desperate tenants as the hashtag trending overnight into Wednesday.
The lack of basic appliances.
#ventYourRent #votehomes #fixrenting pic.twitter.com/9T0fUSKwwt
— suzanne thomas (@suzanneyrno) April 26, 2016
Or furniture.
Or even heating.
People are sharing their London renting nightmares via #ventyourrent and it is pretty damning @genrentuk pic.twitter.com/swjM1ioPCi
— Rhiannon L Cosslett (@rhiannonlucyc) April 26, 2016
Angry about renting conditions in #London? #VentYourRent & join your local action group! See @radicalhousing network pic.twitter.com/Q34fpJvONB
— The Occupied Times (@OccupiedTimes) April 27, 2016
The damp.
Rent £1095 – 1 bed oxford damp walls no proper heating #ventyourrent pic.twitter.com/CES8Ykgg5A
— Tasha Ehmann (@TashaEhmann) April 27, 2016
The fumes.
Share your rent story #ventyourrent! Generation rent is gathering people’s stories renting in #London. pic.twitter.com/mpPtQE34Ck
— Occupy Design UK (@OccupyDesignUK) April 25, 2016
The smells.
The unexpected extra flatmates.
Share your woes of renting in LDN & call on #londonmayor2016 to act #ventyourrent https://t.co/ugTqOXyxKG #votehomes pic.twitter.com/RzVRKkvn9z
— Rachel Smethers (@RachelSmethers) April 26, 2016
Submit your London renting nightmares at https://t.co/UHVUtksgWd #VentYourRent #votehomes pic.twitter.com/mhjlu1ESpM
— suzanne thomas (@suzanneyrno) April 26, 2016
The roofs that cave in.
Ceiling fell through cos of flood in flat above, owned by same landlord. Evicted for complaining when he wouldn’t repair it. #ventyourrent
— Rebecca Winson (@rebeccawinson) April 27, 2016
What does your London rent get you? #ventyourrent at https://t.co/NIk4BAWdLU #votehomes pic.twitter.com/R2thWb9wMf
— Generation Rent (@genrentuk) April 26, 2016
The unscrupulous agents.
Share your worst experiences of renting in London at https://t.co/6K27qdytY8 #ventyourrent #votehomes pic.twitter.com/PgdFG0fTtq
— Generation Rent (@genrentuk) April 26, 2016
And the unscrupulous landlords.
The endless building works.
Home turned into a building site for 8-weeks while landlord decorated & upped rent by 30% #VentYourRent pic.twitter.com/PHdAiOUTWS
— TowerHamletsRenters (@THRenters) April 26, 2016
And of course the cost.
“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,” Generation Rent’s Policy Manager Dan Wilson Craw told the Evening Standard.
“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.”
Weekend jobs says
With the kind of job instability housing and renting is getting more problems than ever … Mostly people are trying to check for options near to their work place to save and commute and time … also the genration is looking for weekend jobs from http://myweekendjobs.com to earn some extra cash to help their financial needs ….