Renters vent on social media ahead of the voter registration deadline
Ants in the kitchen, collapsing ceilings, your home being turned into an Airbnb: they’re all experiences shared today by the UK’s renters on the #VentYourRent hashtag across social media.
By 4 pm there were more than 2,000 tweets using the hashtag, ranging from complaints about the lack of security that private tenancies offer, to landlords claiming spurious deductions from deposits, to people highlighting good practice by landlords.
Generation Rent is urging private renters to register to vote, estimating that 2.4m private renters could lose their chance to pick the next government if they miss the deadline of midnight on Tuesday 26 November.
Generation Rent has also launched ventyour.rent which lets people see how the housing crisis is affecting their constituency. Entering a postcode brings up the local area’s median rent, house price to income ratio, number of people receiving housing benefit, and the size of the private renter population.
Dan Wilson Craw, Director of Generation Rent, said, “As people live longer in private rented homes, with little chance of a council house or buying, the horror stories keep building up. Every experience shared today illustrates the many ways our current housing system is failing us and holding us back.
“There is now consensus among the parties on the need to give renters more secure tenancies, drive out bad landlords and make housing more affordable. But renters need to keep the pressure on and there’s no better way of doing that than voting on 12 December.”
Some of the tweets on #VentYourRent include:
@idgnicholson: Lived in a house with cockroaches for 7 years because rent was affordable. Landlord stopped paying for pest control after third treatment – this was year two. We paid for the rest. Got to know our pest control man (hi Lee) so well we sent Christmas cards.
@catbraains chunk of deposit taken off when we moved out for “cleaning” despite us leaving it spotless….they provided blurry photos of beds that didn’t even appear to be ours, watermarks on taps and dust on a skirting board as proof lmao
Had a kitchen FULL of ants last year coz the landlord didn’t finish sealing the windows. But he said it was our fault. Had to throw out so much food and it was so distressing for my son
Stole my cafetiere cos I’d left it drying and it was ‘untidy’
Let out the conservatory on air BnB with no notice
Moved a family of 3 into one bedroom
Air BnB all the other rooms without telling the longer serving tenants: I felt so safe not knowing who I was coming home to