The unbearable life of tenants.
In a report on ACQ5.com, roughly 17,000 tenants have called 'Housing Charity Shelter' to bring out their complaints against their landlords who had threatened, harassed and assaulted them. Some tenants claimed that these rogue landlords burned their belongings while utilities were cut off in efforts to scare them. The rogue landlords have been making life so unbearable for these tenants in England.
As cited on The Guardian, 'Housing Charity Shelter' said that there could even be more tenants who may be suffering from the abuses of their landlords than it was reported. From an iTV article, the said charity applied the findings to the English Housing Survey and Census data in coming up with an estimate of the number of people who had been experiencing abusive behavior from their landlords in the previous year. Based on the results of this survey of, it estimated that '125,000 tenants in England had experienced abuse, and that many more had been on the receiving end of an act that could have resulted in legal action'.
In an article on The Guardian, Mark Cook expressed his scorn against such maltreatment: "Every day at Shelter we speak to people desperate for help because their lives are being made unbearable by a rogue landlord." Mark Cook is an adviser of the Housing Charity Shelter. Cook added that: "Some of their experiences are truly awful - from renters who have been illegally evicted and had their belongings burned, to those who've had their utilities cut off because their landlord wants to intimidate them. No one should have to put up with a landlord who breaks the law and it's so important to know your rights as a renter."
The UK government is now making efforts to put an end to this issue. It has already begun consulting on proposals that could definitely see rogue landlords banned from the rental market and be subjected to a fit and proper person test.
