Soaring rents, intrusive questions, baffling rules: landlords and agents behave as they please because tenants are 10 a penny
Earlier this year I found myself served notice on my flat after complaining to my landlord that he shouldn’t swear at us, his tenants. That is the standard I have grown to expect in the private rented sector, where ego runs roughshod over legal rights. With no way of challenging the notice, I needed to arrange some viewings – and fast.
I found a friend who was willing to share. With the average one-bed flat in the area where I live costing more than £1,000 a month in rent alone, that’s a good friend to have. Every letting agent I phoned asked a whole ream of invasive screening questions: what was the nature of our relationship? Did we have pets? Did we smoke? Did we work from home? How many cars did I have? What was my annual income? Did I have a permanent contract? How much did I have in savings? I had to provide all this before I could learn the address. It’s clear from the get-go that agents call the shots, and applicants suffer whatever indignities they must.
The writer is in his 30s and lives in the south of England
