Private tenants are getting organised in the fight for better rights. Liz Silversmith explains how renters in Wales came together to campaign to call on the Asssembly for improved conditions with contributions from Francisca Rigaud on the everyday reality of renting in Cardiff and Hannah Slater on the situation in England.
Renting is not fun. Honestly, it’s not. It’s often damp, cramped and vastly over-priced. Just about everyone has a letting agent horror story. And this is how Let Down in Wales, a campaign group focused on the Assembly, came to be set up.
Whilst sitting in one of those aforementioned damp, cramped and vastly over-priced bedsits (or ‘studio flat’, if you’re writing the Zoopla advert), one renter had enough and ended up putting together a campaign to call on the Assembly for better renting conditions. Let Down started off as renters sharing stories online about their worst experiences, as it didn’t seem right that whilst friends could warn each other of which agents to avoid, there was nothing online to help advise people. No reviews, no standard mark, no complaints process.
This fundamental lack of rights for renters has led many of them to Let Down. They vent their stories through the review pages and share their experiences through social media and surveys to feed into policy.
It can be hard for those who own houses or haven’t rented for a very long time to see it from renters’ point of view. This isn’t a temporary position for us. It’s not just for young people. Renters are looking at renting for life. They probably can’t save up a deposit. Many live in bad conditions but can’t afford to move. They’re having families in houses they feel they might get evicted from at any time.
One renter, Francisca Rigaud, has lived in seven addresses in four years, repeatedly experiencing insecure contracts, uncaring letting agents and bad living conditions affecting her health:
She wouldn’t know when she had to move next, and complaints often lead to bad relations with the landlord and potential ‘revenge evictions’. Francisca highlighted how agents would never respond to her complaints, but would get in touch to announce inspections, for selling or re-listing the property. She said, that once they find themselves facing the end of a contract, or know the landlord is selling, ‘so much fear and insecurity as to our future goes with it’. To be, ‘at our age, trying very hard to make something of our lives, but paying so much money and being confronted with nothing but problems, it becomes too much’.
On researching what they could do, she found that: ‘We have virtually no rights. We couldn’t dispute anything with our landlord; we didn’t have the money that it takes to hire a solicitor and take him to court. And anyway, the amount of money we could possibly receive would be so minimal, it wouldn’t even pay the costs.’.
Francisca started her own campaign pages, sharing stories and discussing what could be done. She says: ‘For me the answer lies in looking to the outside, to countries where the rental sector functions quite well: where contracts are longer, where no landlord has the right to have a tenant’s key, let alone to let themselves into the house without permission, where in fact the tenant is seen as the owner of the property until the end of the contract.’
Fuelled by so many stories like these, Let Down campaigned on the Housing Bill in 2013. This was the legislation that brought in mandatory licensing for all landlords, through the new body Rent Smart Wales. Now, renters can look up their landlord on Rent Smart Wales and check they’re registered. This is a small but significant development; renters can now quickly check to see if they’ve done the legal minimum.
Ideally, we’d like to have a semi-public register, where if a landlord has broken contracts before and Rent Smart Wales or the local authority has had to intervene, we would like to see it reflect this. Not quite a ‘blacklist’, but if a business is performing badly, you would expect them to make improvements. Instead, landlords can get away with a lot and still have a steady stream of willing and unknowing renters signing up to their properties.
The second piece of housing legislation, the Renting Homes Bill, made some welcome steps to reforming renting. It replaced the myriad of tenancies with just two types of contract (one for social and one for private housing). It will bring in Fitness for Human Habitation Standards as well, which are currently being written in regulations. Let Down argued that private renting should be the same standard as social housing, which has its high Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). We suggested a phased introduction, so as not to place too much of a burden on single-property-owning landlords, to bring all rented housing up to WHQS. But it may take longer to achieve parity with social housing quality.
The Bill also proposed some more worrying elements which, thankfully, we managed to campaign to get removed, alongside Shelter Cymru, Tai Pawb, Citizens Advice and NUS Wales. It was originally going to remove the six-month moratorium for rental contracts. This six-month occupation period provides a sliver of security for renters, to ensure they are not evicted in the first six months. Whilst the Welsh Government did make a u-turn on this, it was a great shame to spend this Bill’s passage debating such basic rights rather than to discuss how we can improve things.
Wales is making good progress compared to England, however. Licensing is still a battle being fought in English regions, where some local authorities have brought in licensing but schemes are dependent on approval by the secretary of state. The UK Government remains resistant to implementing it England-wide despite widespread calls for national landlord registration.
The UK Government has been consulting on the barriers to longer tenancies in England, recognising that that the demographics of the private rented sector have changed considerably and that families and older renters, in particular, need more security of tenure. The proposals for tenancies by default to last three years, with flexibility for tenants to leave with two months’ notice, shows that the very real need for more housing security is being heard. The End Unfair Evictions campaign recently collected 50,000 signatures on a petition to scrap Section 21 and has had wide ranging support from charities campaigning for children, older people, mental health, and poverty. Both England and Wales should follow Scotland’s lead in encouraging longer tenancies.
The divergence between England and Wales’ housing markets continues, more so as the Housing Act and Renting Homes Act have reshaped how Wales’ works, even if not to the tangible benefit of renters yet. But now the Welsh Government has suggested something that will really make a very noticeable difference to renters. Wales will ban letting agency fees.
Fees are hugely detrimental to renters. They can be irregular and extortionate, with letting agents taking money from both landlord and renter and doing a poor job for both. This is a vast generalisation, but one that has been informed by thousands of renters’ frustrations. Our survey found fees anywhere between £90 and £400, on top of a deposit (anywhere between four to six weeks’ rent) and the other costs associated with moving house. There are also ‘contract renewal fees’, those surprise ones which come without you moving house, but are charged purely by virtue of you wishing to stay put.
There is a consensus in the Assembly that these fees need to be stopped. AMs have begun their scrutiny of the Renting Homes (Fees etc) Bill, but we don’t know when it’ll be enacted and in the meantime, renters will continue to be ripped off.
We’re worried that the Bill is still vulnerable to loopholes or exceptions. In England, Westminster is taking through its own ban with the Tenant Fees Bill, but it has significant loopholes. It still allows for charges to tenants in specific circumstances, such as for change of sharer. It’s supposedly capped at £50, but it allows landlords and letting agents to ignore this if they can prove that their ‘reasonable costs’ are higher.
We won’t let the Assembly make the same mistake; renters have had enough and the Welsh Government can fix it. No loopholes, no exceptions. Please, stop renters getting ripped off.
Ten things we hate about renting
Of all the stories and experiences that Let Down has received, there are several elements that come up time and time again. Here’s the top ten complaints from renters.
- High rents: Renters are charged so much that they have no capacity to save for a deposit to ever be able to buy a home. The Joseph Rowntree found that 38 per cent of private tenants are in poverty after housing costs are paid.
- Bad quality housing: We’re finally getting Fitness for Human Habitation Standards (at some unspecified point in time) in Wales. But are there enough staff in councils to inspect? Will renters have the confidence to complain? Will it really improve properties?
- Lack of mediation and reprisal services: One of the main reasons renters find Let Down is because they cannot find anyone else to turn to. Aside from third sector services like Shelter Cymru, there is no Housing Tribunal (like in Scotland) or complaints service like the Ombudsman (in England).
- Discrimination: ‘No DSS, no children, no smokers’. How is this not discrimination?
- High fees and no information: Renters often complain about letting agents showing no proof of these expensive credit checks they charge fees for. Nor can they see reasoning behind why renewing a contract costs money or why a ‘holding deposit’ is necessary.
- No pets allowed: So many pets have to be given up to shelters because landlords don’t allow them. Or people move somewhere too small and without outdoor access to make a suitable home for a pet. There needs to be an agreed way to allow pets in homes, other than at the whim of the owner, such as extra pet deposits of £100 to cover any potential damage.
- Unannounced visits: It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you tell your agent you have a right to 24 hours’ notice, they turn up with viewings and unannounced inspections anyway.
- Pressurised sales pitches: There’s so much demand that every viewing has to be an instant ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The agent tells you they’ve got four more people booked that afternoon and all you have to do to take it off the market is transfer your letting fees straight away. Not exactly leaving room to think it over.
- Short-term contracts: Even if you want to stay in your home for the next few years, you’re at most offered 12 months usually, sometimes only six months.
- Bad services and maintenance: Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much you complain about a dripping tap or a growing damp patch, the agent will fob you off. It can take months to get something seen, and you’re always fearful that complaining too much will mean your contract being cut short.
Let Down in Wales is a campaign for better rights for renters. It’s run by Liz Silversmith and you can find it on Twitter as @letdownwales, Facebook and at letdown.wales.You can check there for updates on the letting fees ban and other campaign work.