Six reasons why tenants get a raw deal
In the frenetic private rental sector many tenants feel they don't receive the service they deserve from their landlord. They complain of repairs not being done, high rents, and unfair evictions. And yet more and more of us are renting from private landlords.
1. It's a bun fight
Try and find a decent property to rent and particularly one in a city and you'll be in a race to bag it before the competition do. In recent years there has been a huge increase in the numbers of people renting in the private sector. With house prices beyond the reach of many, and mortgages being ever harder to obtain, it isn't surprising more of us are renting.
2. Everyone's renting
Renting used to be just for young people starting out in life. But now more and more families are competing with them for rental properties. Figures from the English Housing Survey which covered the 20 years from 1994/95 to 2014/15, reveal a large increase in families living in private rental accommodation from 30% of all renters in 1994 to 37% in 2015. That's an extra 912,000 households.
And the number of younger people renting has incrased too, the survey shows, up from 24% in 2004/05 to 46% in 2014/15.
3. Too many empty houses
Despite the rise in renting over 400,000 private rental homes are empty and, when you count social housing and other landlords, almost a million properties in the UK stand unused.
4. It's complicated
In days gone by renting a property was simply a case of agreeing the rent with the landlord and paying the rent at the end of the week or month. Now it's much more complicated.
A tenant has to navigate their way through credit checks, right to rent investigations, huge deposits, check-in and out inventories and a mountain of other paperwork.
And for the time being until new legislation is introduced next year, tenants must pay significant fees to agents to secure and sign-up for a property.
Although fees vary hugely between agents the average is £350. Tenants then have to pay a month's rent in advance along with a tenancy deposit. This deposit is usually equivalent to six weeks' rent.
For a property with a monthly rental of £700, a tenant will pay approximatgely £2,000 just to get the key.
5. Tenancy agreements aren't really fair
Tenancy agreements are heavily weighted towards the landlord. Tenants often feel confused about their rights and some are reluctant to ask for repairs or routine maintenance for fear of being evicted.
'No fault' evictions are on the rise and tenants feel a lack of security when a fixed tenancy ends and converts to a rolling contract, usually after a year. Of course, there are many, many good landlords but, as with tenants, there are a few bad ones.
6. You're all alone?
Landlords have plenty of support organisations to turn to including the Residential Landlords Association and agents have the Association of Residential Letting Agents, but in general tenants have only their own resources to fall back on if a tenancy goes wrong.
There are campaigning organisations like Generation Rent and Living Rent if you want to get involved, but in general they don't directly get involved in helping individual tenants. There are local organisations too, such as London MP Sian Berry's London Renters Union, but they are not as well funded as the landlord and agent membership organisations.
CreditLadder can help you improve your credit score
If you want to improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments, CreditLadder is the only way to improve your credit score and position across all four of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money.
CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.
Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.
