One in five private tenants in Britain describes their current renting conditions as a ‘nightmare’.
A survey of 2,000 tenants by boiler company Help-Link found that 19% live in a home with damp; one in ten will be living in a house without heating this winter; and 16% of tenants live in homes with mould.
Other issues include building faults (11%), water leaks (14%), damaged windows (9%), pests (1 in 20) and broken fire alarms (4%).
One in three of tenants who said they lived in poor conditions also complained that they did not receive their full deposit back, with the average tenant losing around £355.
According to the Deposit Protection Service, around 50% of deposits are returned to tenants in full.
Comments (9)
Renting is not a nightmare, private landlords, buy to let get rich quick merchants that are not experienced or care are the nightmare.
But it is the government policy of not providing enough social housing, lack of building and excessive population (sudden increases due to migration is part of this) that has caused the imbalance between supply and demand and provides the breeding ground for the ills we are seeing from a small number of bad landlords.
The article is right one in five tenants are a nightmare.
Well there is a lesson this is clearly a boiler company no landlord should be using!
We do lettings and sales and I see mould and condensation in rented properties fairly frequently but very rarely in owner occupied property for sale. This is not to say that it is always the tenant’s fault we all know poor landlords but it does, to my mind, show an attitude of mind. perhaps we should have another leaflet ‘responsibilities of renting’ to go with the ‘right to rent one’!
not more leaflets please. ………..
Funny that isnt it – when someone has paid for something they tend to look after it much better then if they are renting. Condensation is in my experience allmost allways due to the life style of the tenant. Passifyer air vents are very good and inexpesive to install and is often the cheapest way of solving the condensation issue if tenants wont help.
Spot on Oldtimer. As soon as I pull up and see the curtains haven’t ever been drawn back, every bookies rate 90% will have mildew mould issues = lifestyle related. My wife is always drying cloths inside and we never suffer from mold, but then we do open the door, house is cleaned weekly and we have a hoover that actually works. Part of our tenant referencing is … where is your hoover? What product and brand do you use to clean the bath & toilet. Have you a lawn mower? Try it you, will be surprised by the results!
Ditto Sanjeev’s comments above!
Yet again. A boiler company Doing a survey. Do they not have enough work on?
yet again. Fact. How many tenants air their property correctly. Or even actual place the heating on. Survey please. Seem as you have so much time on your hands.