Rats in the kitchen, holes in the ceiling and rising rents. How a viral hashtag campaign from Generation Rent has highlighted the horrors of renting in north London
Camden renters have been sharing their rental horror stories as part of a campaign ahead of the mayoral elections on 5 May.
Campaign group Generation Rent encouraged London renters to share their experiences of renting in the capital by uploading pictures to their Tumblr site, ventyourrent.tumblr.com, and sharing their thoughts on Twitter with the hashtag #ventyourrent.
Renters from Camden and Haringey are among those venting their frustration at high rental costs, dodgy landlords and unsafe living conditions.
A Camden resident is pictured with a sign spelling out how their £780 rent has seen a 12 per cent increase.
One renter from Haringey claims they paid £595 a month only to have to put up with a hole in her ceiling for six months. Another describes paying £565 for a room measuring 2 x 2.2 m.
As well as rent increases and damaged properties, renters have tweeted about everything from landlords demanding cash in hand payment to rat infestations.
Sian Berry, the Green Party candidate for the Mayor of London, lent her support to the campaign when she tweeted her own rental experience: “Got home today to a letter saying my rent is going up again. Not good timing anytime except as a contribution to #ventyourrent @genrentuk”
Dan Wilson Craw, Policy Manager at Generation Rent, said:
“The candidates for Mayor describe London as the greatest city on Earth, but as long as growing numbers of people are paying huge sums to live in squalor, they’ll have a lot of work to do to make that a reality.
“The hashtag #ventyourrent is unearthing the scale of common problems like damp and mice, all the way up to the most shocking experiences like poisoning, ceilings falling in and bullying landlords and letting agents. When London goes to the polls, the 2 million renters in this city need to make their voices heard.”
Generation Rent has put together a website, votehomes2016.com, where they have rated all six mayoral candidates across nine different aspects of their housing policies to help voters decide.
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