Field Study’s Man in
E17 has been preoccupied by problems at home recently and they have made it
difficult for him to progress with field studies into the fats of E17 and
neighbouring postcode areas. He doubts there is little or no concern (beyond
his petty qualms) about his lack of progress in studying local aspects of the
crisis in global food production however the causes of the preoccupation and
hindrance are rooted in another global crisis; that of housing.
.
Conditions are not so good in this here field student’s ‘zone
zero’ (to purloin a permacultural term). Much of my domestic
crisis is personal and private, involving others whose privacy has to be
respected. I live in a shared flat or ‘flat of multiple-occupancy’. The
conditions are certainly not as wretched as those endured by huge numbers of
people worldwide e.g. in slums, refugee camps, war zones and areas of natural
disasters. My (our) crisis is minor by comparison and many people would, I
imagine, gladly change their habitation for mine or others similar.
.
The crisis here is mainly, though not entirely, one of
personal expectations and a sense of entitlement regarding private rented
accommodation. There is a notion that
the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ signifies a combination of danger and
opportunity and, with these forces in mind, this post is a tentative introduction
to a series (of posts) aiming to explore some of the private and public
territories of home here in ‘lost and found in E17’.
.
I acknowledge my dissatisfaction is parochial and
inward looking. What though is the collective or broader social consequence to
an area or neighbourhood of (private rented) housing problems and their causes? Many people rent
privately; perhaps as much as 32% of the housing stock in Waltham Forest is
private rental property. Of this contingent there is likely to be a (large?)
proportion disappointed by and aggrieved at what is provided in return for the
rent. Locally and nationally, grievances may be justified and their causes can involve legal
obligations on the part of the landlord and tenants. Low quality poorly
maintained housing stock, often owned and let by private landlords, can cause a
variety of adverse effects in a neighbourhood with the consequences paid for by
all e.g. respiratory disorders/diseases, caused by infestations of mold, to be treated
by the NHS.
.
I’m reluctant to divulge details about where I live now
however I have experienced some difficult situations with other landlords which
do encompass circumstances of public and private concern. Here is a personal
experience of a dispute with a landlord some years ago.
I had a room in a shared house and had been there for nearly
18 months and as far as I was aware none of the gas appliances
(boiler/heaters/fires/cookers) had been inspected. I was particularly concerned
about the gas fire in my room. I asked the landlord when the most recent
inspection had been done. He said he would get it sorted out. By the time of
the next rent collection no inspections had been done. I asked again. The same
answer, with more irritation, came back. I asked again at the next rent
collection and when the landlord tried to fob me off with the same reply, I
explained I was very unhappy about the situation and I was going to get some
advice. The landlord returned half an hour later with a letter giving me notice
to leave. He told me he could not have tenants who did not trust him. For
obvious reasons I did not really want
to stay there however other circumstances meant moving was a difficult option;
something I think the landlord was well aware of. We negotiated and the
landlord withdrew his notice and gave me a carbon monoxide detector/indicator. About
6 weeks later a gas engineer visited and did some maintenance work, although no
official record of the work was made and I was not entirely sure the engineer
was appropriately certificated.
.
Information regarding health and safety requirements for gas
safety in rented properties is available via the Health and Safety Executive
web site – here.
.
In my opinion that landlord abused his position of power and
neglected his responsibilities with regards to the safety of his tenants, and
potentially the safety of neighbours. There were other long running issues
about the maintenance of the property which the landlord failed to resolve while
I was resident there. Given the experience with the gas safety inspections any
thought of confronting the landlord usually concluded with the memory of that
letter of notice. The message was clear; put up, shut up or leave.
Unfortunately it took me quite a while to get out of that place.
.
Shelter is running a campaign calling for rogue landlords to
be ‘evicted’. ‘Evicted’, as I understand it, involves landlords having to be
licensed (Selective Licensing) and if
they fail to comply with the terms of the license the license is revoked and
they cannot continue to let properties legally. Are there sufficient public
sector resources to enforce selective licenses? Would selective licensing lead
to an increase in rent costs without necessarily a proportionate improvement in
the services provided by landlords? What would become of the tenants of
landlords whose licenses have been revoked?
.
There have, recently, been some motions made about a
licensing scheme in Waltham Forest (in selected areas) following a pilot project taking place in
Newham. Here is a blog post by a landlord, considering buying properties in
Waltham Forest now rather than in Newham, who considers the adoption of
‘selective licensing’ to be akin to ‘contagion’. Other landlord organisations
consider selective licensing to be ‘draconian’ and an ineffective measure to
deal with bad landlords – indeed, a measure that only serves to reinforce a
stereotype of greedy/abusive landlords. Waltham Forest Council have produced a
briefing document which aims to outline the core issues about selective
licensing and some of the content seems quite obviously intended to placate the
anger of landlords who consider themselves stereotyped, abused and penalized.
.
It seems selective licensing will:
.
Educate
tenants ‘to ensure they only live in properties that meet a minimum standard’
.
and
provide
‘Support for landlords in
dealing with anti-social tenants’
.
at a
(proposed) cost of £900 per license, lasting 5 years, per property. That
proposed fee is considerably more than in many other boroughs and councils. As
far as I understand, the legal requirement for a ‘selective license’ would extend
to ‘buy to let’ landlords with just one property. I don’t know if households
with a lodger would also need to have a license.
.
I
think the license fees will be passed onto tenants, possibly at a higher cost
than the actual license fee incurs (due to admin’, bureaucracy and profit), and
will there actually be an improvement in the standard of private rented
housing?
Council
housing departments still may not be sufficiently resourced to deal with all
the demand from private tenants and landlords in dispute over what constitutes
acceptable living conditions. Even when some landlords are exposed as ‘slumlords’
- by local and national press, local networks, campaigning charities and
national television – with incontrovertible evidence of letting malpractice there
frequently seems to be inadequate resources to enforce the law.
.
Jon Snow (Channel 4) presented, ‘Landlords from
Hell’, a Dispatches investigation into the contemporary housing malaise which
showed appalling living conditions endured by tenants and neglected by landlords.
In the blog accompanying the documentary there is a comment, made by a local
authority housing officer, Jefferson37, which gives a detailed first-hand account
of the institutional inadequacies of local authorities that are so easily
exploited by unscrupulous landlords (and tenants?). Does Waltham Forest Council
have an adequate (at the very least) track record in local governance to manage
such a fundamental shift in housing culture as is proposed by ‘selective
licensing’ and is the culture of complaint about housing really just a
perpetuation of the myth of ‘Rachmanism’; an all too willing participation in
an oppressive system of housing?
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