One in seven North East tenants victim to law-breaking landlords
Nationally, over a million – or one in eight – private renters across England have suffered at the hands of a landlord who has broken the law.
New research released today has revealed that in the last year alone one in seven private renters in the North East of England has suffered from an illegal act committed by a landlord.
Nationally, over a million – or one in eight – private renters across England have suffered at the hands of a landlord who has broken the law.
Alarmingly, the survey by Shelter and YouGov uncovered a range of problems with law-breaking landlords in the North East of England, ranging from unlawful behaviour to serious criminal offences.
While reports of landlords entering homes without permission and deposits not being properly protected were among the most common complaints from renters, many cases of shocking behaviour from rogue landlords were also uncovered in the survey.
Over 24,500 renters have had their home entered by a landlord without permission or notice being given and the equivalent of 7,400 reported having been abused, threatened or harassed by a landlord
8,300 renters felt they had been treated unfairly due to their race, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.
Laura, whose name we've changed, told us she's seen dangerous landlords first hand.
When helping a friend move out, she was locked out and FILMED by a landlord.
She said: "As two 24-year-old girls being videoed by a grown man, simply moving boxes from a room was very intimidating and creepy, it made me feel really uncomfortable.
"He was very aggressive towards the tenants, he would let himself in whenever he wanted, just to complain about the house.
"He would also complain about other people being in the house, he was just very threatening and over the top as a landlord.
"He still has that footage of me and it's a very bizarre thing.
"The only reason why we got the stuff out of the flat was being forced into saying it was okay for him to video us."
The housing charity is warning that a minority of rogue landlords are causing misery to the lives of renters by committing these civil and criminal offences.
Often renters don’t know what their rights are. In just the last year, Shelter’s website has received over 220,000 unique visits to its advice pages for people facing problems with a private landlord.
Shelter’s helpline adviser, Danielle Goodwin, said: “Every day at Shelter we speak to people at the end of their tether after a law-breaking landlord has caused chaos in their lives.
"These range from instances where the renter has been unaware of their rights, to cases where renters are exploited and subjected to terrible experiences by a minority of law breaking landlords.
“Too many people simply don’t know their rights as a renter – but Shelter is here to help anyone having landlord problems with free, expert advice. As a first port of call go to shelter.org.uk/advice or for urgent problems call our helpline on 0808 800 4444.”