A housing lobby says it has been forced to fill a gap left by Hackney Council’s failure to correctly deal with tenants. Heather Kennedy, from Digs, provides support to Hackney tenants who have been illegally evicted or mistreated by their landlords. Each Digs meeting attracts disgruntled tenants who have been rejected by the council, many of whom have put up with cockroaches and no hot water for weeks.
One of Ms Kennedy’s roles is to oversee meetings between tenants and landlords. She recently mediated between a female tenant and a landlord who refused to pick up the phone when the tenant called because she was a woman. When pressed by the council the landlord had responded: “I don’t like women who answer back. In my culture they are not allowed to do that.”
One of the council’s housing duties is to provide advice to tenants who are suffering from mistreatment but Heather said: “They are not even doing that at the moment. They are supposed to provide mediation. If councils are refusing to enforce the existing laws do we need new laws?”
A spokeswoman for Hackney Council responded: “Illegal evictions are against the law and the Council does take them very seriously. When tenants contact us we offer advice and support and where it’s possible work with tenants and their landlord to try and resolve any issues that may result in eviction.”
Ms Kennedy also said that a huge housing problem is the letting agent fee. “There is no regulation which says this is illegal. A few months ago Scotland passed a law that allows landlords to only charge for the first months rent and deposit. But in England estate agencies … are getting away with charging £420 for ‘inventory and cleaning costs’. If a tenant says they refuse to pay this then they will just evict them.”
Ms Kennedy believes that the main cause of illegal evictions is the housing shortage. “Landlords are aware of how many people are competing for their places and are using that to their own advantage. The housing crisis has created a huge imbalance between supply and demand.”
“There is also not enough social housing. In fact there hasn’t been a social housing bill for a while which has created this lack of regulation and housing shortage.”
National Housing Federation chief executive, David Orr, represents English housing associations and is not concerned about the growing role of private players. “The really critical discussion is about how we get the provision of new housing. The need is so vast, we need all hands to the pump.”
