Category Archives: Renting property

Bring back eviction ban or face ‘catastrophic’ homelessness crisis, ministers told

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Sir Bob Kerslake calls on government to protect at-risk tenants as it did during pandemic

The former head of the civil service has warned of a looming “catastrophic” homelessness crisis caused by the cost of living unless the government reintroduces the eviction ban that protected tenants during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sir Bob Kerslake, who chairs the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, said a failure to act “could see this become a homelessness as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic; with all the good achieved in reducing street homelessness since the pandemic lost, and any hope of the government meeting its manifesto pledge to end rough sleeping by 2024 gone”.

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State government ‘disappointed’ as Queensland real estate peak body urges skirting of new eviction laws

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Property managers are being advised to provide notices to leave when issuing fixed-term leases

Queensland’s housing department says “best practice” advice given by the state’s peak real estate body that would see every renter issued with notice to leave at the start of their lease is “disappointing” and “not in the spirit” of rent reforms.

But the tenants’ union is calling for the state government to go further, urging them to restrict the issuing of “Form 12s” and make it harder for renters to be removed without reason.

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Glass act: critics see right through Adelaide rental with bathroom ‘cube’ built next to kitchen

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A North Adelaide studio apartment has been ridiculed online, with some likening it to ‘your first custom house in the Sims’

Convenience: in every sense of the word, 4/201 O’Connell Street has it.

Ablute without ever having to take your eyes off the television, or interrupting your dinner party conversation.

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Cold or mould: Sydney tenants told to keep windows open throughout winter

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Agent says tenants must ensure ‘adequate ventilation’ after record-breaking rains spread mould earlier in the year – even as bitter cold arrives

Tenants in Sydney have been told by their real estate agency it is “critical” they regularly open windows during winter to restrict the spread of mould.

CobdenHayson emailed tenants on 1 June with recommendations “to help you prepare for the winter season”.

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Rents are soaring across the US – in some cities as much as 30% in just one year

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Renters are cutting back on other essentials, falling behind on payments and facing eviction

Andrew Amuso, a single father of a seven-year-old child in Phoenix, Arizona, has lived in the same apartment for eight years.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, his rent was about $900 a month. Last year, it was increased by $276 a month to $1,176 a month, and he has received a lease renewal this year with another large increase, to $1,585.65 a month.

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Older UK renters forced to cut back on spending as living costs soar

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Exclusive: Many tenants aged over 65 are already struggling, Independent Age research finds

Almost two-thirds of tenants over 65 have cut back on their general spending as a result of the cost of living crisis, and campaigners are warning that older people who do not own their homes are particularly vulnerable to rising bills.

Research shared with Guardian Money by the charity Independent Age puts the spotlight on the struggles of older tenants who are battling to keep up with rising household costs.

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War of words breaks out following new report into Queensland’s housing crisis

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Queensland Council of Social Services says social housing waiting list could blow out by 10,000

The Queensland and federal governments are trading blows over the state’s housing after another report on the crisis.

A new report from the Queensland Council of Social Services (Qcoss) says more than 50,000 households are currently on the waiting list for social housing.

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No-fault evictions: 200,000 renters in England served notices in three years

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Shelter says a private tenant is handed notice every seven minutes despite government promise to ban practice in April 2019

More than 200,000 private renters have been served eviction notices without doing anything wrong in the three years since the government first promised to ban the practice, housing campaigners have claimed.

Every seven minutes a tenant has been landed with a no-fault eviction notice since Theresa May’s Conservative government first committed to scrap them in April 2019, according to research by Shelter, the housing charity.

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One in eight privately rented homes in England pose threat to health, MPs say

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Serious health and safety risks costing NHS £340m a year, public accounts committee report finds

More than one in eight privately rented homes in England pose a serious threat to people’s health and safety, costing the NHS about £340m a year, according to a report from a committee of MPs.

It also uncovered evidence of unlawful discrimination, with an estimated one in four landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders.

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Flood-hit Queensland renters have just days left to negotiate a break in their lease

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With rental properties in short supply, many tenants are facing a difficult decision whether to stay or go

Howard Marshall and his partner, Gavin Chuah, have spent three weeks living out of suitcases and bed-hopping in and out of friends’ homes.

Flood water inundated the garage of their South Brisbane unit on 27 February, interrupting the building’s electricity and hot water supplies, and shutting off the lift and fire alarm.

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‘It reached 38 degrees’: rental properties across Australia routinely exceeding safe temperatures, study reveals

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Warnings come as extreme heat kills more people than all other natural disasters in Australia combined

Karen Thorne’s rental home heats up as soon as the morning sun hits her east-facing bedroom in the Sydney suburb of Rosemeadow.

“I could wake up at 8am to 28-degree heat in there,” Thorne said. “The heat is what actually wakes me up.”

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Tenants face having to find extra £1,000 for 2022 rent and bills

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Hamptons expects sums to become 54% of post-tax income for average rented household in Great Britain

Tenants already struggling with the cost of living crisis typically face having to find an extra £1,000 this year to cover higher rent and essential bills, research shows.

The estate agent Hamptons said tenants’ finances faced a record squeeze as higher rents and energy bill increases combined to pile more pressure on households in Great Britain.

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Thousands of UK students caught in rent trap by private landlords

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While campuses are shut by Covid-19, students are still being forced to pay for unused accommodation

Notttingham Trent University students Eleanora Brown and her boyfriend Nizar Ruiz are in lockdown at home in Norwich, with no prospect of returning to campus any time soon. The teaching buildings are closed and the university has released all of its tenants from paying rent this term. Yet their hall of residence, run by Collegiate, a private developer, is demanding £1,700 from each of its residents to cover the summer term.

While students at most university-owned accommodation do not have to pay rent for the third term, Brown and Ruiz are among thousands of students trapped in expensive contracts with private hall operators.

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Coronavirus: renters to be protected from eviction says Johnson – video

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The prime minster has said the government will bring forward emergency legislation to protect private renters from eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic. His comments came after the Labour leader said private tenants were ‘worried sick’ they might not be able to pay their rents if they fell ill

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Peterborough prepares for byelection that could elect first Brexit party MP

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A decade ago it was the UK’s fastest growing city, but hit by cuts and buy-to-let, support for Nigel Farage’s party is high

On Thursday, voters in Peterborough will take part in one of the most intriguing parliamentary byelections in recent memory. The constituency saw a knife-edge duel between Labour and the Conservatives at the 2017 general election and at last month’s European poll, 38% of voters in the city backed the Brexit party. A first seat in the House of Commons for Nigel Farage’s party is a distinct possibility. If that happens, it will send tremors through middle England, of which Peterborough is typical in many ways, not just geographically.

Economically, Peterborough performs averagely amid struggles with productivity. Wages are stagnant and it has been reshaped by migration, with foreigners arriving to work in the surrounding farmlands and distribution depots, contributing to a decade as the UK’s fastest growing city between 2001 and 2011.

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Why London’s not such a capital place to live | Letter

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Figures that appear to show Londoners are significantly better off than people in other parts of Britain don’t tell the whole story, says Maggie Kemmner

The article (Big regional gaps revealed in disposable incomes across UK, 23 May) is very misleading. It makes no allowances for the increased housing costs most Londoners face.

In February 2019, Londoners spent the biggest proportion of their income on rent as compared to other areas of the UK; more than one third of a household’s income. The average monthly rental was £1,599 as compared to a £940 UK average. Over a year, this amounts to £7,908 extra housing costs: which pretty much wipes out the “extra money” that Londoners have to spend post-tax as compared to the UK average. This data is from statistica.com.

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