Many renters living in Bristol are struggling with “frustration and despair” according to a landmark new report on the city’s housing crisis. Hundreds of renters gave their experiences of rising costs and shoddy conditions to experts on the Bristol Living Rent Commission.
A survey carried out by the commission painted a “grim” picture of the pain facing thousands of Bristolians renting privately. The 720 responses showed many are struggling to keep up with rising rents, while putting up with a lack of repairs and a looming threat of eviction.
The Living Rent Commission and Bristol City Council are now calling on the government for new legal powers to control rents and cap how much landlords can increase them. But the commission’s 104-page report also revealed the real-life impacts of the city’s housing crisis.
Read more: Bristol asks government for powers to control rents and tackle housing crisis
The report said: “A quarter of the comments referred to feeling powerless or a lack of security. Searching for or keeping accommodation creates a lack of security and raises anxiety levels. The testimonies convey a sense of urgency, frustration and sometimes despair among tenants. The most prominent concern is the significant increases in rent.”
Over half of survey respondents said they had issues with repairs and maintenance, and poor communication from their landlord. Repair issues most commonly reported are damp, mould and plumbing problems. But landlords can be unwilling to get these issues fixed, leaving some tenants suffering severe consequences from the lack of any prompt action.
One renter said: “We reported that a door in our bedroom opening to the outside is leaking and causing the carpet and flooring underneath to rot, as well as causing mould to develop in the curtains. Over a six-month period the letting agent gathered quotes from repair companies, however the landlord has decided not to pursue repair work on the door, meaning we now have to live with growing mould and rot in our bedroom.
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“The carpet around the door is turning black, is often wet to the touch, and the room sometimes smells strongly of decomposing material. The bedroom is significantly colder than other rooms due to the gap in the door’s frame, and we are having to continuously spend money on temporary insulation and weather -proofing solutions as well as heating to make the room habitable in cold or wet weather.”
Another issue is rent bidding, where landlords or letting agents ask prospective tenants to bid higher than the advertised rent. Over a quarter of respondents taking on a new tenancy in the last year said they had been asked to take part in so-called “bidding wars”.
Only three quarters of respondents were confident their deposits had been paid into a third-party protection scheme, despite landlords being legally required to do so. One in 10 said their deposit had not been paid into a protection scheme, while 13% said they didn’t know.
Some renters said it was “impossible” to start a family, while others who were parents said they lived in “constant fear of being made homeless”, due to the difficulty of finding places to rent that will accept children. People with pets can also struggle to find places.
One tenant said: “The rental market is making it impossible for people to start families. People in their twenties and thirties, myself included, are prevented from being able to have children because they live in shared houses where you can’t raise a child. It’s impossible for a couple to find and afford a suitable flat for themselves to safely raise a family in. This is deeply distressing and has a huge impact on people’s mental health.”
Another tenant added: “We are a family of four with both adults working full-time, but if we had to leave our current property we would struggle to pay the rent elsewhere. When we have tried to view other properties, agents don’t return our calls at all. We have a dog and a cat and nobody will even consider pets elsewhere. We live in constant fear of being asked to leave here and becoming homeless.”
Landlords are currently legally allowed to evict tenants without giving a specific reason. This lack of tenure security means many renters have to move frequently and not out of choice. The government however is scrapping Section 21 no-fault evictions, with the Renters Reform Bill going through parliament, although campaigners say the changes do not go far enough.
According to the survey, the most frequent reason given for eviction is when landlords are planning to sell the property. Other reasons include a landlord or family member moving into the property, refurbishment plans, or the landlord planning to find new tenants and charge them a higher rent.
A common fear among tenants is that if they ask for repairs, their landlord could retaliate and threaten to evict them. Eviction from privately rented accommodation is one of the leading causes of homelessness in Britain.
One renter said: “I saw a room going for £800 per month, which was in fact a summer house in the landlord’s garden which they still intended to use ‘several times a week’. The lack of available properties meant a friend was forced to accept a room without seeing it — only to discover on arrival that it was being sublet without the permission of the landlord, who worked below. They had to keep the curtain closed and stay away from the window.”
The commission found a growing shortfall in properties to rent, and an expanding mismatch between decreasing supply of homes to rent and increasing demand. The supply of homes is going down as some landlords say new rules and taxes are making it less attractive to rent out their properties on a long-term basis, so some are choosing to sell their properties or let them on a short-term basis instead on AirBnB.
Fewer people in Bristol are able to buy their own flat or house compared to previous years, due to prices increasing much more quickly than average wages. This means many are stuck renting for longer, adding to demand. Coupled with a huge influx of Londoners and students, the number of people wanting to rent in Bristol is rapidly increasing, while the supply of new homes is not keeping up.
The Living Rent Commission said a key policy tool to help tackle the housing crisis would be new rent controls. But Bristol City Council appears unlikely to get the legal powers to control rent any time soon, as the government and Labour have both voiced concerns about the side effects of rent controls. In the meantime, the lack of adequate concerted action to tackle the housing crisis has left many people renting in Bristol at risk of becoming homeless.
One tenant said: “I’m now potentially homeless again in a few weeks, and struggling to find anything half-decent or even get any viewings. It’s very, very stressful.”
