Over a hundred thousand people across England have suffered under an abusive landlord, according to housing charity Shelter.
The charity and helpline has warned that rogue landlords are making life difficult for an estimated 125,000 people.
In the last year, it has been reported that almost 17,000 people called its helpline about issues with their landlords.
Mark Cook, helpline advisor with Shelter, said “Every day at Shelter we speak to people desperate for help because their lives are being made unbearable by a rogue landlord. Some of their experiences are truly awful, from renters who have been illegally evicted and had their belongings burned, to those who’ve had their utilities cut off because their landlord wants to intimidate them.”
Some people, if they have a terrible landlord they cannot get along with or is being abusive, have the luxury of getting out of their tenancy and moving away. Unfortunately, some people, especially young people, will not be able to do this and are stuck due to the economy and have become part of ‘generation rent’.
While many people have been able to get suitable loan-to-value mortgages without aid, and others have been able to use the Help to Buy schemes to achieve their housing dreams, many more cannot and are trapped renting, unable to move out, and this puts them in a position vulnerable to the whims of their landlord.
Sustainable, cheap houses are needed to meet the housing demand that this population puts on the property market, and until the demand is met by a suitable supply, people are going to find it very difficult indeed to ever become homeowners.
The figures came from a poll of 3,792 people, of which 60 reported abusive landlords. Shelter applied these figures to national data to estimate the numbers across the country.
