Campaigners from the Home Sweet Home campaign held a public action to ask a local letting agent to meet with them to improve their business practices to make sure their customers get a consistently good service.
The Home Sweet Home campaign is made of a broad alliance of people and institutions across the city, including students, residents, labour members, Brighton Housing Trust, churches, students unions, landlord associations, and letting agents ran the action to get the attention of G4 Lets owner, Mark Shields.
The campaigners have a number of suggestions they would like to put to G4 Lets in order to improve business practices and make sure their customers get a consistently high standard of service.
Following the action, the group came away with an agreed date to meet with Mr Shields, on June 2.
Chris Henry, from Home Sweet Home, said: “Today we came away with the exact result we were looking for – a date in the diary to meet with Mr Shields. Now we have to see what changes can be made when we have that meeting.”
Since July last year, the Home Sweet Home campaign has been talking to renters, landlords, and agents in Brighton and Hove, and uncovering stories of poor practices in some areas of the private rented sector.
In recent months, campaigners has been working to turn their stories and research into practical changes to improve private rented housing in Brighton and Hove.
Helena Mardon, Home Sweet Home leader, said: “We’ve been running this campaign for nearly ten months now, and we’ve heard so many stories of terrible conditions that renters are putting up with. Often tenants feel like their agents and landlords don’t want to help.
“We’ve heard stories of broken appliances such as ovens, microwaves, showers, and even central heating going un-repaired by management agencies for as much as three months. There have been stories of broken windows not getting fixed and that tenants have been getting electrocuted because of water leaks. Throughout all of this, the recurring theme has been one of agents that don’t pick up the phone or answer emails, and even if they do, it’s another three months before the repairs get done.”
Last month campaigners met with Brighton Students Union and agreed to work together to launch a new ‘tenant guide’ to better inform students of their rights and responsibilities when renting. They produced this with the help and advice of the Residential Landlord Association.
Candice Armah, President of Brighton Students’ Union, said: “Brighton Students’ Union decided to take action today for the thousands of students residing in conditions unfit for study. Students are collectively paying thousands of pounds in rent a week, yet are expected to accept living in unhealthy conditions. Today’s action is just part of an ongoing campaign to improve the living standards of not only Brighton students but all those living in the private rented sector – G4Lets are just one of many letting agents who could be doing a better job for people in our city, and we’d like to meet with them to talk about how they can provide better for our students and their customers.”
Lydia Snodin, from Home Sweet Home leader, added: “It’s important to note that we’re not talking about all agents or landlords. We asked to meet G4 Lets because we have suggestions, based on the stories and evidence we’ve collected, on how they could improve their customer service. We wrote them a letter, and tried calling them, but unfortunately got no reply. We ran this action to make sure they got our request to meet”.
Representatives of the campaign have also been meeting with the Chair of Housing, Bill Randall, at Brighton and Hove Council, to work on what more the council can do to support renters and improve the situation city-wide.
Purna Sen, Labour PPC for Brighton Pavilion, concluded: “For me this is one of the big issues which need tackling in our City. High property prices in Brighton and Hove mean private renting is the only option for many local people. Congratulations to Home Sweet Home for highlighting the shoddy deal that far too many tenants – not only students – are getting from some unscrupulous letting agents. Failure to carry out needed repairs, a refusal to accept their legal responsibilities to tenants and simply ignoring complaints completely are all too common in this City. It really is time for letting agents and rogue landlords to clean up their act. Local people living in privately rented homes deserve a better deal.”