Another London Flatshare Disaster

It's been sometime since the last time I wrote here about my housing situation in London.

So far, most flatshares and houseshares have been a shitshow, and that's due to a combination of house/flatmates behaviour and landpersons' exploitation of tenants.

You see, London is a very popular place.

There is an insane demand for accommodation, but not an enough supply. Hence why, landpersons can -and do- exploit (potential) tenants' desperation.

If you want to read my previous accommodation drama you can do it here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Now, let's talk about my current s(h)ituation.

In December, my partner and I moved into a flatshare. We had been told there will be seven of us in a five-bedroom flat. There were two bathrooms (a tiny one and a larger one), no living room and the kitchen was tiny, without any windows. The room had a bed, a small couch, a mini-fridge, two wardrobes, a tv (basic channels) and a chest of drawers. Size wise it'd be ok for one person, but not great for two. Of course, it was very expensive.

One of the fridges in the kitchen wasn't working when we moved in. Oh well, it's London. Quality of life here isn't that great. So we had to make do.

• The landpersons' first lie was that counting my partner and I, there would be seven of us in the house. We were eight.

• Then, we saw random people coming in and out of the house, and after some digging found out one of the rooms had been set up as an AirbnB. We had not been informed prior. After a few days, thankfully, someone moved in permanently.

• A few weeks ago we were told by the flatmates next door that they have a B'n'B contract, which isn't what we have. So not all tenants have the same type of contract. Hmmmm....

• A couple of weeks after the coronavirus lockdown happened in UK, one of our flatmates disappeared. We were told by the landlords that he left and his room was available, so if we had any friends to tell them they could move in. Amidst the coronavirus outbreak they wanted to bring new people to the flat. By the way the guy who left didn't tell any of us he was leaving. We didn't even hear him clear his kitchen cupboard. Three weeks later someone moved in his room, and we suspect his girlfriend moved in as well, but was hiding.

• Interestingly enough, we were told by the flatmates who have been in the flat the longest (eight months), that no one ever stays in the flat for over a year. I wonder why...

• We also recently found out -by accident- that the landpersons we've met are not the actual landpersons! They are managing the property. We have no clue who the owner is, and we don't even know if we are subletting from the 'managers,' because they're not clarifying the situation. 

• And to top it all off, after I did some digging, I discovered that even though this flat is classified as an HMO (house in multiple occupation) it has not been registered as such to the local council. Which of course is illegal as fuck. They probably don't even have a permit to have as many people in the house.

• Lastly, our flat is the only one in the estate that has had the kitchen converted to a bathroom and a single bedroom and then, had part of the living room turned into the kitchen and another part turned into a bedroom. Dodgy af?

Update 1 (March):

So much has happened! I confirmed our 'Managers' are breaching many laws (from health and safety to housing).
One of my flatmates has already reported them and I'm considering doing the same at some point.
Two more people moved in, as the couple downstairs moved out. They work as delivery drivers, they do not wash their hands when they return home, and they do not self isolate or wear masks when in the kitchen (our only communal area).
As I am immunocompromised, I am rather stressed by this turn of events!

I will keep on updating this list the more things come up. I truly hope nothing else comes up though. Having to deal with this during quarantine is not optimal. 

I'm not even mentioning the drama between housemates to be honest. I've seen it all before, so I can't be bothered.

My partner and I have already started looking for another place.

Wish us luck!

Update 2 (April): 

A flat in the building next to ours was on fire this morning (around 4am).

Thankfully, -from what I've gathered- no one was inside at the time, and the fire didn't spread. But the whole flat is destroyed. The most popular hypothesis is that it was due to the old electrics of the building. We live in a Council Estate, and I'm sure you know how terribly built they are. Cheap materials, really old cables and no health and safety in place. It is very scary to think this could happen to anyone any time, and all of your belongings, or even worse your life, could be lost within seconds. And our flat specifically has so many health and safety violations, it worries me a lot. There is a boiler between the dryer and the oven, and there's also a washing machine and a dishwasher in that same tiny kitchen.

Update 3 (May): 

Another person moved into the room next door. Fourth person to move in during the pandemic.

Update 4 (June): 

We got an eviction notice via text today. In 2 weeks we have to be out, amidst a pandemic (which is illegal of course). 

They claimed they have to hand the property back to the Agency. We still don't know if we were subletting from them.

When I requested everything in email the 'Managers' became aggressive via text and deny us information we are legally entitled to. At least we found out the name of the agency and I have contacted them about all the illegal stuff going on.

They just emailed me they have a proposal they want to discuss in person tomorrow. Let's see.

Update 5 (June):

To sum up, we spoke with the agency, a lot of shady things are going on... They gave us two options, either take over the contract, or accept to sublet from a new person.
Finally we got that on email, as they were not communicating with us via email before.

The tenants have united against them, and we will fight for our rights. 
Still not providing us with the landlord's info and other info we are entitled to, by law.

Update 6 (June):

We have spoken to a lawyer, who confirmed we are right and the 'Managers' eviction text is void, and the way they are handling the situation illegal. 
The 'Managers' are trying to avoid responding to our questions via email (even though they admitted they have not protected our Deposit via the Deposit Scheme) and want to meet in person. We informed them we are receiving legal advice and we will only meet them in person if we are allowed to record them. Let's see...

Update 7 (August):

I moved out on the 20th of July. It was an utter and complete mess! The 'Managers' realised they had fucked up, they showed up to our flat without notice, the agency got involved... In the end, we did report them to the local council, including proof etc., but we don't know what happened in the end. In the last few weeks only three to four people had remained in the flat, so it was peaceful and calm, and the 'Managers' did leave us alone once they had a final moved out day. 

Hopefully, this is the last Housing Horror Story I have to share.

Thank you for following my journey!

London Housing Chronicles (Part 3)

Intro

For anyone who follows my blog this isn't gonna come to you as a surprise.
You already know I'm not the luckiest person when it comes to accommodation in UK.

So last time I mentioned my housing situation I had just moved out from that horrible house to my uni halls (the posh version, since I managed to get a cheaper deal).
Time there was heavenly and I was feeling so much better. All good things must come to an end though and so did my contract, forcing me to move out and in to my other uni halls. There my room was dope, the building was shit, the people were nice, the resident assistants were pricks and thankfully I only had to live there for a month and a half. After that I went back to Greece for sometime.

When I came back I rented a room in my other uni halls (different from the previous ones). I had been warned by a friend that I should better not live there, but the rent was considerably cheap, and the location was great.

And now let's get to the main dish...

Despite all the bad rumours of these halls (people stealing from each others' rooms, people stealing food, mice running around etc) due to my finances I had no other choice but to move in.
So my flat has the shittiest structure any flat has ever had.
The kitchens (2) are on the top floor, the way toilets and showers have been placed makes no sense, there are only 2 showers and 2 baths (which cannot really be used) for 20 people...

I hated this place from the second I entered the building. But things became worse when I was moving in and within the first 30 minutes of being there one of my neighbours started telling me about all the drama that was going on. Imagine moving to a place with 19 more people and immediately being aware that people don't get along with each other. I even had to participate on a housemate meeting on my first night there, because the flatmates decided there was too much drama which needed to be resolved -which didn't happen.

The drama & The housemates

I'm not going to go into detail out of respect for people's privacy.
The sure thing is that many people don't like each other. They have done nothing to try and live together in harmony and many gave no shits for causing great discomfort to their flatmates. In less than six months we had more than six people move out and that is no coincidence. Life in this flat is extremely stressful, people love talking behind each others' backs, many flatmates are extremely pretentious, they are extremely disrespectful to their flatmates and they generally don't realise that this isn't a hippy commune nor their own house, this is Uni Halls.

During my time in this flat I had (and still have) to put up with the following:

• People leaving their unwashed dishes in the sink (even when they're away travelling outside the country) causing mountains of unwashed dishes at times, which made it impossible to use the sink
• People leaving their unwashed dishes next to the sink, leaving no space for anyone to place any other items there
• People placing dirty dishes on the drying rack
• People placing the dishes in a way that is dangerous (I almost stabbed myself a couple of times and had pans placed on the shelves fall on me)
• People not washing communal stuff that they have used 
• People leaving the kitchen in a state
• People stealing my glasses
• People stealing my food from the fridge
• People stealing my food from my cupboard
• People using my stuff and food without my permission
• People using my cutlery (which is in a cupboard) without my permission and not washing it or putting it back to its place
• People from the other kitchen leaving their shit in the kitchen I use creating unnecessary discomfort
• People leaving their shit everywhere in the kitchen, creating a mess
• People not cleaning after partying
• People partying in the kitchen late at night when they know some rooms are underneath the kitchen and the noise is unbearable
• People being extremely rude when told off about their inappropriately loud partying on top of my room
• People drunk banging on my door at 4am causing me a great deal of anxiety
• People making noise in the middle of the night in the kitchen or slamming and banging things when they know people live underneath
• People not flashing the toilet
• People not cleaning their pubic hair off the toilet
• People leaving the baths in a disgusting state
• People playing extremely loud music or watching movies at 3am, causing my whole room to tremble and ofc causing me not to sleep
• People leaving their shit in communal spaces and never picking it up
• People from past years leaving their shit all over the kitchen forcing me to have to clean and organise three cupboards to be able to have some space
• People hoarding massively in the kitchen
• People not throwing away things that have expired and are in communal spaces
• People making no effort to keep the kitchen clean, that so many times me and a couple of other housemates had to clean loads of disgusting dishes

On top of that I had to tolerate a hateful cleaning staff who not only didn't clean properly, but was also extremely rude and many times didn't clean the showers or the bathtubs at all.

The building

As if all this wasn't enough, causing me an immense amount of stress I had to deal with the following as well:

• Cracks on the wall (that were painted over and not fixed)
• Continuous sink blockage for months (making the use of the sink impossible)
• Continuous boiler problems turning the kitchen -and my room that is underneath it- into a hotbox
• Power cuts and internet issues throughout the year
• Shower and bathtub problems (including blockage and a disgusting smell)
• Major pest issues (cockroaches, spiders, mice -and mice' dead bodies underneath the oven)
• Extremely sensitive heat detectors that go off even if you're blow drying your hair 
• Ventilator issues
• Problems with the lights

In addition to all these there was insufficient communication from the Accommodation office, many times ignoring the issues/our reports or alternatively aiming at temporary fixes.

The area

In case you didn't think all this is bad enough let me tell you a few things about the area:

• There are loud police and ambulance sirens every few minutes (which unfortunately I can hear in my room since it faces the main street)
• It's one of the most dangerous areas in London, having extremely high stabbing rates
• I get catcalled all the time, and many times catcallers become verbally violent
• The entrance of my Halls is on the dodgiest dark alley 
• Many times people pee outside or next to my Halls or in general on the streets
• There are fights around the area almost every night and especially during Thursdays and the weekends it's almost impossible for me to sleep with my window open (due to the screams, bottle smashing, fights, sirens etc)

There are a few good things about the area: many shops, pubs, takeaways, restaurants, clubs, parks etc. And I'm sure I would have been able to focus on those if I didn't live on this building.

To sum up...

Nevertheless, it's always hard to focus on the positive when the negative is so overwhelming.

Worst part of all?

I got to tolerate this shit for one more year. Yes, my financial situation doesn't allow me to live somewhere else for the time being, so I had to renew my contract...

Wish me luck.

Sincerely,

Lara

New beginnings New problems

After what happened to me in Bayswater I hoped my new accommodation would be better.
To be fair I moved in with one of my best mates, an Italian guy and a bulgarian guy -who were his housemates from before- and another one of my best mates moved in with me so, I thought things would be amazing.

I'm not gonna refer to every little detail but to cut a long story short:
-The bulgarian guy:

• Never follows the cleaning rota -aka has never cleaned the house in the 3-4 years he lives here
• Always wants things to happen his way no matter what -and he uses manipulation to achieve that very effectively
• Is abusive and violent towards his girlfriend (she confessed her story to me and even if half the shit she told me is true, this guy has to be arrested)
• Hosted his father for 2,5 years in his room without paying rent or bills for him for the biggest part of his stay (even though the landlord forbids us to host people for more than 3 weeks)
• Has trapped his girlfriend into our house, not allowing her to leave for the past 6 weeks without paying for her share of the bills or rent ofc (again the landlord forbids couples to share the same room in the house)
• Has bullied one of my best mates in front of my very eyes 
• Fights with his girlfriend all the time and sometime the screams, crying and yelling coming from the room are extreme
• Devalues education and has questioned my choice to do a masters degree very rudely
• Believes he is the shit because he's a builder and thinks anyone not working the way he does is worthless
• Judges me and my best mate for personal choices that are non of his business
• Has been extremely rude and provocative to me even though I'm 100% civil and typical towards him (and believe me it's not an easy thing for me to do)

-The manager:

• Is always polite and says yes to everything which leads to the bulgarian guy having an attitude like he owns the place
• Promised to tell the bulgarian guy off on the cleaning thing and the hosting people for months thing, but he chickened out and didn't say anything last night (we had a housemate meeting)
• Knows -for sure- what kind of shit person the bulgarian guy is and I'm also sure he suspects his abusive behaviour, and he says the couple's fights and lifestyle create an awkward situation, but says he doesn't like confrontation (ffs grow some balls fucker)
• Says this is a family house and we should be a family, blatantly ignoring the situation with the bulgarian guy
• Has taken him more than 3 weeks to give me and my mate the contract and now that he did our other mate is away on holidays so we have to wait for him to come back for all the housemates to sign -which means I don't have proof of address and I can't register with a GP, so if I get ill, I'm screwed
• In general doesn't recognise part of his responsibilities as a manager
• He has everyone pay the same rent even though his room is twice the size of the second biggest room in the house
• Didn't tell me we had a mouse problem before I moved in
• Hasn't fixed the kitchen ceiling in more than 1 year, so water from the shower drips close to the light bulb in the kitchen (we could get electrocuted)
• Hasn't fixed the ground floor toilet in more than 2 months 
• Hasn't done any proper maintenance for the house at all

(the bullet points that have to do with maintenance also have to do with the landlady that doesn't give a shit about anything but the money)

Update: i spoke to the manager and he said he wants me to stay so we came to the agreement that I will stay, but will not even have to speak to the other guy. Let's see how it goes.

Update 2: Things are not looking good. My mates and I are not even talking to the prick and he declared to the manager he wants us out of the house. He thinks it's us creating problems. Even though he has been playing mind games on us and tries to intimidates us -and does whatever the hell he wants- all the time. His girlfriend is living here still, secretly though and he said he's gonna host his father again! The manager says he's gonna move out by May which means the prick will most probably become the new manager. Therefore I'll have to find new accommodation before May, less than two months before my deadlines!

Update 3: It's March already and the bulgarian guy has been hosting his father for more than a month. Now he's hosting his brother as well. I decided to move out now rather than wait for May. So, I'm now trying to find a room in my uni's halls. Never lived in south London before, it's gonna be an interesting experience.

Update 4: I'm worried about my deposit. In this house you give the deposit to the one who left prior to your arrival. Hence I gave my deposit to the lady that rented the room before me. However, if the manager leaves by the end of the contract who is there to ensure the next tenant will give me my deposit? Also, the situation in the house is unacceptable. It's turned into a commune! The bulgarian guy offered us 20 £ each for bills, but are you serious? His father has been living here for 2 months without permission and his brother for 3 weeks! Ofc we didn't accept the money. Moreover there are no cleaning products in the house and the ones that we have have expired since 2012! When I told the manager he promised to take care of it, but he didn't. The manager -after he found out everyone is moving out after the contract expires (and the fact that I want to move out sooner)- has been a little sneaky bitch; not that he wasn't before, but now it's way too obvious. He complaints about being a manager and not making anything out of it, even though he pays 300£ less on the rent he should pay, since he makes us all pay the same amount of money without taking under consideration the sizes of our rooms. Also, he charges us 120 £ each for bills, but we've never seen a receipt of the costs of the house. Bare in mind we also pay for cable tv even though he's the only one watching and I had to pay council tax even though I'm a full time student -which means I shouldn't.
My nerves are breaking down and I can't study in this house. I need my space and until I get it I'll go crazy. It's not easy to concentrate on my studies while no one here has consideration over me being a student. The manager told me the other day: "Relax and party, why study?". WTF MAN!

Update 5: The bulgarian guy hosted his girlfriend as well for a couple of days, plus has turned our house into a construction site! Even though the contract states clearly it's illegal to deliver any part of our business in/ from the house. Now his brother is cutting wood using a very loud and dangerous tool!
Moreover the landlady came by today and had a talk with one of my mates (and housemates) and he told her about the situation in the house (plus the repairs that are needed) and she had no fucking clue! Which means the fucking manager has been lying to us all along! I NEED TO GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE OR ELSE I'M GONNA TURN PARANOID!

Update 6: It's the end of March and today the landlady found out about everything. EVERYTHING! We spoke on the phone. She's coming today to evict the prick and talk to all of us.... Stressful!

Update 7; She didn't come, but the 'manager' who isn't actually the manager and had no right to make us pay the same rent even though our rooms are way smaller than his-as the landlady told me on the phone-, told us we will have to leave the house by the end of the contract with no right to leave beforehand. So I'm trapped in this shithole until the 17th of May. Which is 1 month before my deadlines... Just great. Also we won't get our deposit back until the end of the contract. Plus the bulgarian guy verbally attacked me -as he did with the landlady on the phone today- and tried to blame me -with no argument ofc. The fact that I'm the only woman in the house makes him think I'm the easy target as he's a sexist and misogynist. I can't live here no more seriously. the landlady chickened out and didn't come, the 'manager' almost cried today during the meeting and my two mates just can't be bothered with this situation. I'm on the verge of paranoia! I can't be disrespected like this and accept it! I wanna move out as soon as I can and fuck everything else! I got a fucking degree to fight for! And in this house it's just impossible!

Update 8: The noisy work is still taking place and when we confronted the bulgarian guy he lied about getting permission from the 'manager'. I need to get the fuck outta this place...

Update 9: The landlady came by today. The Bulgarian guy promised to stop all the shit. And I just found out my other housemate and 'manager' of the house isn't the manager and has been living rent free stealing money from the rest of the housemates.... Oh and the landlady's husband who's a prick as well said -concerning the money thing: "Well, at least you learnt something from this."
What a fucking bellend. Why are landlords in London such scumbags?

WTF

Update 10: We confronted the 'manager' and expect to see receipts and proof that he didn't steal our money.. let's see...

Update 11: It's early April and the manager is trying to involve the landlady who isn't really into it. Also hopefully I will move out next week.

Update 12: The 'manager' said he will only show us the receipts of the bills -to prove that what we've been paying reflects the bills and rent of the house- only if the landlady is there. She got ill so she couldn't come to out scheduled meeting on Friday. Then one of us asked the 'manager' to bring the receipts and when he did and the other person tried to read them the 'manager' flipped and started screaming that he's gonna call the police. He's disappeared ever since. I called the landlady just before the incident to ask whether I'd get my deposit if I left the house 1 month prior to the end of the contract and she said it's ok and if we all want we could just leave now and we'd get our deposits. She doesn't like that we're questioning the manager and she told me on the phone: "Why do you care about all that stuff? Why now? Why don't you all just leave the house and leave this?! No one has ever questioned the way money is managed in the house before!"
The little bitch thinks we don't know she had a secret 'arrangement' with the 'manager'. We're not stupid though and we realise they're both scum and the 'manager' has committed fraud.

Update 13: On Wednesday we got a meeting with the 'manager' and the landlady. Fucking hell is this never gonna end? On Thursday I'm moving out and hope I won't lose my deposit.

Update 14: The landlady revoked her permission for me to leave even though we had an arrangement and an agreement since last week. I have already booked a new place though. Just great...

Update 15: There is so much that has happened these days... I feel so weak and tired... I can't even begin to tell you about me and my mate going to civil bureau, then calling house shelter for advice, then me going to my uni's housing advice service, then having a housemate meeting with the landlady -and her husband- present.... In the end she will deduct the last rent from my deposit and I won't have to pay for bills and stuff. At least that's what she said. Let's see how it goes. We also confronted the 'manager' and he proved that what we've been paying is right (for 2-3 months). There's a lot more proof needed, but for the time being we have to wait. If all goes well, I'm also moving to my uni halls today.

Update 16: I moved out. So far the Halls of my uni are not that bad, but people here are a bit unfriendly and antisocial. On the 16th of April though, I will have to go and clean my room in the previous house and give the keys.