Why I’ll be fighting for a rent freeze across England and Wales this winter

theguardian.com:

At the height of the pandemic, I received a letter from the letting agent that managed the flat I was renting. I opened it, thinking it would be about the broken heating system I’d been complaining about since winter. Instead, the letter stated that my rent would be going up by £50, with no mention of the repairs.

I could have just about covered the rent increase, but after the agent continued to ignore my requests for repairs, I decided to cut my losses and find somewhere else to live. I was fed up with having to shower at friends’ houses and couldn’t face another winter living in a flat so cold that frost formed on the inside of the windows.

Eventually, I found a “studio” to move into. It was the former kitchen of a house converted into a box room with space for a bed and not much else. It cost almost £1,000 a month and I started to encounter problems as soon as I moved in. When I told the letting agent that the shower leaked every time I used it, they said, “Try having shorter showers.” Other requests for repairs were ignored.

Then, in June this year, just as the cost of living crisis was starting to bite, the agent told me the rent would be going up by at least £200 a month. My heart sank – there was no way I could pay 20% more.Before I was even given a formal section 21 eviction notice, a legal requirement in England and Wales, I spotted my home advertised online at a higher rent. After I said I couldn’t afford a big increase, I was told I would have to leave in two weeks, on the day my contract was due to end, even though I had paid until August.

When I contacted my union, the London Renters Union (LRU), for support, they explained that the agent was acting illegally by trying to evict me without serving the proper