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From SpareRoom adverts offering sheds converted to bedrooms and a mattress-cum-desk to people asking for £550 a month of your hard-earned cash to live in a tent in their sitting room, it’s fair to say there are some pretty dodgy landlords in London. But if you’re a crappy landlord asking people to live in cupboards for £40 a week or spend their nights sleeping in a house with an actual tree growing through it, then it’s time to start running scared because super Mayor Sadiq Khan is going to start ‘naming and shaming’ rogue landlords who exploit their tenants in a new online database aiming to help protect the two million private renters living in the capital.
The online database, which will be published on the London Mayor’s website, will list criminal landlords and letting agents who have been successfully prosecuted for housing offences, so you can check out who you could be renting your new pad from before signing anything. You’ll also be able to report suspected criminal landlords or lettings agents. The list is due to be launched in the autumn with records provided by six London boroughs, including Camden, Newham, Brent, Southwark, Kingston and Sutton. Records from other boroughs will be made available early next year.
Sadiq said: ‘I have seen first-hand the abysmal conditions that some of London’s private renters are forced to endure as a result of rogue landlords. To help renters, I will be working in partnership with London Boroughs to launch my new “name and shame” database of criminal landlords and letting agents to help Londoners before they rent a property, and to deter dishonest landlords and agents from operating.’
Now, if only there was a database for annoying housemates.
Image: DodderyIceDry/Flickr.
In other news, a 100-year-old Waitrose sign has been uncovered in Pimlico.