4th
May 2022
A renters union activist in dispute with a London letting agent, is using a somewhat left-wing website to make known her groups’ scepticism of lettings agents as well as the Labour party.
In an article on the Tribune website, Sarah Warsama of the London Renters Union, states that her group deems letting agents as what she calls “the landlord’s lackeys” can be taken to task by the group.
Carrying on in the same vein her group is involved in a controversy with a London lettings agency in the past week when an agent was apparently called a “w*****”.
Warsama claims the controversy was caused by a “landlord [who] wanted to increase the rent on our dilapidated property for which we already pay over the odds. In search of a quick buck, they sought a pretext to put us out on the street. In an attempt to force us out, we were served with what we recognised as an invalid eviction notice along with unjustified fines.”
The renters union, a member of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, alongside Generation Rent are highly critical of the Labour Party in the Tribune feature.
She says: “We sought the support of our local Labour councillors and our local MP, Harriet Harman. Shamefully, they palmed us off onto renters’ rights associations after providing no help whatsoever. Harman stated that her role as an MP meant she was ‘unable to assist with private landlord disputes.’
“The refusal of our Labour representatives shows how lacking renters are in terms of political representatives prepared to stand up for them. Labour councils should be using their autonomy to crack down on shameful practices of estate agents and landlords, and MPs should be providing renters in need with their support—not washing their hands of us.”
Warsama concludes her article by writing: “Renters—and young people in particular—are suffering a crushing combination of high rents and low wages, and are struggling to get by. This is a stark contrast to the luxury and comfort enjoyed by the landlord class whose mortgages we pay. Estate agents in general ought to be understood as active participants in this exploitation, and not as some neutral third party acting as a mediator between tenants and private landlords—they are too often the instruments of unscrupulous landlords and are used to exploit renters for all they’re worth.”
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