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The Property Shop Pay Up! A tenant successfully fights back against deposit theft

In October 2017, Brighton Solidarity Federation was organising with a tenant who was facing a £344 deduction from their deposit after moving out of a house administered by the lettings agency The Property Shop in Kemptown. The tenant approached Brighton SolFed for support to organise a public campaign against this, which concluded successfully with full replayment to the tenant after around one month of actions. Below, the tenant tells the story of their experience of this situation, as well as of the public campaign.

 

Brighton Solidarity Federation concludes its campaign against G4Lets

Brighton Solidarity Federation has concluded its campaign against the student lettings agency G4Lets. The campaign was in support of two groups of tenants who had just over £3000 deducted from their deposits. One group of tenants had £2000 taken from their deposit for fire safety, redecoration, and pest control, in spite of an Environmental Health Report from the council informing G4Lets that these issues were their responsibility to resolve as part of landlords' general obligations to the properties they let out.

G4Lets campaign covered in student paper

This week's Badger - the student newspaper at Sussex university - reported on our campaign against the G4 Lets. The agency - who specialise in renting to students made a group of students live in squalid conditions, the responsibility for which the local council’s Environmental Health Report placed firmly on the shoulders of the lettings agents. The tenants had to live in mice-infested, unsafe accommodation for a year, and then had £2000 illegitimately deducted from their deposit for these costs. Here we reproduce the full account written by one of the tenants, as well as our response to claims G4 Lets make in the article.

Council report shows G4 Lets knowingly flaunted legal fire, pest control duties

Watch the tenants from our dispute with G4 Lets explain that an Environmental Health Report shows that G4Lets neglected their legal decoration, fire, and pest control duties, then charged the tenants for decoration, fire, and pest control.

(Click 'read more' for the full story)

Youngs agency: another horror story emerges

As the public campaign continues to grow, Brighton Solfed are being contacted by other local people who have had similar experiences of the mismanagement of properties by Youngs. In one instance, there were distressing and disruptive consequences for the everyday lives of a couple and their son.
A family living in Kemptown had to suffer raw sewage flowing through their home after unidentified damage to a pipe from flats above - and Youngs failed to investigate the damage until after that their floorboards were sodden and underfloor troughs were filled with dirty water. 

'I own a portfolio of some seventy houses': the millionaire landlords G4Lets are trying to protect with legal threats

Brighton SolFed is continuing its campaign against local letting agents G4 Lets into the new year, as the agency has not yet made an adequate offer to meet the demands of two groups of tenants. Both groups are asking for the return of their deposits and for compensation. In one instance, tenants were charged for pre-existing damage to the house they were living in, which was damp and infested with vermin throughout their tenancy; in the other, tenants have been charged for wear and tear and for redecoration costs, even though they had the interior of the property repainted professionally before they moved out.

Solfed Housing Campaign

AGENCY FEES: THEFT MADE LEGAL

Tenancy agreements often include expensive clauses for things such as the inventory of
the property, having the property professionally cleaned when you leave, and for
various ‘administration’ tasks such as setting up your tenancy, renewing your contract,
and ‘checking in’ and ‘checking out’ of your tenancy.

Topic:

Brighton Solfed Housing Union supports tenant kicked out from sublet

For the past few weeks Brighton SolFed and friends have been supporting a tenant that got evicted with a week's notice!
The tenant, a Spanish immigrant that doesn't speak English at all, had been living in a sub-letted shared room with an other sub-lettee in deplorable conditions of mold. Solidarity Federation helped mediating with the live-in sub-letter, but they refused any facilitation of eviction and responded by violently scaring the tenant to leave the property. After a huge show of support in front of the landlord's flat - where almost 20 members and friends turned up to help -  temporary accommodation was found for the tenant.

G4Lets Refuse to Pay Up: Brighton SolFed's Campaign Intensifies

Brighton lettings agency G4Lets is facing a growing campaign by two groups of tenants organising with Brighton SolFed for the return of their deposits and for compensation after they lived in damp, mice-infested accommodation for a year, and were subsequently charged for pre-existing damage at the properties when they requested the return of their deposits. Both sets of tenants were students at the time of their tenancies.

Ledbury Estate tenants march calling for urgent repairs, next demo Sunday 24th September

 

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