The Rent Trap

Rosie Walker

Corinne fishes in a cardboard box for some cups, boiling water in a pan on the hob because she hasn't yet unpacked her kettle. 'It's annoying that the cooker is different every time you move', she says, fiddling with the controls. She's been in her new south London flat for a week, and likes it. There's a huge cheese plant in the corner of the living room, and a decked balcony that she's looking forward to sunbathing on.

She had been dreading telling her son that they were moving again. He celebrated his seventh birthday in the last few days at the old flat, and – to Corinne's surprise – did not object to packing up his presents as soon as he had opened them. This is their fourth home in five years. 'In the end, he took it well', says Corinne. 'I was surprised at how mature he was about it.'

Corinne (not her real name) is 33, with a well-paid job in policy for a campaigning charity. She has a good university degree, specialist skills, and is articulate and smart. But buying a home of any kind is out of the question, for good. Hers is no horror story: there have been no cockroaches, no dodgy wiring fixed with Sellotape by letting agents, no beds in sheds, no landlords with baseball bats. She is not on the run from violence or debt or the courts. She is simply a private renter in 2015, and her story is an everyday one.

Her son could have found out about the house move by accident, when a woman from a well-known high street letting agent tried to let herself into their home without permission, to take photographs.

Corinne had been paying £1,150 per month, excluding bills, for a two-bedroom flat in south London near to her job – an amount that used up most of her salary. 'It was nice; we stayed for two years', Corinne says, in a way that makes two years sound like a lifetime. After two years, the landlord demanded an extra £100 a month, though no improvements had been made to the flat. Corinne could not afford it, and negotiated the increase down to an extra £25 per month. Her landlord owns 90 flats in London and Kent.

Shortly afterwards, the letting agent who for legal reasons we shall call Denfields (not its real name) telephoned to ask if they could come and take photos. Corinne contacted her own letting agent to ask what was going on. 'They said "haven't you got the letter? Your landlord's putting the rent up to £1,300, effective from next month." But I hadn't been told anything', says Corinne.

Corinne went away for a week, trying to ignore daily emails and phone calls from Denfields, saying they wanted to go to her flat and take photos. When she returned, she called them and asked what they wanted to take photos for. '"I live here!" I said. "I haven't said I'm moving out!"' She called her own letting agent who said they didn't know. 'Then, within an hour, they'd emailed me a Section 21, and told me that a rent increase of £125 per month applied to the two-month notice period.'

Corinne contacted Renters' Rights London, who explained that rent cannot legally be increased in this way. But Section 21, the part of the 1988 Housing Act that allows a landlord to evict with two months' notice and without having to give a reason, cannot, in most cases, be legally challenged. For Corinne, it was devastating. 'The landlord had total disregard for his tenants. And to try to make me pay an extra £250 at the end, when he was the one making me move out and leave the community my son goes to school in – I was furious.'

Denfields kept up the bombardment of calls, demanding to be let in to take photos, but Corinne was busy at work. They even emailed to accuse her of changing the locks – a legal right that tenants have, but that Corinne had not used. It was then that she realised they had been trying to get in without her permission. Tenants must give explicit permission for anyone – even the landlord or agent – to enter their home, even if they have keys, but the agents from Denfields seemed unaware of this law and emailed Corinne's landlord to say that Corinne was 'not co-operating.

Corinne's son had had a difficult term at school, but had eventually settled. She didn't want to tell him the news until she had secured a new home, so she could say for certain whether or not he would have to move schools, and she knew that agents coming to take photos of his home without explanation would unsettle him. 'I didn't want him lying in bed at night worrying about all the possibilities, and where we might end up', she says. Besides, she didn't want her 'whole life on show' online.

When she explained this to her landlord, adding that she had no legal obligation to pay any extra rent without a new tenancy agreement, he replied that if she 'co-operated', she wouldn't have to pay the £250. 'I felt that was like saying "You've got less money than me, so I'm sure you've got lower levels of integrity",' Corinne says. As if I were only pretending to care, and that it could easily be remedied with £250 – which was mine anyway.'

Knowing that Denfields had tried to get in without her permission changed everything. 'After that I wanted to get out all the sooner, because I'd stopped feeling comfortable there. I started double locking the door, putting the chain on when I was at home. It's not that I thought my life was threatened or anything, it's just that I didn't feel safe in my home in the way that I used to. I didn't know who else the agent might have given keys to.'

Corinne grabbed every spare moment she could to look for a new home without her son noticing. After getting advice, she emailed the tenancy relations department at Southwark Council, asking them to carry out their legal duty to protect her from harassment – even if that just meant emailing the landlord and agent to explain the law. 'The council guy backed up what Shelter and Renters' Rights London were saying, but when I asked him to put my rights in writing he seemed annoyed because he didn't want to have to type an email. It took him four working days to reply, which is a long time when you're dealing with an urgent situation', Corinne says.

Nevertheless, Southwark Council's tenancy relations officer eventually did his job, and emailed the landlord and both sets of agents to explain the law: that Corinne had no obligation to pay increased rent for the final two months as nothing had been agreed, and that no one could enter Corinne's home without her permission. Simply giving twenty-four hours notice is not sufficient, regardless ofwhat any tenancy agreement says, since a contract cannot trump the law. He warned the landlord and Denfields to seek legal advice before entering. Corinne shows me all the emails, including one from the landlord threatening to 'implement' the unauthorised rent increase for the final two months because she was not being 'co-operative'.

Denfields ignored the...