We noticed a few media reports this morning about abusive private landlords across the UK and that ‘thousands’ of tenants have been subject to harassment, threats and assaults.
We were truly shocked at what we were reading. At Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing (ST&R Housing) we pride ourselves on how well we treat our tenants and to know there are individuals out there suffering at the hands of these landlords is terrible.
The reports were sparked by research published by the charity Shelter which stated almost 17,000 people had called its helpline, and that was last year alone!
Reading into the stories, we discovered various case studies which included horrifying circumstances and it prompted us to reassure the public that ST&R Housing has a fantastic record with all of our tenants.
In our most recent survey, 86% of tenants were satisfied with the overall quality of the home and 82% were satisfied with the services provided by us.
It’s important to note that these media reports are highlighting issues with privately rented accommodation, something ST&R Housing cannot be categorised within due to the fact we only offer social housing.
Social housing differs from privately rented properties in some key areas, such as security of tenure. ST&R Housing strives to develop and invest in our communities. 9 out of 10 of our tenant’s expressed their overall satisfaction with their neighbourhood as a place to live.
Many people believe that they are not eligible for social/council housing and chose to rent privately. This is often a myth, with many who think they exceed the criteria, actually tick all the right boxes. By deciding to privately rent, tenants may actually run the risk of coming across a landlord who doesn’t take their issues as seriously as our staff do or in the worst case scenario, come across an ‘abusive landlord’.
We would encourage anyone who is looking into renting a property to see if they are eligible for social housing first as it provides many benefits to residents and many people don’t realise they can move into a ST&R Housing property. To see if you are eligible to register, or if you would like to apply, then please visit https://www.shropshirehomepoint.co.uk.
If you want to make the switch to social housing, please register with Shropshire Homepoint and look out for our property adverts.
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