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People are sharing their renting horror stories on Twitter

It's tough out there.

Tim Chester

on April 27, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

LONDON -- Renting in London has long been an arduous and expensive affair. High rents, dodgy accommodation and lazy landlords. With the mayoral election next week many tenants have had enough.

They've been sharing photos depicting their renting experience on Twitter and Tumblr with the hashtag #VentYourRent, which was launched by Generation Rent to highlight the issue.

The result is an outpouring of horror stories, featuring damp apartments, mice infestations, absent agents and sky-high costs. Rent can take up to 72% of a Londoner's salary, a survey last year revealed.

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Here are some of the issues highlighted by desperate tenants as the hashtag trending overnight into Wednesday.

The lack of basic appliances.

Or furniture.

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Or even heating.

The damp.

The fumes.

The unexpected extra flatmates.

The roofs that cave in.

The unscrupulous agents.

And the landlords.

The endless building works.

And of course the cost.

“The candidates for Mayor describe London as the greatest city on Earth, but as long as growing numbers of people are paying huge sums to live in squalor, they'll have a lot of work to do to make that a reality," Generation Rent's Policy Manager Dan Wilson Craw told the Evening Standard.

"The hashtag #ventyourrent is unearthing the scale of common problems like damp and mice, all the way up to the most shocking experiences like poisoning, ceilings falling in and bullying landlords and letting agents. When London goes to the polls, the two million renters in this city need to make their voices heard.”

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Tim Chester

Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.