COUNCILLOR Maureen O’Mara warned against a “return to Rachmanism” at a council meeting last week.
O’Mara said the borough had a “hidden population” living in houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) at risk of exploitation.
The Greenwich West councillor, who has cabinet responsibility for community safety, said:
“HMOs are growing and growing and what they’re doing is exploiting the kind of people forced to go and live in these kinds of accommodation. What we need to do is find out where they are because… I think there is a huge hidden population living in our borough who we don’t know about. We need to tackle this problem because if we don’t, we could see a return of Rachmanism.”
The term “Rachmanism” refers to the type of exploitation of tenants that was practiced by London landlord, Peter Rachman in the 1950s and 1960s. Councillor O’Mara added:
“Rachmanism is something we can never go back to because people’s lives were made hell by Rachman. As a local authority, not just here but across London, we need to do something about rooting out what’s going on in houses of multiple occupation and make it clear to these landlords that we’re not going to put up with it, and we’re going to deal with it.”
Councillor O’Mara was answering question on HMOs in the borough from Eltham South councillor, Eileen Glover at the full council meeting on Thursday evening at Woolwich Town Hall.
It’s a shame that they don’t vet landlauds and carry out regular inspections. If they did, then chances are that landauds like XXXXX XXXXX would have been stopped from renting property years ago! Anyone who’s visited his property XX XXXXX XXXXX would know what I mean! Absolute hole! leaking cealings and roof, Water dripping through into the bathroom lights when it rains, Buckets all over the place to catch water, Filthey carpets, cracked stair rales, Soaking wet floors (due to roof leakage) Cracked walls, Mouse infested) need I go on? Anyway, it’s not my job to do the council’s job for them…
Greenwich resident – I have removed the name/address you mentioned from this comment but I have passed the details onto the council for them to investigate the case you mentioned.
Thanks for passing this on to the council Rob. In reference to the roof, it has been filled with what appears to be a paper based substance multiple times, this is evident if you look directly up at the roof when at the top of the stairs with the balcany window directly in front of you. I might also add that the main entrance/exit from the house has an old style lock on it and there is no key there in case of fire, etc.
The new rules on Housing Benefit mean that single people under the age of 35 will not receive any benefit if they want to live alone and rent a self-contained flat or house, so they are forced to take rooms in shared accommodation. Supposedly this would account for the rise in occupancy of these HMOs. As usual, the lowest wage earners and unemployed are penalised in the housing “system” of this country.
I am sure the Council already has the information that Councillor O’Mara is asking for (details of the people who are living in the borough’s HMOs). A realistic way to help the “hidden population” of these people who live in this type of accommodation would be to highlight and promote the services that are provided by the Council to deal with landlords who, for example, do not repair their properties; refuse to refund deposits; set unfair rents. The Council has environmental health officers to deal with disrepair in private property, and there is a fair rent officer as well. So maybe these services should be explained in detail in Greenwich Time, along with any other relevant information? Once people know about these things and access them, the “hidden” will become “visible” and rogue landlords will be dealt with…….hopefully.