Don’t settle for less
ASURVEY by housing charity Shelter has revealed that 40 per cent of private tenants in England think cushions are the key to settling into a new home while just 16 per cent think speaking to their neighbours is the most important factor. It’s both shocking and sad, suggesting that some people feel their lives are so transitory it’s not worth getting to know neighbours, and it illustrates the problems of personalising privately-rented homes.
Rental agreements usually forbid tenants from decorating or even putting nails in the wall to hang up pictures. Yet the YouGov survey reveals that 61 per cent of private renters would like to personalise or improve where they live and almost half say they would be happier if they could decorate or improve their homes themselves.
There are currently 11 million people in private rented accommodation in England alone, 1.6 million with children, and numbers are growing throughout the UK. Similarly, tenants who don’t want to rent unfurnished homes, or can’t afford to furnish them, often find themselves having to live with cheap furniture provided by a landlord.
Now residents of Be Living Ltd’s built-forrent developments – be:here Hayes in West London and be:here East India in London’s docklands – have been offered a solution.
Be Living has partnered with Habitat UK to provide one, two and three-bedroom apartments furnished with Habitat furniture and decorated in a contemporary style.
Be:here Hayes one-bedroom apartments start from £1,200 per calendar month (0203 845 4796; behere-hayes.co.uk) and Akash Sharma, assistant property manager, says: “Renting, particularly in London, has become synonymous with cheap, lowquality, furniture. We’re turning that on its head by working with Habitat to give renters wonderfully stylish, high-quality apartments that really feel like home.”
Meanwhile Shelter is working with DIY chain B&Q to provide an advisory service that helps people in housing distress with practical home improvements.
DIY advisers in Birmingham and Sheffield have helped around 200 tenants so far, giving advice on how to put up blinds, paint walls and fit extra locks.
One of the people Shelter helped when she needed to find a new home is Brenda Young, who had to rent after going through a divorce. “In a rented home you are always subject to somebody else’s rules,” says Brenda. “This was a real shock to me when I first started renting again after my divorce.
“You can’t make the place exactly how you want it and there is such a huge difference between a place to live and somewhere feeling like your home.”
Shelter and B&Q’s top tip is to ask your landlord if you can decorate – and get a written agreement before you pick up a paint brush or hammer in a nail.
Once you’ve got permission you can try removable wallpaper, which does not need wallpaper paste. You just peel and stick and when it’s time to leave you can strip it off walls without leaving a trace.
If rooms have curtain poles you can change the curtains or use tension rods to hang voile drapes without drilling into walls.
Even if you can’t get permission to paint you can always paint your own furniture and if you want to hang pictures but are not allowed to use nails, a new generation of adhesive hooks could be the answer.
Table lamps help to soften lighting and you can switch the toilet seat (replacing it with the original when you leave) and use suction cups to stick accessories on to walls.
And don’t forget those cushions – for armchairs, beds and even floors. To get housing advice from Shelter call 0300 330 1234 or go to shelter.org.uk