By
This Is Money
11:28 GMT, 7 June 2014
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11:28 GMT, 7 June 2014
A tiny London flat that was advertised for rent at more than £730-a-month has been taken off the market after Islington Council stepped in.
The poky room was marketed as a ‘modern studio apartment’, with a bed jammed into a single room alongside a five square-foot kitchen, and attracted the ire of Londoners frustrated with the capital’s soaring property market.
After the listing was plastered over social media and attracted the attention of the press, Islington Council investigated and found it could not be rented in its current state.
Breathe in: Estate agents marketed the £730-a-month Islington flat as ‘modern’ and ‘fully contained’
Cllr James Murray, the council’s executive member for housing, told BBC Newsbeat: ‘This place is a shoebox, not a flat, so we’re serving a prohibition order to stop it being rented out again.’
The council ruled just days after the flat had been successfully let out for £737-a-month that the flat is too small for legal requirements.
The landlord had optimistically manoeuvred a table and chair into the remaining space of the flat in the affluent area of Islington, with a wardrobe almost blocking the door.
In the first 24 hours after it was advertised, the estate agents Relocate Me received a wave of interest from would-be tenants.
Interest: The letters received a lot of interest but were forced to remove the listing to quell the number of abusive phone calls from people berating the price and size of the north London property
It is one of hundreds of flats soaring in price in the capital as experts continue to warn of an imminent housing bubble.
London house prices rose at their fastest rate last month since records began in 1995, to an average of £435,034.
Planning permission for the building was granted in the mid-1990s for use as student accommodation, but it has emerged that the bedrooms have been converted into self-contained flats.
A council office told the Guardian that this problem was widespread in Islington.
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Iang,
Coventry, United Kingdom,
46 minutes ago
It’s time this housing madness was stopped a house is a home not an investment everyone and his dog is jumping on the bandwagon to exploit people needing a home building society’s should be made to stop lending for buy to let taxes should be levied on profits from rents and homes bought but never lived in should be taxed to the hilt to stop people doing it purely for there own gain
Fridaygirl5,
ayrshire, United Kingdom,
2 hours ago
I thought a property had to be legally checked before being rented. The letting agency would have made a contract on a property that wasn’t legally able to be lived in.
elgar61,
Fife,
3 hours ago
The right decision.
Alan,
South West, United Kingdom,
4 hours ago
Many on social security or whatever it is called now have also worked and may be out of work through no fault of their own and want to work. They should not be tarred with the same brush as those who choose the dole as a lifestyle. A very blinkered view.
Kilo Charlie,
My World, Bermuda,
6 hours ago
Ideal for DSS tenants. Anybody wanting anything better needs to work for it.
wxman,
Exeter,
5 hours ago
No such thing as a ‘DSS tenant’ as the DSS ceased to exist in 2001.
Kilo Charlie,
My World, Bermuda,
2 hours ago
Shall we call them ‘unemployed tenants seeking help and assistance from the taxpayer’ then, as I believe this to be a relatively accurate description of them?
lazymaisy,
reading, United Kingdom,
6 hours ago
elf could live there safely
Fabman,
Southend, United Kingdom,
8 hours ago
If people are stupid enough to pay that price for that room then so be it. Only have themselves to blame.
Hacker,
Chainmail, United Kingdom,
10 hours ago
I would move in, pee all over the place and then not pay rent until I was evicted, then I would take my 2100 pound I did not pay in rent, and rent somewhere new. No idea why people pander to Landlords like they are royalty, make them work for it.
2 of 5 repliesSee all replies
Tony,
Brighton,
5 hours ago
Eve, I wish I had written that one – it was sublime.
Kilo Charlie,
My World, Bermuda,
2 hours ago
Hacker- what makes you think all landlords would allow you to get away with this? More to the point, judging by your comments, I think it highly unlikely that any respectful landlord would touch you with a barge pole. A slumlord would rent a room to you and you would obviously, according to your comments, reciprocate this.
Johny Le Fox,
Prenton, United Kingdom,
11 hours ago
I wonder how many tiny cells slip through the net and people live there now? Under the radar, at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords. Why don’t the tories step in? Oh…
MG Worcester.,
Worcester, United Kingdom,
11 hours ago
I think I can picture the greedy landlord,odd that.
acheri1,
warwick,
10 hours ago
me too…………..from what I hear and read most of London has a lot of hidden abodes
soon to reflect the conditions of where many of these people originate…….
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