Letting agents who conduct ‘bidding wars’ by telling prospective tenants they will have to offer to pay even more money every month than the advertised rent have been warned they will be targeted by angry tenants keen to stamp out the practice. Members of the tenants and community union Acorn have launched their latest campaign against the letting agents who routinely practice the phenomenon of ‘bidding wars’, which encourage prospective tenants to offer hundreds of pounds a month more to be the people chosen by the landlord to secure the tenancy.
The practice, which is not illegal but was banned in New Zealand early last year, has increased in frequency in Bristol in recent years because of the demand for rented property vastly outstripping the supply.
Read more: Renters fight back tears as they tell of trauma of Bristol housing crisis
Last autumn, tenants and Acorn members gathered outside City Hall to share their experiences of the housing crisis in Bristol, and one of the key shared experiences was being told to offer more than the advertised rent, because dozens of other people were applying to move into the same property.
At that unofficial Renters' Commission, there were tears and anger at the treatment of tenants by landlords, letting agents and council housing chiefs, with many saying they were being priced out of the city by the practice.
On the Saturday before Christmas, Acorn launched the new ‘Ban the Bids’ campaign with a march in Lawrence Hill and Redfield, visiting letting agencies that undertake the practice. It claimed one agency promised to stop telling tenants to bid more for a property, out of four to be visited.
“We will be campaigning on this in earnest in January, taking action against the letting agents that continue this shocking practice and making sure that 2023 is the year that Bristol becomes the first ‘bid-free city’,” said Michael McNeil, Acorn’s Bristol secretary.
“Rental bidding wars, which have quickly become commonplace in Bristol in recent years, see letting agents pitting prospective tenants against one another to force up the price of rent. This practice is driving many renters deeper into poverty, fuelling the cost of living crisis and breaking apart communities.
“The new campaign, Ban the Bids, draws attention to the broken renting system that exists in our city and calls on letting agents across Bristol to put an end to the bidding wars that have become a key part of that.
“Renters in our city are being hammered,” added Michael. “Letting agents are cashing in on the housing crisis by playing renters off against each other to force up the price of rents. These ‘bidding wars’ are destroying our communities.
“Bidding wars are unacceptable at the best of times. But during the cost of living crisis, this greed is pushing renters deeper into poverty and forcing many families out of the city they grew up in,” he added.
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