Tenants living in east London are facing eviction from their homes.(dailymail.co.uk) |
Tenants living in east London are facing eviction from their homes with hardly any notice by landlords wanting to cash in on the Olympics. Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has seen numerous cases of families being forced to seek last minute accommodation after being evicted by their landlords. In some cases, the tenants are even being evicted illegally by rogue landlords who instead want to use their properties for short-terms lets at inflated rental prices during the London games. Many homes near the Olympic grounds are being let for 20 times the usual rental price during the games. Campbell Robb, Chief Executive at Shelter, said: 'Londoners living in the Olympic boroughs are already suffering from increasingly unaffordable rents, a lack of stability and a minority of rogue landlords who exploit the high demand for homes in the capital. 'Increasingly we are seeing signs that the Olympics are exacerbating these problems, with some landlords looking to evict tenants and re-let their homes to Olympic visitors, without any guarantee that they will be filled. 'But the reality is that we are caught in the grip of a housing crisis that’s been decades in the making. Unless the Government starts to prioritise housing and invest in the decent, secure and affordable homes that London and the rest of the country desperately needs, these problems are not going to go away.' One tenant Ninna Thorhuge told the BBC she had been given just two weeks notice by her landlord that she had to move out. She told the TV station: 'Everything is done in the name of the Olympics. In my mind it's overrated. 'I know it may be good for London but a lot of Londoners who live here get hurt by it.' Housing Minister Grant Shapps told the BBC: 'Landlords should be under no doubt that it is a criminal offence for them to evict a tenant without giving proper notice, and that anyone found guilty of doing this - or of harassing a tenant - could lead to a custodial sentence of up to two years.' The National Landlords Association also condemned the practice - warning landlords it is often more beneficial to have good, long-term tenants in their property. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
住在倫敦東部的租客們正面臨被房東趕走的難題,而且并沒有得到提前通知,因?yàn)榉繓|們想在奧運(yùn)會(huì)期間把房子租給短期游客,大撈一筆。 住房慈善機(jī)構(gòu)“庇護(hù)所”表示,已經(jīng)有為數(shù)眾多的租客家庭在被房東趕走后,被迫緊急尋找住處。 在一些案例中,租客被粗暴的房東非法趕走,因?yàn)榉繓|想借倫敦奧運(yùn)之機(jī)把房子短期出租,租金飆漲。 倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)期間,奧運(yùn)場館周圍的住宅租金甚至達(dá)到了平時(shí)的20倍。 “庇護(hù)所”的執(zhí)行長坎貝爾-羅伯說:“居住在奧運(yùn)場館附近的倫敦人已經(jīng)承受了飛漲的房租,生活缺乏穩(wěn)定,還有少數(shù)粗暴的房東利用倫敦的住房高需求謀利?!?/p> “如今我們?cè)絹碓蕉嗟乜吹?,奧運(yùn)會(huì)正在加劇這些問題。雖然無法保證客源,但一些房東還是想趕走租客,把房子租給奧運(yùn)游客?!?/p> “但現(xiàn)實(shí)情況是我們正身處持續(xù)了幾十年的住房危機(jī)中。除非政府開始重點(diǎn)解決住房問題,投資興建體面、安全、人們負(fù)擔(dān)得起的住房,這些住房也是倫敦民眾和英國其它地區(qū)的民眾急需的,否則這些問題無法解決?!?/p> 租客尼娜-托爾哈格告訴英國廣播公司(BBC)的記者,房東已經(jīng)告訴她,在兩個(gè)星期內(nèi)搬離。 她說:“任何事情都在拿奧運(yùn)說事,我認(rèn)為這有點(diǎn)過頭了。” “我知道承辦奧運(yùn)對(duì)倫敦可能有好處,但很多住在這里的倫敦人卻受到了傷害?!?/p> 英國住房事務(wù)大臣格蘭特?沙普斯告訴BBC:“房東們必須清楚,在沒有提前通知租戶的情況下就將其趕走,這是違法的,任何這樣做的人,或者騷擾租客的人都將面臨最長兩年的監(jiān)禁?!?/p> 英國國家房東協(xié)會(huì)也對(duì)此表示譴責(zé),提醒房東有個(gè)長期的好租客其實(shí)更有利。 相關(guān)閱讀 倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)公布口號(hào):激勵(lì)一代人 英國推出奧運(yùn)旅游折扣 鼓勵(lì)民眾國內(nèi)度假 倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)引發(fā)天價(jià)房租 (中國日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 Julie 編輯:陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: cash in on: 趁機(jī)利用,賺錢 last minute: 最后一刻,緊急關(guān)頭 |