The worrying trend of landlords banning tenants from working from home

23 comments

1. This sounds as though it flies in the face of the “quiet enjoyment” principle in pretty much any lease.

   But as the article says, Section 21 seems to be the way around it.

2. Landlords should go an get an actual job instead of functioning as a parasitic entity upon the working class and the economy. God even Adam Smith hated these people

3. So checking the article, this seems to mainly be where someone is looking for a lodger. So not really the private rental market. Probably more about not wanting somebody in the house all day whilst they are all out at work, using up electric etc, or where there is one of the family members at home all day and they don’t want somebody in the house with them.

4. £1,300/m for a room in a shared house, what the actual fuck.

   Of note though, this article, is talking about people in **shared houses**, I.E. 5 people in a single house, rather than people renting flats or houses outright. It’s also more prevalent amongst people that are renting out a spare room in their house.

   And, let’s be realistic here, there are genuinely possible issues if you have 5 people all trying to WFH in the same house, even more so if some of those WFH jobs aren’t office-based, requiring only a laptop and an internet connection.

   Long and short of it is that if you don’t like the restrictions in these sorts of rentals, then you don’t have to rent there – the landlords are choosing to limit the number of applicants, and that is their right.

   Now a landlord introducing a “no work from home” requirement on someone who is **already** renting there, that’s a completely different story.

5. I can’t see any downsides to simply seizing these people’s property if they’re going to be so draconian about this

6. what? like why the hell should how they work matter as long as you’re still getting paid

7. I’ve not the read article, but from reading comments this is about those who rent rooms with others in a single house.
   I don’t believe it’s fair to say to someone already living somewhere they can’t work from home, but could maybe understand in a situation where to do so would mean they have to be in a communal area and not their private room. I would feel awkward if I had to go to the living room and my housemate was always on teams video calls etc in there. I would be unable to relax untill they had finished work. Also the case of if more than one person wfh maybe the internet can’t handle it and they can’t afford to upgrade etc
   But if wfh is in their private rented room and the internet can handle it and they were willing to contribute a little extra for the electricity can’t see a problem with it.

8. [deleted]

9. Wait til landlords hear what they do for a ‘job.’ Sit at home all day and occasionally phone someone from home to upkeep their own property using a fraction of the money they charged their tenants.

   How about you go out there and actually produce something instead of generating wealth from literally doing nothing to help society.

10. This is nothing to do with the private rental market, it’s flat shares and lodgers.

11. Are Labour going to scrap no fault eviction or are half of them landlords? Could they fit it in around helping migrants avoid Rwanda when they come here?

12. The article mainly discusses examples where tenants are lodgers, but if you search Zoopla you can definitely find examples of live out landlords stipulating that tenants can’t work from home in adverts.

13. Labour need to do something about landlords

    Rents are too high, standards are low, safety in some properties are horrendous

14. The landlords aren’t thinking it through. If your tenant is using your property as a place of business, charge them at business rates instead of the usual rental cost.

15. I remember in 2021 our cunt landlord blaming the cause of the mould was us being inside all day working from home. Never mind the fact there’d been lockdowns where *everyone* was stuck inside all day, or the fact the house had no fuckin insulation, and a broken gutter soaking through the wall.

    Landlords are parasitic scum.

16. eh this was a thing long before covid and WFH

    ” you can have the room but you can’t be in the room “

17. Seems to me that a bunch of these landlords want to rent a room, and then make damn certain you aren’t around to use it. You get to sleep. That’s it.

18. Wtf, what else they planning on telling you that you can’t do when you’re in a house?

    Ridiculous given the price of rent. I know people that can only afford their rent because they don’t have to pay for a monthly travel card for work.

    The mind boggles.

19. In the landlords defence, if shes at home 24/7, the landlord can’t recover the SD card from the hidden cameras in the toilet, have a rifle through her stuff and sniff her underwear in the laundry basket….

    edit /s <—you know why I had to put this!

20. So one was a landlord who actually meant no business registered at the address and the other was a room let where the house shared didn’t want someone working there whilst living there..

    Doesn’t sound like a trend to me..

21. Even as lodgers imagine paying high rent and being told to leave the house at certain hours or days. What if you get sick or can’t plan anything. Or have week off to just relax in your room.

22. The person who wrote this article has no idea what the difference between a tenant and a lodger is

23. As someone whose greedy leech landlord has tried to put the rent up to nearly £1000pcm and now has less than a month to find another place to live, I just want to say they should all be bulldozed into a mass grave like unwanted greyhounds.