The flat is close to Hampstead Heath

WOULD you rent a room in a shared flat with a single bed, no central heating and no access to a living room for £1,350 a month?

An advert seeking a lodger for a room in Hampstead went viral this week for its stringent “house rules” in return for… expensive rent.

The property owner of the two-bed flat said the lodger would be unable to use the living room and warned that the violin lessons she teaches in the evenings would be audible from the bedroom.

As well as having no central heating, the ad mentioned: “This space would suit someone working longish hours in the city during the week and leaving the city for the weekends.” “House rules” include no guests, no pets and no noise after 11pm.

After receiving a backlash online, the advert has now been deleted from Spareroom, a marketplace for private renters.

Robert Taylor, organiser at the Camden Federation of Private Tenants, said landlords’ “poor behaviour” when it comes to treating their tenants has always been bad, but the desperation of the private rental market at the moment means they can get away with it.

He said: “That person is being offered the ability to lodge there to live with quite strict rules, pay very large rent and also there’s no central heating in the room. The very sad thing about that is there’s probably quite a lot of people who are desperate to take a situation like that.

“Looking at the rent being asked, a few years ago even in Camden you could have got a flat for that kind of money.

“Now for that kind of money you have to lodge with shared accommodation, which tells you the state of the affordability crisis.

“The one thing that hasn’t really changed is the behaviour of landlords and agents that’s always been quite poor and it’s remained poor but what we’re seeing is they are extra confident in their dealings with tenants because they know that if the problematic tenants don’t cease to be problematic all they’ll do is remove them and get some less problematic tenants to take their place.”

Mr Taylor added: “The situation has always been bad but I’ve never seen it as bad as this and I can’t see how it’s going to get better.”

– See Comment, page 16