Living in a privately rented home is linked to more rapid biological ageing, according to researchers who tested DNA and found the tenure is associated with twice the ageing effect of obesity and half that of smoking.
The peer-reviewed study of 1,420 UK householders found housing circumstances can “get under the skin” with significant consequences for health, said academics at the University of Essex and the University of Adelaide . Their findings were published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
What, the uncertainty and stress from renting from an individual that can do almost anything with your housing situation on a whim can cause you to wear faster? I’m so surprised! What a revelation! Wow!
I agree with you but I think a lot of renters don’t see their situation quite like that and certainly the vast majority of landlords don’t see it like that.
If this enters the collective consciousness just a bit I think that’ll be good.It’s easy for things to go sour though. I’ve a friend whose landlord comes on spontaneous visits each week. He doesn’t schedule them, he just unlocks the door and invites himself in. None of the tenants like it but they’re worried about bringing up the issue because they’ve nowhere else to live and thus don’t want to sour the relationship with their landlord.
I live in Sweden. That type of private landlordism exists here too, but I’ve made a point to avoid renting from them for precisely that reason. I’d prefer to rent from the government but the wait lists are too long, so private companies is the only option that remains. It’s expensive, but I can lean on the tenants union if the company doesn’t provide what they are contractually obliged to provide. As such I don’t have to worry about the whims of a singular individual, and there’s no “relationship” as such to sour.
There are obviously downsides, but I prefer a more formal/clinical approach you just can’t get when renting from individuals.
You guys have government housing and tenant unions? That sounds amazing from my Canadian perspective!
Union. It’s just the one as far as I know, Hyresgästföreningen, though it exists nationwide.
Government housing in this case are smaller companies owned by individual municipalities, rather than the state. My previous town Nyköping had a landlord run by the municipality called Nyköpingshem. These companies don’t necessarily exist to make a profit, though if they do profit the profits get reinvested generally into the housing, or into the municipality itself. They also sometimes get cash injections from the municipality for specific purposes, e.g. new developments. I think the queue time for a three roomer from Nyköpingshem was like 5-8 years. The government (state) isn’t doing a whole lot to fix the housing crisis, I feel.
So the tenants union serve to negotiate rents with the landlord unions (Fastighetsägarna), with a third party acting as a mediator. Generally rent increases have been done once per year, this year landlords got greedy and tried a second raise (they aimed for 15% first time, and 12% second time). It’s not really something that’s been done before so the union is afraid it’ll set a new precedent.
See, landlords are actually free to set whatever rent they please, and increase it however they please, but the tenant union can push against this, and if its found that rents have been egregiously high, or the landlords haven’t delivered as they should, they’ll need to pay the tenants back.
And so we usually stick to the once-per-year process. Negotiations for next year should start soon, and will generally be finished sometime in the first quarter. This year because of the recession and such, some negotiations really dragged on. My old landlord didn’t finalise their BS until June or so. Then they asked for the rent retroactively. Twerps.
Some landlords have raised a second time already this year. I’m not sure if there’s an official ruling yet, but I read something about at least some of them being forced to pay back their tenants.
Hyresgästföreningen has their own publication, focused specifically on everything around renting.
Oh yeah, there’s no requirement to be a member in Hyresgästföreningen. They negotiate the nationwide rents regardless, so you benefit even if you’re not a member. Though you can generally negotiate individually with your landlord if you so please.
Holy shit, thanks for the super in depth context. It’s super interesting!
Not a problem! I’m glad my long ramble didn’t bore you, haha.
It never feels like yours when you can be removed on a whim. Not having a place to call home is super taxing. Even a mobile home is a home, for most of our history we suspect we were nomadic mostly. But we took home with us and it was ours.
Every six months some 18 year old.walks through my house and judges how I live. I have to hassle some psycho REA to perform basic repairs, I have no agency.
It shouldn’t be shocking that it wears on our psychology.
I have a dope camp set up, with a nice setup for small cooking. I regularly go out, on my own, and spend days away in the desert or the forests nearby. In those moments, I feel a relief that I don’t get at home in my rental. I own my 4x4, I own my solar panels and portable battery banks, I own my tent and so on.
Even though it’s meagre compared to the house I live in, it’s mine.
Living in a place where renting is not the norm, what’s this about 18 year olds coming to your home every 6 months?
Real estate’s do regular inspections, every six months (it used to be 3) These are usually handled by the most junior agents.
If you’re not home they can let themselves in.
That definitely sounds dodgy! Unless it’s an emergency, landlords have to give you notice that they’re coming round and you can tell them no if it’s not convenient.
It’s likely that you have a key to the property, but don’t make the mistake of letting yourself in, even if you are certain the property is empty. This is strictly against the law unless it is legitimately an emergency.
https://www.landlordvision.co.uk/blog/when-landlord-legally-enter-property/
I am Australian.
I’m glad to see the responses haha. I wish more Aussies could see how shocking it is, how far we’ve let tenants rights fall.
Fair, I should have deduced that from the general language in your initial post! This is the UK sub though so you can’t blame me for assuming!
Most states in the US have similar laws. Typically requires 24 hour notice, can be delayed by the tenant’s request, and must be during business hours. (With exceptions for emergencies such as a fire or water leak.)
Yikes, even if agreed upon having to let someone in for inspections every 6 months sounds tiring.
Pretty sure they can only let themselves in if you say they can at the start of the tenancy. When we rented we said no and they could not come in for inspections unless we let them in
‘landlords suck the life force out of their tenants’
Richer people can afford homes and premium care, duh. Correlation, not causation.
Still, fuck landl***s.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The study tracked a process called methylation in people who are part of the ongoing UK Household Longitudinal Survey.
As an observational study, the research was not able to determine what is causing the link between housing tenure and biological ageing, and the DNA samples analysed so far were only from white, European householders.
But the good news for renters is that the process is reversible and “improving or changing the conditions for people with faster biological ageing can correct this”, the authors state.
The authors stressed that the DNA methylation-derived measures are relatively new and more data will be collected to assess how biological ageing markers change over time.
Responding to the study, Dan Wilson Craw, the deputy chief executive of the campaign group Generation Rent, said: “Our home is so important to our health.
Private renters, who face the threat of arbitrary eviction and live in the worst quality housing, are particularly vulnerable to poor health as a result.
The original article contains 545 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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Are Swiss people renting primarily from individuals?
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You must not have corporate run rentals over there. They can be worse than private rentals. There is no humanity behind them so they evict someone as soon as they can. Not to mention the lack of repairs.
Well that explains why I’ve aged like milk!
