Myself and three friends rented a flat in Camden we found in an estate agent's window. For the first few months things were fine; however, in January the boiler stopped working. Numerous calls and emails went to the landlady went unanswered, so we went down to the estate agent. We found the office closed, with the signs removed and the looking through the window even the furniture was gone. This was a very cold winter and having no heating or hot water was awful. So we decided to stop paying our rent and make them contact us. What actually happened was one night a very large man we had never met before came round, told us off for breaking the law and tried to make us feel threatened - one flatmate actually started crying. However I had been to the Citizen's Advice Bureau and asked for proof of his identity, working contact details for the landlady and told him to leave. Contacting the landlady she could not even provide basic information such as whether our deposit was in a deposit protection scheme. The boiler was not fixed until March. We continued to withhold payment until we had withheld the sum of our deposit and we left. It was a bad experience and was one of the factors that contributed towards me leaving London altogether for a life in a city where the rental market is not so broken - as tenants we felt completely powerless, all the advantage was to the landlady.

I have been renting privately for a decade and have moved on average every 1-2 years to suit my work. In that time I have had only one bad experience, when I was a student. The landlord allowed the house to fall into disrepair and did not respond to complaints. I had rented directly, with no agent involved. I think the best way to deal with such landlords is to move out, as I did. This means housing supply is critical - liberalise planning law to allow more building, and rogue landlords will find they cannot get tenants. I would like to make it clear that the rest of the landlords and agents I have dealt with have been fantastic, including landlords I have rented through directly.

Tenants are starting to use websites to rate their landlords and letting agents. Just Google 'Rate your landlord'. Lots of stories on those of tenants who have had all types of experiences.

Dealing with this involves many challenges, both social and strategic. Current rules LAs apply in licencing and managing buy to let vary between conurbations and lack the level of transparency/accountability/engagement with community that can help achieve more effective management of the whole sector including the rogue landlords. One for all compulsory registration scheme should operate with significant penalties for failure to do so;including the possibility of an LA taking the property away from the landlord to be used as affordable social housing owned and managed by the LA. In addition online tracking should be available on every LA website that identifies the location of these properties and their rental status, as noted in the good example set by Bristol.

Our landlord has over 60 Police logs against him. We are a protected tenancy. He has started a 60,000 law suit with no evidence stating we are a business tenancy under the 1954 act we are not. Our case comes up in March. There is no help for us and the awards are derisory. So far we have committed to nearly 12,000. Defending ourselves. This is the conclusion of over 10 years of chronic abuse and harassment. Which includes assault, violent behaviour and interference with our services and now he is using the law to harass and frighten us.

What about the tenants who exploit their landlord? We lost £3000 plus from a tenant who stopped paying rent and it took months to get them out. Lied, kept cats, ruined the floors and carpets and stole curtains etc.it was a lovely home. The stress was terrible. Never will we rent out again like that. No wonder there is a shortage of properties. The law is totally on the side of tenants and the Councils help the tenants to try every delaying trick so they don’t have to house them. There are good and bad on both sides. The law has no common sense in dealing with problems and takes far too long dealing with them. How about DSS payments going direct to Landlords then at least they get their rent? Might make more properties available as a start.

1x private rented landlord (no agency). Rented a 1 bedroom flat with a flat roof. The roof was covered in a large tarpaulin when we moved in and we were told it was being fixed that week. It wasn't fixed four months later when we moved out. At one stage water was pouring through the ceiling like a hose pipe. We had a dustbin underneath it due to the flow. The landlord visited and tried to say it was condensation! We moved out that week and withheld the last month's rent (same amount as the deposit paid) as we knew we'd have to take the landlord to court to get it back otherwise. 1x 2 bedroom flat (rented through an agent). Ok flat but the drains kept blocking up for the whole block. As we were ground floor, it backed up our sinks on more than one occasion. The electricity box did not have a cover, revealing live wires that my dad (an electrician) stated were coming in from the mains and would have killed anyone instantly who touched them. The back door had a 1inch gap around it due to movement, which when the estate agent on a vist requested the landlord fix (as it was not at all secure and freezing cold with a huge draft which we gaffataped) the landlord gave us a section 21 notice (we kept the property immaculate and always paid rent on time). This was obviously illegal but the letting agent made clear the landlord did this to every tenant that complained. Presumably the estate agent didn't care as with each new tenant they could charge admin fees. I have however rented off two landlords (1x private and 1x through an estate agent) who were wonderful. Estate agents do not care at all (it's all dependant on the landlord). I'm very pleased to have now bought a home and am so grateful not to have to deal with landlords anymore!