Collective Action Among Private Tenants

Summary The paper describes the action of a group of low-income tenants,inexperienced in dealing with bureaucracies or in understandingthe complexities of landlord-tenant law, who attempted to improvetheir living conditions by using the Government's Rent Tribunal While the legal remedies provided under the Rent Acts were effective,the tenants were reluctant to use them until they had organizedas a group. This was because of the particular relationshipthey had with the landlady who made it difficult for them todiscuss with her their rights as tenants. Their only way ofchanging this was through collective action We discuss the use of conflict strategies in a short-term issue;that is, in fighting a landlady for better living conditions(both lower rents and adequate repairs). It illustrates thedifficulty of mobilizing a group of people whose ususal everydayexperiences are that it is difficult, if not futile, to takeaction to improve their situation. This is so in spite of machineryset up by the Government to arbitrate over rents for privateproperty. The difficulty lies in the precarious financial positionin which deprived groups often find themselves, making it easyfor them to fall into rent arrears and therefore be liable toeviction from their accommodation. It is difficult also becauseproperty owners are more likely to have easy access to the legalmachinery. These tenants are usually in no position to holda landlord to his side of the contract because they lack theresources to pay the legal fees entailed