‘With the situation in London as bad as it is, the turning of a blind eye to illegal short-letting – under 90 days – is totally unacceptable but still it goes on’

• GIVEN the current horrific shortage of housing in London, short-letting – in my view always deplorable, is even more of a curse.

The block I live in is managed by Westminster Housing, and many months ago it became obvious that the flat next to mine was being let very short term.

Soho is riddled with it, and precisely what are housing authorities doing about it?

In early May I emailed our housing manager with the details, and he forwarded the information to the leaseholder section of Westminster Housing.

About a month later, I was leaving my flat when I saw and heard two men questioning the then tenant, who told them that she was renting the flat as “an airbnb” and would be there for only another 10 days.

I went down in the lift with these men, who’d appeared to have identification, and said how glad I’d be when something was done about the situation, as the noise and various other issues were driving me mad.

They agreed that it was an awful problem. But after that nothing happened at all.

Time went by, a neighbour living beneath the flat was driven insane by flooding from a plumbing problem in it, and had also discovered an advertisement online for another flat in our building which was being short-let in the same way.

Desperate, I emailed one of our councillors, which had an immediate effect. Somebody from Westminster Housing leaseholder services came charging to our building and went to both flats but reported having found nobody in.

However, far worse, this man denied any knowledge whatsoever of any previous reports about the flats concerned and said my neighbours and I must begin all over again. In fact in a telephone conversation he completely denied that leaseholder services had ever been informed.

Furious, I sent him the dates of the emails I had sent to our housing manager, and his replies, and said that obviously my only hope of getting something done was to go the press.

This resulted in a petrified request for my phone number and a conversation during which I was assured that something would happen.

Later I received a crestfallen email giving me the name of the person in leaseholder services who had actually been dealing with the problem all the time, and apparently still is because after all these months the situation remains unchanged.

I do not blame our housing management, but I do bitterly blame the leaseholder services section, who act as swiftly as trees turn into coal.

With the situation in London as bad as it is, the turning of a blind eye to illegal short-letting – under 90 days – is totally unacceptable but still it goes on.

ALIDA BAXTER
Address supplied, W1