No pets, no children, over-priced, damp, no double glazing,

Wrong town,  but a converted mental home looks amazing,

If they let in cats, we’d move to that nut-house on the hill,

And annoy all the residents, the rich ones, not the ill,

 

 

Landlords, many subtle signs question your commitment –

Homes without foundation are like gyms with no equipment,

No white goods ,  the cellar neatly stacked with all your stuff,

Six months for us to pay your council tax ? For us it’s not enough,

To help convince me that this home is mine this time

A small suggestion, you could remove the ‘For Sale’ sign,

 

 

We’ve been stung by such dishonesty before,

Made a home for half a year, then shown the door,

Rent paid, hearth warmed, curtains up, decorated,

When told it was short-term, this info was backdated,

We were told it could be our home for many years –

Instead our stolen dreams have costs in pounds and tears.

 

 

Our problems with landlords, I’m afraid, are not only recent

In a twelve year search for somewhere and someone decent,

I’ve been on first name terms with a million mold spores,

Leaks and broken windows, our feet going through floors,

Faulty drainpipe, rotten window-sill, each made me quite ill,

The agencies that did not care as long as we paid our bill,

 

 

Then we found our home and the world seemed more bright,

A rainbow embraced it in welcome, it all seemed so right,

We received flying colours at the agency inspection,

And then, months later, that letter of rejection,

 

We won’t regret our happy home, our memories stay true,

But I own my distrust, another landlord could make us blue,

Tax payable on empty houses, sellers’ market, prices rising –

That more like us are taken for a ride is not surprising,

So to those with two or three houses to themselves alone

Close up loop holes, play it fair so that others have a home.

 

Antonia Sara Zenkevitch