Performing millennial housing precarity: how (not) to live together

ABSTRACT

The authors are conducting a joint practice as research PhD, concerned with the conditions of millennial precarity. One of these conditions is housing. Having set up a number of experiments within our domestic environment, we created responses through a piece of work we have titled House Box (2017). House Box contains performance writing in the form of scores, sound observations and maps, and an audio tour of the house. The intention is that our work is both created from these conditions, and is about these conditions. This paper defines the term millennial and provides some context for the concept of millennial housing precarity, whilst looking at our lived experience of housing precarity, and utilising extracts and interruptions from House Box.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing
• millennial
• precarity
• renting
• tenant
• performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Grassroots campaigning has been significant in improving private rental regulation; for example, since June 2019 landlords have been unable to charge tenancy fees (such as for signing the tenancy agreement) under the Tenants Fees Bill, and in April 2019 the government announced plans to amend or end section 21, where landlords are currently able to evict tenants through ‘no fault’ with only eight weeks notice. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, in effect from March 2019, means rented accommodation must be safe and fit for human habitation and allows tenants to sue landlords if a property is not fit for habitation. However, at the time of completing this article, the relative legislation has not passed so it is unclear what will happen in practice.

2. This is known as Section 21, and allows landlords to evict tenants without reason and regardless of whether the tenant has broken the terms of the tenancy agreement or not. This hinders tenants’ sense of security in the property.

3. The tenants remaining in the property we write about below still have not received gas or electric safety certificates two years after first requesting them; a family member of one tenant visited and on seeing the wiring advised we move out – he is an electrical engineer. There is a legal requirement to check gas appliances every year under Regulation 36 Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (and certificates must be provided to tenants). There are no legal requirements around electrical safety unless the property is a House in Multiple Occupation which requires a licence.

4. The documentary Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle, describes the move towards ownership and the social cost of this (Sng 2017).

5. Depending on the deposit scheme, landlords may have between ten to fourteen days to initially respond to claims, and disputes over these amounts can take long periods of time to resolve (the scheme means that tenants and landlords can use the dispute resolution service as arbitrator) (Shelter n.d.).

6. Housing co-ops are not as frequently available as private lets. Accompanying issues with shared spaces still stand (negotiating use of space, noises encroaching onto others, mess and dirt and negotiating cleaning), and depending on the status of the co-op, investment capital is still required.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katheryn Owens

Katheryn Owens is a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth. Her research, practice, writing and and PhD is conducted jointly with Chris Green. Utilising performance as a research methodology, their research concerns millennial experience, everyday precarity and friendship as a resistant strategy. Their practice consists of privately sited experiments that culminate in performance writing. Katheryn is based in South Manchester.

Chris Green

Chris Green is a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth. His research, practice, writing and and PhD is conducted jointly with Katheryn Owens. Utilising performance as a research methodology, their research concerns millennial experience, everyday precarity and friendship as a resistant strategy. Their practice consists of privately sited experiments that culminate in performance writing. Katheryn is based in South Manchester.