One consequence of the reprivatisation of old apartment buildings is that the new owners of these houses try to get rid of existing tenants by all means possible, sometimes including methods that are against the law. In our May research, we asked people if they knew of this phenomenon. Only two fifths (40%) said that they had never come across the problem. Over a half (56%) knew of incidents of landlord harassment from the media, while 4% had come across this in their own lives, with 2% stating that it had touched them personally, and 3% that it had touched a member of their family or one of their friends.

Although in the country as a whole, what is popularly known as ‘house cleaning’ may seem to be a marginal phenomenon, it is worth emphasising that 14% of respondents living in cities with a population of over 500 000 had come across it, with 6% saying that it had touched them personally.

More on this subject in the forthcoming CBOS report.