A woman who advertised a less-than-ideal Hampstead Heath Park living space on a U.K. platform is now being roasted for the subpar listing. Not only was the price way too high for the space being offered, commenters complained, but potential tenants would also be subjected to quirky, perhaps unreasonable, rules.
‘Lovely room available by Hampstead Heath Park’
Alice Bowmer recently listed a small living space in her home on the property rental site, Spare Room. “Lovely room available by Hampstead Heath Park” the listing boasted, before getting down to the nitty-gritty. While the room doesn’t look half bad, some of the trade-offs for living there do. For starters, the landlord made clear that the bedroom is where the bulk of the living would happen.
“We would share the kitchen, bathroom and living room,” the post explained. “Note on the living room: my work commitments unavoidably mean this space is occupied from 4-8.30pm Mon-Thurs. Because of this, the flat is more likely to suit a professional working in the city during the week at these times so this is not a problem.”
It was explained that the “work commitments” are, erm, teaching violin. There is another noise-factor, too. “The flat sits right next to the overground line and you can hear the trains from the flat,” the listing notes. So, between passing trains and violins, a high-threshold for noise seems like a must-have personality trait of any would-be tenant.
Regardless of those admissions, the listing explained that noise from the tenant won’t be tolerated. In the “house rules” section of the listing, it explained that there should be “no guests, no pets, no use of the living space, no noise after 11 PM”.
The room isn’t cheap, either. It costs £1350 (which comes out to around $1,646 in the U.S.) plus a hefty security deposit.
Unsurprisingly, soon after the listing went live, it was reposted on X (formerly Twitter) where the internet collectively doubled over. The reposter, Sophia, shared photos and details of the listing, writing, “Anyone looking for a single bedroom with no heating where you can’t make noise and can only be home from 8:30pm to 8am (weekdays only)? Here’s one for a bargain (£1350)!!!”
‘It’s not even all that cheap’
“It’s not even all that cheap, even for the area,” wrote @sleeepysandy. “So basically this person wants a ghost to pay for haunting her flat,” commented @Sneekychalker. Folks were particularly critical of the no-guest policy and what they saw as an unreasonable schedule ask.
“No guests? You can’t even have a friend round to sit in the bedroom with you like a teenager” wrote @spamvicious. “If you fart between 10 and 4, she calls the police,” joked @mike_harrigan.
But not everyone saw the issue with the listing or the landlord’s asks. “There’s a shoe for every foot. Leave this person alone if you’re not the shoe ?? This is weird” wrote @bodhi_roots411. “wow you did a really good job at posting word for word what they said and then twisting it into something completely different” added @whotookbeegoe.
‘Sometimes life gives us these challenges and we have to find a way to cope with them’
Alice Bowmer told the Daily Dot (shortly before removing the ad altogether), that she listed the ad out of necessity. “Unfortunately this is my reality,” Bowmer explained. “I have a very expensive property (because of crazy mortgage rates) but I work seven days a week for very long hours using the only available living space, which is unavoidable for at least some of this time.”
The landlord admitted that some of her requests may be specific, but said she currently has a very happy tenant living in the space and says she is hopeful she will find another. “Sometimes life gives us these challenges and we have to find a way to cope with them,” she shared.
With UK mortgage rates continuing to rise, Bowmer would hardly be the first modern homeowners attempting to find a solution to footing the bill for modern living. It’s surely not easy, especially for solo homeowners. Of course, perhaps, sharing the living room might’ve been a less rage-inducing offering.
Still, the internet seems to have gotten revved up in a hurry due to the fact that the post highlighted something that is so sad, and so true: it’s just so incredibly hard to find a suitable place to live these days that checks all the boxes. And even if you do, you’re likely to shell out most of your earnings just on rent.
So, perhaps the real villain here isn’t Bowmer. It’s capitalism, and living in a modern society so few can actually afford without making major compromises that just feel unjust. And also, trains and violins.
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