Room in London flat just £400 a month - with one small, leaky, drawback

A double room in London is up for rent for just £400. It's in a trendy area between New Cross and Peckham, with a modern kitchen and smart bathroom. It seems like an absolute bargain, which will surely be snapped up before you finish reading the advert. However, when you read on, it turns out that this room is being let with water dripping from the ceiling - and nobody is interested in fixing the leak.

The advert has gone up on Gumtree, and is upfront about the leak from the beginning. The listing itself refers to a "Cheap Double Room With SMALL LEAK". The man posting the advert, just known as 'Martin', goes on to say: "Every now and then there are a few drips from the corner of the ceiling, nothing major but it is happening hence the cheap price."

The listing even features a picture of the leak, so tenants know what they're letting themselves in for. If you're willing to overlook the water feature, you can share with two Italian women and an English man, and you can take the room as a couple - keeping your costs even lower.
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Would you?

On the plus side, renting in Peckham is getting increasingly expensive, so this is a cheap room. This is the cheapest double room in the area advertised on spareroom.co.uk - with prices more typically starting around £500 a month.

For anyone wiling to invest in a plumber, once they have signed the paperwork, they could always spend some money fixing the leak themselves, and getting a bargain of a room without this bizarre drawback. Of course, there's always the risk that the fix would be prohibitively expensive, and the leak would get worse the longer you stayed.

Technically this room shouldn't be on the market at all. The environmental health department would have something to say about a room with a dripping ceiling - as it would pose a hazard to health - especially if it gets anywhere near any wiring.

It says a great deal about the shortage of affordable property that not only is this room on the market, but those who are letting it out know that there are enough desperate people on small budgets - and few enough affordable places for them to rent - that someone will eventually decide to make this unusual compromise.

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