Life swap ... landlords are being given the chance to live like their tenants
(The Guardian Money News)

Will they put up with the terrible conditions some tenants have to suffer? A new BBC programme is putting them to the testLinda is 66, lives alone and sets her alarm for 4.30am to start work as a carer for children with special needs. She has taken on three jobs a week, despite being close to pensionable age, to earn enough to pay the £950 rent on her two-bed flat in Chadwell Heath, a workaday suburb on the fringes of east London. The bathroom hot water tap seized up long ago. Half the rings on her electric cooker aren´t working. The smell from the mould and damp is overpowering. And, after paying her rent and bills, she is left with just £54.12 a week.Father and son Peter and Mark are her landlords. They own £7m-worth of property, making £15,000 a month. `It´s just the best way of becoming wealthy,` says Mark, 36. `Some people are saving for their first home. I´ve got 40.` Continue reading...