Chances are, if you're in your twenties you've lived or still live in bleak conditions. Housing is one of the most important issues for young people right now. We live in a time when a flat with a shower under the bed and no toilet can cost you £520 p/m. We live in time when music venues are being destroyed to make way for houses that no-one can afford to live in. We live in a time when rent rose nearly 10% on average last year – and pretty few of us saw a wage rise that nice. We live in a time when it's more or less out of the realms of possibility that you or someone you know doesn't have a story that begins, "Jesus, I lived in this place once ... "

The reasons for inching through life in atrocious accommodation are many – it can be because you chose/were forced to share living space with a human being you go to bed dreaming about pushing off a bridge. Maybe you pay £800 a month to live in a flat just off Brick Lane that reminds you of a public toilet. Maybe your landlord comes round every day to ask if it's "cool if he chills for a couple of hours". Maybe your flat is haunted. There's really nothing you can do about that. Ghosts are really difficult to get rid of and don't fall under pest control's remit.

I once lived in a big house that became infested with rats. We left trails of poison and they died slowly under the floorboards – there's really no smell like it. Once the poison stopped working, we left glueboards out with bits of food. We'd hear them, stuck, screaming to be released. We'd have to pick up the boards, take the rats outside and kill them with a shovel. Like war veterans may come home different men, with that 20,000 yard stare and an inability to truly emotionally connect anymore, I wonder what effect witnessing countless rodents being spaded to death has had on me.

But enough about me – we want to hear from you. We 're collecting the UK's best stories about the worst housing nightmares. Do you think you can tell us a story about how really fucking awful your living situation was/is in 100 words or under? Miserable photos welcome. Deadline is the 7th April, the best ones will be published on Dazed in the next month.

Please email housinghorror@dazedgroup.com to tell all.