To think being a tenant is an absolute misery

In my area (Surrey) it's £800 for just a room in a house!!

I think the issue is a housing system gone wrong rather than individual landlords. You're right, there is a place for private landlords. The problem is, unlike when I was younger and rented, it's no longer primarily young less settled down people. It's also increasingly inaccessible to the lowest waged (and someone has to do those jobs so it's not an answer to tell everyone to get higher paid jobs). It suited me when I did it. As I got older, married and had kids, I needed something more settled. There's no guarantee of security with private renting. Like the OP says, tenants can never relax never knowing if and when they might have to move. Disruptive, stressful, and expensive.

It's also not the answer for the lowest waged or disabled people. Few private landlords accept benefits.

When I was young and renting, most people moved on when they got to a settled stage of life. Either they bought or for those who couldn't afford it there was social housing.

I agree the answer isn't to make all landlords sell up. What is needed though is more social housing.

Because it's humiliating

I know right. It costs way more than £700 to move house! That's before you get into the cost of two lots of rent, two lots of council tax (because there's always an overlap) and all the incidental costs that pile up - eg one place I lived didn't have a fridge, so I bought one. The next place the landlord provided one (yay) but refused to move it (boo), so I got fifty quid for it after entertaining a succession of chancers on facebook marketplace (while co ordinating a move that suited jobs, schools, packing up mine and my kids' entire lives, cleaning the entire house etc etc) ... two months in the fridge in the new place broke and the chancy fucker had the cheek to ask if I still had my old fridge. Yeah I wish pal. Fucking clown.

Only 700? Do you have any idea how much it costs to move, especially if you don't happen to have a bunch of burly friends who can help you lift furniture?

You have to do background checks! Do you have any idea how much admin and disruption happens when you move house?

A whole year's security? Do you know how long the wait lists are at some schools?

You are really very clearly demonstrating how unbalanced the power balance is.

And yet some posters are demanding all LL sell their homes. 🤷 Others say they fear their LZl selling their home. It's clear that LL can never do right by everyone.

The tenant can also end the contract and they only have to give one months notice meaning LL has to pay to resdvertise and do a whole bunch of credit checks on a new tenant. It cost me £700 if a tenant leaves to get my EA to advertise my property, show around prospective new tenants, do all credit checks, and to sort through the applications. That's on top of a deep clean cost. It works both ways, whereas LL's have to give 2 months notice. Also many LL's including myself give a 1 year fixed term contract so tenants have longer term security than 2 months, then I renew the contract at the end of each year. Hence I've got one tenant that has been with me for 8 years and 2 other tenants for 6 years each. The government were planning on taking away tenants 1 year security. My tenants tell me they prefer it.

The tennant has no real choice, though. It is a nationwide issue, so they can't go elsewhere without moving to Germany. Once they are in, the tennant had no real power to re negotiate how they live, as the downside/ cost of "walking away" is so large.

It's not a fair contract / negotiation because there is a very unequal balance of power. If the landlord decides to end the contract, then the tennant is forced to move house (with all the costs, and the stress of finding a new property) change the kid's schools etc, etc.

It's not fair that one person has the right to so completely control the lifestyle of another person just because the floor might get some scratches.

Oh, you should have been my tenant. I had a cheap, gorgeous house, I fixed everything all the time and just wanted a nice reliable long term tenant.

You could have had kids or pets, or even decorate as you liked. I live overseas so would never have done spot checks. My approach was it's your home but my property and together we make it work for you.

Sadly my tenants were a string of awful chancers who wrecked my house and ripped me off. I ended up losing my house and don't have a place in my home country anymore.

I wish I'd found a tenant like you 15 years ago.

That sounds awful! We have been so lucky with our landlords, they've been round about 3 times in the last 6 years, actually had a little look around only once, are quick to repair anything, allow us to redecorate (and are very happy about it, it was in need of redecorating), and do bigger diy jobs like skimming walls, sanding and varnishing the kitchen floor, laying carpets (we haven't actually done this one but if we did replace the stair carpet I can't see them being anything but grateful)

Our rent is less than the going rate in our area and has risen £100 in 6 years. We had 3 dogs when we moved in (2 have passed away so we're down to 1, and will get another when she passes)

They're awesome landlords, and we try to be awesome tenants in return, fixing what we can without bothering them, looking after the place and always paying on time.

Just a note – you don’t have to tell a LL you’re a recipient of benefits.

I rented somewhere out, and lots of people asked if it was ok when first getting in touch. But it’s not something you need to disclose.

has been the most eye opening 18 months of my life, and I feel SO sorry for people that are stuck renting. It has a genuine negative impact on my mental health. The constant reminders that it's not your home, never feeling relaxed

You're right OP (and I'm glad for you that you no longer have to privately rent). The housing system is definitely fucked, and I agree with another poster who mentioned private renting's relevance to the increase in people suffering poor mental (and physical) health. Social housing is different as the secure tenure makes all the difference.

I was on another thread earlier about temporary accommodation for homeless women. Dire. Very unsafe conditions with violence and sexual assaults from other residents. Many of those women are homeless because they fled DV, which often leaves them penniless and unable to rent privately (few landlords accept benefits). It made me think of the posters who jump on women here when they post for help on DV. I've seen vulnerable women criticised for not LTB and insisting anything is safer when that's not always the case. I can imagine the inability to feel safe and settled in a home of their own must be especially difficult for these women.

With the GE coming up, housing especially the need for more social housing, should be one of the main issues focused on imo.

So a 19 year old doesn't have enough "life experience" to be able to know if a handle was destroyed on a dishwasher? Do you refuse to deal with anyone in a workplace who is 19 because they don't have enough "life experience"?

I couldn't care less if the person taking photos of my home is 19, or 99 - what difference does it make?

This is typical MN - people thinking they are entitled to "rights", to live in someone else's property and the owner should just hand it over and leave them to it, never ask them to leave, jump to it when something needs fixing but if the tenant breaks/damages something apparently that's just fine.

And yes, I rent.

What is wrong with you? The LL owns the house, why shouldn't they have the power to make choices about what the tenant is allowed to do. Do you really think a tenant should be allowed to do whatever they like with someone else's house??? Would you really buy a property then tell a tenant they can do whatever they want with it, treat it however they wish - why not let them trash it?

If people are so against renting then they should find a way to buy their own house.

Also for all you people who think LL = bad, tenant = good, my landlord also owns another property in town, which the tenant absolutely trashed. My poor landlord is still upset about it over a year later.

Have had some awful landlords over the years, all in different ways

• First LL - moved in and the kitchen was all dirty, everything needed scrubbing. LL in person when we mentioned it, with a straight face – yes, they won’t be getting their deposit back. (No effort or cost contributed on his part to clean it up 🤦🏻‍♀️) Same landlord suggested wooden mouse traps to handle the vermin issue a few months later.
• Landlady who let herself into my flat to fill her mop bucket for the landing. She’d assumed I’d be out. Same landlady would send angry messages on the morning my rent was due if it wasn’t in yet. Quote: “Why are you like this?”.
• Same landlady and husband: Went off on holiday the week I moved in. Discovered there were mice, one of the windows of my ground floor flat didn’t shut properly and there was an issue with the heating (I had to use the two ring oven to keep warm on my first night). They didn’t answer for two weeks, I guess because they were ‘off work’.
• Another landlord put a locked box over the thermostat one day while we were out so we could not adjust the heating. House was old, and freezing. Turned out the old pipes were all blocked too. (He was an ’artist’ with no other income, so I suppose the idea had been to receive money rather than spend it. Costly repairs were not what he’d had in mind at all, so he simply ignored it). We put an nhs stick on thermometer on the wall flagging unhealthily low temperatures (eg - “at this temperature your risk of heart attack increases”). He removed it, again while we were out. It got to the point he was letting himself in frequently, without notice. One day was at home ill and not at work and he turned up unannounced and tried to let himself in. On this occasion I did not answer door (the security chain was on) and he got a power tool and removed the door handle and let himself in. Rang several of us on various occasions ranting and suggesting he might make us leave if we weren’t careful. (We realised over time he was insane, paranoid, and aggressive.) Also removed some of our belongings from the house (musical equipment) and refused to return them.

I could go on. There have been a couple of good ones, but really, it’s like the wild west.

They get away with it because people are afraid of being made homeless.

I rented for 19 years dealing with an agency (the landlords lived in another town). I found nothing "dire" about it. When there was a problem I contacted them and it was sorted asap. They did 3 monthly inspections, and were literally there for under five minutes each time. They are being paid to do a job, it's hardly in their best interests not to do a good job.

This was a response to a previous poster's comments not the one above.

The usual MN hyperbole. They are not judging your lifestyle, they are merely checking that you are keeping the property - which does not belong to you - in good condition. What on earth does the amount of "life experience" the person doing the inspection has have to do with anything???

Would you prefer that there were no landlords and everyone was living on the streets?

Written by someone with 19 years of three monthly inspections behind them.

The only thing I hate is that they could just tell us they are selling and we have to find somewhere else 😩

I truly sympathise with your housing situation, genuinely, but anxiety and depression doesn't care if you're rich or poor, it can affect anyone.

We private rent and will never be in a position to buy. Our house is one of the cheapest around (LL owns a few on the street) and it's gone up £50 in the last 2 years. It's not the newest house but we are allowed to paint / decorate as we please (as long as nothing crazy) and things get fixed asap as needed

Totally agree. Hideous. Two hideous experiences that have left me without a home and now facing eviction and vulnerable kids and an abusive LL in both cases who has refused repairs and this one is now evicting me due to wood burner being faulty.. it's obscene and the rent here is nearly £5k a month. The mental strain of it is beyond me and I cannot cope with the pain of not being able to provide stability in a situation which is not certain and I still do not have school places or a full time job.

HOW is that your response to the post you quoted 🙈

@carerlookingtochangejob, btw I've had some tenants in some of my houses for 8 years others for 6 years. Some DC were born there. I've had others who were in a 2 bedroom but wanted to move into a 3 bedroom and wanted to wait until I had one come free. They could have moved to another LL but chose not to. I've not sold any of my houses so I've never served a section 21.