To think being a tenant is an absolute misery

Of course it’s a business. Most of the houses I’ve rented have been inherited, it’s not a business the landlords actively sort out but it’s certainly one they entered when they drew up those contracts.

just reiterate I do not blame the landlords.

3 months is awful, mine does it every 7 years!

That said I find it's the agency that's worse than the landlord.
My landlord gave my agency a very long list of repairs and they found the cheapest guy and bodged it all. There was holes in the outside wall letting water in so the guy used expanding foam to fill it rather than mortar that the landlord expected.
Two kitchen cabinets had gone mouldy from the water, so they replaced one and not the other...
the gutters needed clearing out, yet he didn't do it properly as it's still overflowing on the back etc
Despite the landlord paying for it.
Yet if I'm a day late replying to my agency (if I haven't seen the message) for say a boiler inspection he starts harassing me on WhatsApp and treating me like a child. 🤦🏻‍♀️
so it's not all landlords, it's the agencies too.

And under this proposal where are all these properties that the local authority will manage come from?

But that's the problem. Some agents - especially inexperienced ones - make a huge fuss about tidiness and things that don't affect the condition of the property at all. They also go around photographing everything, which feels very intrusive.

Again blaming LLs is so simplistic. If all private all’s sold up, the availability of property dries up even more. What do you think would happen then? Or maybe you think the LA should buy all the properties for sale and rent out at lower rates? Why do you think they aren’t already on RightMove buying all the For Sale properties already?

This.

Having your lifestyle (potentially with big consequences) judged by someone with little life experience and likely little training.

for landlords it’s a business. For tenants it’s home. they are not compatible

It’s not a business for all LLs. For some, renting out a property is nothing but a massive headache but due to a variety of reasons, they are not in a position to sell the property on.

Every 3 months is extreme- it used to be 6 monthly or annual where I rented! And if you’ve shown yourself to be a trustworthy tenant I believe they should reduce this to once every 2 years or something. It’s incredibly invasive I understand. Also the threat of them selling looms and the rent increases. I get the anxiety. Literally the only good things about renting are that you don’t have to deal with repairs yourself & that if you don’t like the area anymore it’s not permanent.

Absolutely this. I would be happy to see all renting be under LA control and no private or corporate landlords.

They can find another way to build their pension pot.

Agreed. We've finally bought our first property after years of renting and even though it needs so much work and we're uncovering more problems everyday, at least it's bloody ours!

We got kicked out of one rental with a 1 month as the LL wanted to sell up. Very stressful!

You should perhaps mention you're only talking about private tenancy. Secure council tenancy is none of the things you list. Secure, no inspections, always referred to as MY property by the landlord, repairs are not charged unless not covered and no ridiculous rent increases among many other positives. I feel sorry for private tenants.

plenty of people have no choice
we cant all be home owners.

I do agree with this though.

Do you ask how old your children's teachers are before you'll let them tell you about a problem with your child? Does anyone who is doing their job and is in any way shifting the hierarchical structure a bit have to be older than you for you to accept them?

Landlords, generally speaking, are awful.

There are some good ones though. Unfortunately you don't seem to have one of them, which is shit.

I once had a landlord rummage through my underwear drawer and comment that it was messy! The same bastard insisted on a professional clean before an inspection every three months. Naturally the clean had to be done by his mate's company at an inflated price.
He also fixed a broken waste disposal unit...by taking the u bend out of the kitchen sink, so all washing up had to be done in the bath.

Just to clarify I don’t blame landlords there’s good and bad - like tenants.
however.

for landlords it’s a business. For tenants it’s home.
they are not compatible

Completely agree.
you can’t settle your children anywhere as you might be priced out. You worry everytime they play a vaguely messy game, no arts and crafts in the house.
you are never truly part of the community as, again, you’ll get priced out and have to move on.
i feel embarrassed about my house as you can’t make it your own so do live a little bit like a student, as curtains etc are so expensive, when in the cycle do you risk replacing?
Thats before we get onto pets and their value vs landlords dislike.
I could write a book on this.

this thread is timely as I've just had my rent go up £125 a month even though it’s mortgage free. We’ve spent nearly £300,000 in rent, it’s scary.

My friend has had to move (with her kids) three times in three years because of landlords either needing the house back or claiming to be selling it (which was actually bullshit)

If the LL
said he was selling and then doesn’t, the tenant does have rights.

It is so easy to ‘blame’ LLs. Any anger should be directed at the Gov. who doesn’t have enough affordable housing or simply enough housing. It is not the responsibility of people to solve this issue.

There is c a huge difference between LLs - there are corporate ones and ones who have one property.
Soneone mentioned that tenants should have pets. When I lived in an apt (and owned it), the apt complex rules said no pets. It did not matter whether I was renting or owned it. I abided by the rules, why shouldn’t tenants?

I think it is a misery, with no/very limited security, but that everyone knows that, and goes into it with their eyes wide open. You are complaining about something we all knew.

I rented from ages 18-37 when I bought my first house.

I think I must have been very lucky because I had a series of landlords that encouraged me to think of the properties as my home, were always reasonable in my interactions with them and none of which ended the tenancy - it was always me giving notice for life reasons. In the case of two landlords, I am friendly with them today - enough to keep sending Xmas cards and stop by for coffee if I am in the area.

Even the final landlord, who I never really knew (all via agency) and who tried to unfairly stiff me for some of my deposit when I left, wasn't such a big deal - but I was only there six months, so that might be why.

But I last rented 7 years ago and see the news now and am so grateful I was able to buy my home. It looks like a bloody nightmare these days. Even 7 years ago there were starting to be queues to view popular properties but nothing like it seems to be now.

In fact, my mum lives with me because she could never buy a house now and I really do not want her dealing with renting in this climate at her age. Better she has a safe home here with me.

Even if you do have a landlord that's ok it's still shit in my experience.

It's not secure, it's not necessarily long term. You often feel like you can't settle into a place and feel like it's not really your home.

After a lot of instability it took years to find a place that actually was a long term prospect where the rent stayed affordable.

My friend has had to move (with her kids) three times in three years because of landlords either needing the house back or claiming to be selling it (which was actually bullshit).

I get it OP. We rent, the house was like a squat when we moved in but we didn't have a choice but to accept it as it was. So many people are going after every single house it took us a really long time to get accepted for somewhere. The house is a state, we've cleaned it and done what we can but the bathroom needs replacing, as does the kitchen, we have mice in the attic, the roof has a leak, all of the doors and windows need replacing. It's dire. but with rent increases we can't afford to move, as expensive as ours is, it's below market value now so we're priced out. We don't have inspections but we also don't get things repaired etc but also if we did he'd only put the rent up more any way. I think the ll will weasel out of giving us our deposit back as we changed the carpet which was disgusting even after I hired a cleaner for it. We're nearly in a position to buy now and I can't wait. I'm sick of this and it's been the same everywhere I've ever lived. I really envy people with decent landlords that repair things, don't put the rent up etc.

It’s certainly opened your eyes to the reality of the situation a lot of families are in. We need more social housing

I have friends who've rented in various European countries - they've had tenancy agreements passed down from parents who rented, or have been able to do things like install fitted bookcases or remove internal walls(!!) Not exactly comparable!

Home ownership is only about 50% in Germany, and the rental laws reflect that many people will be lifelong renters but still want security. England's laws and standards have to shift to reflect falling home ownership.

Yeah - you got one of those hands-off awful landlords - I've not had one like that, but I've heard of them.

My old house that I rent out, I'm fine with pets, as long as inspections are satisfactory they space out further, I don't normally increase the rent on sitting tenants, although I have had to for this one as she wasn't keeping on top of the garden at all, and filling it with junk, and we'd had complaints, so I put it up 50 quid so I could get a gardening service in to keep it under control.