To think being a tenant is an absolute misery

Our landlord is a genuinely lovely bloke who accepts the bare minimum number of inspections to keep his insurance happy and doesn’t hassle us at all. Any repairs that have been needed (which are very few) have been done quickly and without question.

Both agents he’s worked with have been friendly and approachable but we still hate being tenants.

Every mortgage rate increase has us on edge, every time our lease comes up for renewal I loose sleep worrying about if he’s going to have to sell or not. It’s a really stressful situation but we’re lucky we’ve got such a good landlord.

This is my experience too but only in last 5 years and I have rented for many more years than that....hoping to buy next year. Nevermind permission for a hamster. I had to ask permission to have a child in the two bed property when I was pregnant as there was a clause saying no children unless permission. Faced with the prospect of searching for a new rental when pregnant sent my anxiety levels up! Also its so personal. This year they decided they wanted to increase the rent by £175 a month but couldnt as clause in contract had a percentage limit so they wanted me to sign a new contract. I was brazen enough to refuse and they decided on £40 (top limit in contract) instead...with the warning there will be a substantial increase next April.......landlord barely does repairs so Im not worried, I am a good tenant and I doubt he wants the bother to look for a new one as he would have to sort the whole house. Think the increase is pushed by my letting agency as well rather than just the landlord. I hate inspections, they ignore the repairs needed and berated me over a few weeds on the drive I hadnt got round to yet. Sorry that was long! But wholly agree in some circumstances its not great.

You have a crap lease - why did you agree to those terms?
Mine is inspection once a year. No increase for the term of the lease and limited to X per cent if renewed. If anything doesn't work the landlord (me) fixes it as it's very hard to prove they did.
You've been had.

Anyone who says housing associations leave you alone has clearly never rented from Sanctuary Housing

Private renting: Rent increases - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I think you should speak to citizen's advice bureau - our rent didn't go up until the end of our 2 year contract not at 6 monthly intervals. I think that's the point of a contract. I'm not sure they can do this.

Yup I'm with you op but it's only true if you are a good tenant.

I rented my house out when I moved in with ex in a rental. 2.5 years I never did an inspection and never upped the rent. Only bothered tenants for the gas safety checks. Tenant got two pets without asking- I would have said yes but wasn't asked. They completely redecorated again without asking- again I would have said yes but perhaps would have liked them to at least strip the wallpaper that is not my taste before they left. When I gave notice I said I would wait 6 months+ if that's what they needed as I felt terrible asking them to leave what was their home- when they got a new place 2 weeks later and gave me literally days notice I sucked up the loss of rent before I moved back as that was morally the right thing to do.

Meanwhile my renting experience was as you described yours to be. To top it off my son is autistic and has violent meltdowns and smears gross stuff. The damage he did in a rental was so stressful. Now I'm back in the property I own and he can trash it and my only thought other than caring for my child in distress is 'pants that will cost to fix' not 'ahhhh what will the landlord/agent say!'

I don't feel the answer is in more rules for landlords however as we need the homes to be rented not put landlords off. But the 3 monthly inspections should only be if a yearly inspection shows problems not par for the course

I think some letting agents don't understand the purpose of an inspection. It's to ensure these are no ongoing maintenance issues unreported by the tenant, to check it's not been turned into a cannabis farm and to ensure the tenant is still on side. Every 6 months is reasonable, every 3 is not, but some insurances insist on 3 month inspection timetables.

Fair wear and tear is perfectly acceptable, you don't have to be afraid of scuffing walls and using appliances.

I'm pretty Sure they are allowed to increase rent only once a year?. You should look into that!

I'm a LL and I completely get where you're coming from. On the subject of inspections though three-monthly inspections are required under the licencing conditions (many areas require all rented properties to be licensed), and I have to submit reports of the inspections periodically to the Council. I don't want to do it nearly so often where I have good tenants, but I have to.

@Twolittleloves yep we are the same and rent in Bath- beautiful home, lovely neighbours, nice bit of town - nice landlords too and no we couldn't buy this either - we earned well late in life and hence beyond getting a mortgage - if we need to downgrade at some point then so be it

Totally agree with you OP. My quality of life improved so much when I finally managed to buy my own place. The worst part was never feeling rooted due to the constant threat of being chucked out. I never felt like I really had a home, just a temporary lodging at the mercy of a landlord. It's shit.

I wouldn't say so....we rent in a lovely leafy affluent village with nice neighbours, right next to a green space/play area, outstanding primary school in walking distance.
We couldn't ever afford to buy here, but renting allows us to enjoy the benefits still.

I recently got a housing association flat after private renting for 12 years, been here a year now and it has been the calmest year of my life being able to live in peace from constant inspections, be able to make the place my own, and the worry of 8 weeks notice being given to leave at any time.

I lived on my nerves and despite keeping the place in good condition, got a passive aggressive threatening letter from letting agent after an inspection where they claimed the place was cluttered (my kids toys packed neatly in boxes 🙄). They treated us like naughty schoolkids. I had near panic attacks before every inspection (which were 8 weeks apart!) where they'd photograph the inside of the oven, fridge, and behind radiators. I could never properly relax, and felt under the microscope constantly.

Now, life is so much easier we don't have that on us anymore. While our flat will never financially be our own, it feels like home and our own place.

It sounds like your with a very strict estate agent! 😬 especially with the 3mthly inspections and constant rent increases.

We have rented for the past 9 years.
We had some difficulties with our old property- the landlords were very tight and very particular....getting repairs done wasn't easy, and when we moved out it was fairly hellish because they moaned about numerous tiny issues they wanted us to fix...got quite heated in the end with the lettings agent and I had to say we would take it further with the ombudsman as they were refusing to give us a large chunk of our deposit back to pay for 'repairs and cleaning' that didn't need doing (we are good tenants who keep our houses well)
In the end we reached a compromise but it was bloody stressful.
We also had a similar pet issue with cats and had to pay hundreds to keep them when they (somehow?!) found out.Don't think that was from inspections as I hid them during those, but perhaps they drove past and saw them at the window or something.
Only plus was rent didn't go up too much

However our experience with our rental home now (different company and obviously landlord) has been completely different....the lettings agent manager pops his head in once a year for literally afew minutes.They are good at doing repairs when needed and generally just leave us to it to feel at home.
Rent only went up for the first time this year since we moved in 4 years ppreviously.Still below market norms.
No pets rule again, but we only have a hamster now and will pop her in the garage when they come.We feel like it's our home...it would be nice to own one day to be able to do more to a house, but other than wallpaper we can do pretty much whatever cosmetically here...flooring, painting, garden etc.

Rental experiences really can vary.
But it's not all bad.

I rented 10years ago after a horrendous break up. The inspections where I found the sleazy agent looking through my nighties I had hung on my bedroom mirror. Or the memorable time he looked under the bed for evidence of my boyfriend living with me, it was so bad my Mum had to take time off work to chaperone me. I really hope things have improved.

YANBU. I’ve rented for over a decade in various parts of the U.K. and had maybe three decent landlords in that time. The rest have been somewhere between slumlord and actual criminal. Current one takes the absolute cake but I’d be here all night if I went into them.
A good landlord is a rarity and worth their weight in gold.

We rented our private tenancy home for nearly 11 years. Me as a single parent as 1 when we moved in, 2 when we moved out.

It wad the pits. Lead lined mouldy windows, no central heating and no double glazing. A kitchen that registered minus 5°C in the kitchen when I had my second child.
It snowed through the roof.

I was terrified of 3 month inspections as, when you're freezing and have a new born, you're not cleaning! Your hands are too cold!

I thought it was the end of my world - our world including my teenage son when we got a section 21.

Thankfully the council took us on and I couldn't be more grateful. They saved our lives.

I honestly do respect and fear what tenants are going through now.

We're very lucky to have a landlord like teddleshon. No rent increase in the 9 years we've been here, any issues fixed quickly etc. It makes us better tenants as a result, we take care of the house like it's our own, look after the garden, pay our rent on time. Renting should be like this, just need more landlords like teddleshon and mine!

Yes, I've felt an intense feeling of desperation to make a home my own since being in my 30s and stuck renting from terrible useless landlords.

It's extremely limiting and restrictive. I'm an artist and we're not even allowed to hang artwork on the walls. I have to grow everything in pots outside even though the garden is a stupid miserable patch of crappy lawn and I could create a BEAUTIFUL garden here if I had the freedom to. There are things that have been faulty since we moved in (and landlord notified straight away) but he can't be bothered to fix until it's absolutely necessary, one of which means we have to really slam our front door - our poor neighbours. I'm autistic and need to make adjustments to my home to be able to cope, like air conditioning, soundproofing, heavier interior doors, but can't do that here.

Renting is almost never a choice after a certain age, as much as landlords love to claim they're providing a service.

I found renting awful. Properties never in good condition despite paying over 1.2k a month, nothing got fixed despite constantly bringing it up. At least in your own house you can choose not to fix something and have a plan for it, instead of just waiting to see if it will ever be fixed or sorted. Absolute best thing about being a home owner is coming up to the 6/12 month mark and not worrying whether your rent will be raised by however much or if you'll be asked to leave. Then the shortage of rental properties so having to move somewhere even worse. It's just stressful all round.

You're right it's awful.

I put absolutely everything into buying. A tiny dump in a crap area you own is better than any rental Ime.

Why are people jumping on the 19 year old comment? Of couse op doesn't want someone of that age judging her when they probably still live at home themselves!

As long as there doing there job professionally the persons age isn’t relevant

I hope my kids don’t receive this level of judgment and resentment in there workplace