Small landlords selling off isn't a great news after all

Labour government for you. There will be a massive lack of rental accomodation soon.

Is there open discussion about the situation in Wales or is it ignored / blamed on the remaining landlords?

They did this a few years ago in Wales. The result here a lot of homeless women and children, old people and vulnerable people. Our council ran out of places to put them so rented in England and relocated them.

The Welsh government ran courses to be licensed as a landlord £££. Three years later another course £££. You have to give six months notice to evict a bad tenant. So much property came on the market and was bought up by landlords in England and overseas. These properties have deteriorated, landlords out of the councils and courts reach.

It's been a disaster. Rents have gone up hundreds of pounds a month.

You’re so right

The govt is shafting private landlords every which way, ostensibly to give tenants more rights. In fact tenants are now at more risk of being evicted than ever. Labour didn’t think the changes through.

It's not zero gain. You still own the asset (via a mortgage). You have outsourced the payment for your debt (eventual fully paid off asset) to your tenants.

There is insufficient housing in the country. Had the social housing not been sold off, and the money raised been ring-fenced for building more social housing, we could have at replaced a small percentage of it. Just remember who was in Government at the time!

Competition to buy houses and their scarcity has caused prices to rocket. Many saw the BTL route as a nice little earner. They added to the competition for the small available housing stock thus inflating the prices. However much LL congratulate themselves for making a rental property available, it was hardly an altruistic move. It was mostly to secure their future or that of their offspring.

I was in the position of renting a property because the Building Society said that a mortgage would not be affordable for me, despite the fact that I was paying more in rent than I would have in a mortgage. My landlord had several properties and a (small businesses) industrial estate, and lived with his wife in what could only be considered a country pile. They controlled the heating, so the place was always cold. They increased the rent every 6 months to the maximum that the market would stand. They did the minimum of work necessary to keep the place habitable. They never addressed the vermin problem. I was glad to move out in the end with my excellent reference. I thought that it was the least that they could do.

People who accuse landlords of being greedy generally are ill informed on how the sector works. They’ve drunk the Shelter/Guardian kool-aid.

The tax thing is killing it for me. I have a large mortgage in the property so I'm effectively taxed on profit Im not making and thus operating at a loss year after year. Sadly i plan to sell up and evict my very good tenant, a lone woman. Where would she go? The rent will only go up for her.

Would you pump 1000's a year into something for zero gain? Can you afford to? I can't. And yet I'm being accused of being a greedy landlord.

When we moved to a Scottish island many of the residents were moaning that the English were coming up here offering over the odds for the houses. They wanted locals to get them. As I quickly pointed out, the owner can sell to who they want, and especially to a local if they are happy to accept less, but greed gets the better of them and they take the highest offer usually from an incomer. It's only human!

I don’t see why your Landlord doesn’t pay rent if he is in NZ unless he/she is under the minimum tax band. Tax on rental income is due in the UK

As a landlord I am seriously considering it, it's rediculous... When we all sell up, good luck to anyone hoping to be first time buyers as well... People rent because they can't get a mortgage.

What utter rubbish, if the Tories hadn't sold off all the council houses at ridiculously low prices we wouldn't have such a huge welfare bill which is inflated by private landlords. How is that labours fault? I'm guessing you're talking about them when you say socialists. I will admit that successive governments haven't built enough social housing so we are in the situation we are in, however if it is harder for people to own a portfolio of houses maybe prices will start to fall and it will be easier for people to get on the housing ladder.

I had a second property, we purchased it as a Right to Buy, then let it out eventually as we moved abroad. When we moved back to the UK, the family size was bigger, so we Let to Buy it, then purchased a family home.

Fast forward quite recently, we're about £70k in equity, the switch from paying tax on the net income to gross, the removal of tenants paying for references and inventory checks just dragged the profit margin down.

I thought we was quite ethical, charging £450 for a 3 bedroom, ex council end terrace with a £27k mortgage remaining. We didn't do it for profit, but to make us nil cost at the end of the year.

Now, we've sold, a shame really. Not all landlords are scum. We held a £5k pot for emergency repairs, with the agent granted access upon tenants request.

The cash is now in a Trading 212 ISA's at 4%. We're making £200 a month interest (tax free)....as we await the next investment thing.

Lloyds Bank and BlackRock buying swathes of housing to cure the issues of housing. Oh how philanthropic of them! Massive tower blocks being built all over London for housing standing empty. Some emptied of tenants due to poor quality or unsafe builds. I own 6 BTLs and have 12 years experience in the sector. Not planning on selling just keeping ahead of the curve hopefully. Also it's my pension so not much choice...but to dig my heels in and insist there's space for small landlords in the sector.

TBH I’m thinking of selling our sole rental flat once current tenants leave - they took it for 2 years.
It’s a very nice flat, we've always kept the rent low - and since the recent explosion in rents (outer London) it’s now well below the local market rate), and we’ve always had very good tenants who’ve looked after it. And we have always attended very promptly to any maintenance issues,

But we’re both getting on a bit and after the recent faff and hassle of a leak from the bathroom (now fixed) the time has probably come - once the current contract expires - unless they want to extend.
We would keep the price on the low side for the type/area, and hope to sell to a FTB. The property below ours (purpose built Edwardian maisonettes with small gardens) is now owned by the 2nd FTB, so it’s entirely possible.

I've had British tenants complain to me that a light isn't working and I needed to get it fixed. I asked if they had tried changing the lightbulb. "What's a lightbulb?"

I think once corporate have enough market power, the standards will go to bare minimum.
Like no white goods anywhere (only landlord who never provided in my case was corporate), carpets etc. They will be able to being it to standards like when people get bare social housing. Because why not. That would be my worry. Shrinkflation of provision if that maies sense.

The worst was one lad who left his joss stick alight, that then burnt the roof off the house.
Insurance claim of £46000, ten years back.

A lot of the bad stuff is from UK nationals

Twice I have had english boys point to the vacuum cleaner and say 'I know what it is but I have never used one'

Those tenants sound like they shouldn’t be in the UK in the first place. Why should councils have more crap to deal with when they can’t even home UK families in urgent need?

I spent a year as a small time landlord of my flat I had bought after I moved out. Had a friend of a friend in there on below market rent as she was in a tight spot. I installed a better washing machine than I’d had for her, fixed things straight away, let her choose cupboard knobs she liked and paid for them- when I got a new kitchen put in I ran it all past her, the plans and the details and gave her a reduction on the rent that she asked for but she turned into an absolute nutter- entitled, rude, angry… it was such a relief when she moved out, I sold the flat straight away- if that’s what being a landlord is like, im either awful at it or I’d have to deal with crazy people like that and neither of those things are working for me! The new rules coming in were the cherry on the top

To be fair @purpleleotard2 those tenants sound like they should be the council’s problem, not anyone else’s.

I’m also fine with big corporate landlords having to deal with them.

From reading the posts I see that all the respondents who are tenants, are excellent and pay their rent on time, look after the property, don't upset the neighbours etc.

As a long time landlord I can assure MN that there are awful tenants out there who are BAD.

Who don't pay the rent. £1000s owed
Who don't look after the property.
Who cannot keep them selves clean Smelly
Who force the landlord to go to court, multiple times, to get the correct legal permission to evict. 13 months £+++
Who damage the property. flooded bathrooms / kitchens
Who get the deposit back by lying to the deposit holding companies. Tenants are believed over landlords.
Who lie to the landlord.
'I am a student' ... No you are not so I have to pay council tax.
'I have the right to rent'..... No your visa has expired
'I have the right to rent' .....No you have no passport, you got here in the back of a truck
Who let their mate sleep in the room, this is overcrowding. An automatic £300 fine from the local authority.
Who cannot put the bins out. rats
Who invite the local stray can in. Fleas
Who brought bed bugs into the house.
Who don't recycle
Who have parties and disturb the neighbourhood. Phone calls at midnight asking 'What are you going to do about it' Like there is anything I can do.
Who upset the neighbours by having a car and parking in 'their' spot.
Who smoke weed / do + deal drugs
Who steal off the other tenants
Who assault the other tenants. GBH
Who bully the other tenants.
Who burnt the furniture for a BBQ
Who sell the furniture / white goods
Who sign a contract then change their mind.

Being a landlord can be very difficult at times.

I'm being pushed out of the market as my local authority is against HMOs. A mere £1000 for a license.
Over 3000 beds have been lost in my suburb. I get phone calls almost daily from people looking for accommodation.

@flopsyuk

...Being greedy and not selling to a FTB

What's "greedy" about accepting a higher offer?

Perhaps you could give him the £10k yourself so that the first time buyers can have it.

After all, if you don't you're just being greedy.

Exactly @angela1952 . DH and I weren’t interested in buying until we were in our 30’s. We both moved around for new job opportunities, domestically and internationally. Plus we needed to save for a deposit. I do know a couple of people who bought in their 20’s, but the majority of my friends didn’t.

My DD (20) also has no intention of settling anywhere after she finishes uni, there’s a big world out there.

Yes, my tenants have also always been people who didn’t want to buy. Sometimes they were people working in the area for just a couple of years, one had returned from abroad and wasn’t sure where she wanted to live. My current tenant is elderly and doesn’t want the problems of maintaining his own property.