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

I do think that in general, eradicating (punishing?) landlords is popular in the UK. And it seems to tie in with other Labour themes like school VAT. So it was to be expected.
But I don’t think most people who hate landlords want tenants to suffer.

Green Party wants to take it further.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy9zqzp44vo.amp

Slightly different and if it was combined with social housing building it would mean the people who can’t buy would still have the safety net of social housing where the money is cyclical going and coming back to the tax payer if the person is on UC.

I’ve selected a couple of London boroughs near me and the social housing allocation situation is horrific. Some councils are saying that if you are low priority or need a 4 bed or above the likelihood is that you will never be offered anything. All the councils had thousands on their waiting list and some had over 10,000.

There is no alternative for renters except the private market so if you undermine that what are people going to do?

It’s not shite though. Councils are also approaching private landlords and offering them above market rents because they are struggling to meet their obligations to house asylum seekers.

You may not want to believe it but that doesn’t make it ‘shite’.

This whole thread is full of people saying they are excellent landlords and/or excellent tenants.

nobody is going to admit to being a greedy bastard doing the bare minimum or a shitty tenant treating the place like crap.

im guessing the truth is somewhere in the middle 🤷🏻‍♀️

Where are the rent restrictions and long term contracts?

Scotland. It's created a huge rental shortage and put costs through the roof.

What is being attempted?

Where are the rent restrictions and long term contracts?

This is nothing to do with that. Thats what the European systems tend to be more like, although when you dig down its not really like that abroad either.

We have two rental properties, one accidental and one inherited, and are planning to sell at least one, and probably both, when the tenants decide to move on. Already regretting not doing it earlier as I’m worried about CGT/tax changes in the budget, but we couldn’t give the tenants notice as they are great (our area is quite mobile so I’d guess they will be moving on in the next couple of years).
I think one of the problems is as a PP said, it’s the good landlords who get clobbered with the regulations and the crappy ones just keep ignoring them. Councils have no money to enforce existing legislation so the government just makes more that the bad landlords still won’t comply with. I would incentivise good landlords with for eg being able to set their mortgage against tax, and properly pursue the bad ones. I wouldn’t mind paying a licence (not in our area yet) for the privilege of setting the mortgage off, and that money could go into proper enforcement.
The forthcoming EPC regs are also a nightmare, particularly for period properties, and another reason for us to get rid. I worry about people like our lovely tenants and what they are going to do in the future.

The consultation on those proposals closed in May and the results haven’t yet been published. The proposal was for new minimum standards to come in by 2030. Anything could happen in the next five years to overturn that.

It will be a nightmare to enforce with most Victorian properties not able to be uprated.

Im not unduly worried.

Yep, said on many a thread that this will be a bad thing, but shouted down by people who hate landlords irrationally.

For some reason people have got it into their heads that a massive corporation landlord is going to be more humane and cheaper than a landlord with a couple of properties or only one.

Lets find out shall we!

I’m a small landlord and only have one property . It’s just not worth being a landlord anymore . There are so many rules , regulations, legalities and certifications to be had together with higher taxes before you even get to maintenance and general costs . As above my Tennant has been there a long time and she can’t afford to buy a property and never will as a single older care worker , she can’t afford current market rents and where would she go if I sold up .

We are small landlords and will probably stick it out. In one of our properties the tenants have been there for 10+ years. Their children are adults now: they have had long term stability and we’ve had good trouble free tenants. Where we are in London social housing is scarce so if we sold up they would probably have to move out of London as we are charging a bit below market rent.

Who benefits from over regulating until we quit? Our tenants will never be in a position to buy where they are as they are close to retirement age. Nobody would give them a mortgage.

You seem to be missing the point. It's not the landlord anyone is worried about - it's the tenants. The lack of rental properties and the cost. I rent out one house that used to be my home in Cornwall. Definitely won't be doing any wall insulation etc to move it from a EPC D to a C when that requirement comes in so if it can no longer be rented it will go. No need to feel sorry for me. I'll get the wodge of equity - it's the tenant and people that can't find a rental that have a problem.

I agree with a previous poster - if there is plentiful affordable social housing then you can squeeze landlords. When there is a massive shortage of rentals it is madness.

It was on the ITV News. Single mother was evicted from rental to accommodate male Afghan asylum seekers. The reporter went to the house and spoke to one of the men. He spoke English and had no idea that a family had been kicked out. To be fair he was quite shocked that this had happened

It’s the tenants suffering. Landlords sell up and skip off with the proceeds.

It's a fact that companies like Serco and Mears are awarded multimillion pound contracts by the Home Office to "disperse" small boat migrants throughout the country. Landlords of Houses in Multiple Occupancy properties have been offered guaranteed tenants for long term contracts by Mears and Serco, all maintenance and faff paid for. There was a piece on this in the Financial times recently.

This affects the housing supply available for other people. During a housing crisis, this is a bad thing. If there are 50 four bedroom rental properties available in a small town, and Sears seduces 10 landlords into housing asylum seekers in them, there are now 40 properties of this kind available to rent. Ergo, fewer people will be able to find a rental. This is basic economics.

Like Right to Buy - because that went well.

They can not choose you if there’s a choice though

This is such a low IQ comment. You may dislike landlords personally. But incentives and trade offs resulting from poor legislation have negative repercussions that may even affect you. Fewer small portfolio landlords is not a good thing for people who have to rent

It seemed so, then there would be more available to buy… but if course it was never going to work out that way.

Same with funeral directors. One by one they’re getting taken over by national companies.

But this is what all the anti-landlord labour voting people wanted so

Even though the Conservative party started most of the changes?

What most tenants wanted was to be able to rent a well maintained property, that was up the utilities regulations, Where they could be long term renters and not have to worry about maintaining the building and not be kicked out when they needed something fixing within a set time frame.

I agree, many moons ago DH and I rented from a really decent landlord belowish market rate for almost 5 years. Allowed us as young professionals to save up and get on the property ladder. He was a good man, even popped over to see our new house and baby years later. Always fixed things quickly and left us to it. Although there are terrible landlords there are a lot of decent ones too and future rental market is in trouble.

Didn’t Angela Rayner’s new regulations say that Landlords weren’t able
to ban either animals or children from rental properties?