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

Same is happening with other professional practices like opticians and accountants - the latest "gimmick" is for them to retain the same name/branding to make them look independent, but they're owned and managed by hedge fund financing, often foreign owned.

The opticians we've used is exactly that. Two guys owned it for decades, one the optician and one the dispenser. They retired and someone else bought it. Same name, same branding, the look of the place hasn't changed at all. Scratch under the surface though. Now it's a revolving door of locum opticians and they no longer make the glasses in house - they get them delivered from some kind of factory, which means it takes a lot longer. Service is utter crap. I traced the new owners via Companies House and they have, literally, dozens of "independent" opticians, all ostensibly private owned (separate companies).

I'm an accountant and another firm I know locally have likewise retired and sold out - the new "owners" are a national firm with a couple of hundred small "independent" practices, all trading under their original names - I know the old owner well as we used to work together and he told me how it works - again, all the old staff were got rid of and it's now just a "front" with a couple of receptionists with all the actual work being sent electronically to India for processing etc.

Look up the new Renters Rights Bill.

What are the rules and regulations small landlords are finding too onerous?

Which people?

In my mid 50s and rented with my retired DP for 7 years. Landlady wants to retire, I don't blame her so she's selling up. Our only option now is shared ownership as we have pets. Don't get me started. I'll be working til 70 to pay that part off and be left with a smallish rent.

Yep, I am a small landlord but get totally shafted at every turn (I am in Scotland so even worse). I will probably sell up when my tenant leaves as it's not worth the hassle for the amount of money it brings in.

Exactly, you won't be able to text/email/call these giants, it'll be like dealing with a lost yodel parcel and a chat bot!

what makes me laugh on here is the frequency in which, when someone is considering moving to a new area, or trying to move house and the chain has broken/is getting too big etc, people (almost always those who either have never rented or haven't done so in at least a decade) pipe up "just rent for 6 months!"

as though it's easy and there are absolutely loads of properties
a) at all
b) where someone who doesn't have any recent rental references and who clearly isn't going to be staying long won't be at the bottom of all the potential applicants

Not to mention the faff of moving multiple times and the sheer cost of deposit plus rent plus moving van etc plus setting up all your energy supply, internet, tv licence, changing all your bills and contact info etc.

My friend and her DP have a 6 figure income between them, decades of good references and never missing payments etc and still got rejected when they tried to move to a new rental because someone else had a perfect credit score whereas theirs was a few points off!

The house next to me (semis so identical) is renting for nearly 4 x my mortgage and still went almost immediately after being advertised.

When I was looking to move and thinking about breaking the chain, it worked out cheaper (and far easier) to stay in a premier inn in my city for several weeks/months (albeit one of the hub types compared to a 'proper' one) than try and rent somewhere.

Have rented in EU countries and it wasn't great. Rent caps and secure tenancies are great once you have a place but if the supply isn't there then it is impossible to get anywhere to rent unless black market with no protection. Not sure what the best system is

I've never understood anyone who thought this was a good thing to happen

I think they're living in an idea from 50 years ago where they thought the state would buy from the landlord and rent it to tenants cheaper.

I don't understand why anyone would think that.

This really.

people were warned, but they still kept pushing & as warned - small, good, caring LL are just selling up because it's not viable & it's too ridiculous.

Yes, there are shit landlords, but they need dealing with, not good ones being pushed out!

I agree. It could if the government introduced fair rents and caps on charges but they don't and won't.

Did they want this? Or did they want a system more similar to other European countries?

I suppose that's what they're attempting, but it's just driving small landlords out of the market.

It's the Rent Act 1965 all over again. That was another attempt by a Labour Govt. to protect tenants. It killed the rental market stone dead.

Yes this absolutely. And the corporate landlords are not going to accept late rent, or let you off a few weeks arears the way those of us with a couple of properties and a soul do.

Everything has been bought up by Private Equity - from football clubs to housing to Water Companies to Train Operators etc - they have access to cheap cash so can buy at inflated prices then squeeze profits out of the customers - its renty economics - nothing new is created.

But its the free market and the market is never wrong.

We own buy to lets. Are considering selling them all depending on what the next budget says

It's not, is it?
Unfortunately, "small landlords" want to live their lives and bending to these ridiculous rules of this country is just, well, unreasonable.
And unnecessary.

Indeed

My brother got caught like this.

The woman who owned his flat (he was the tenant, almost 10 years) only owned a semi down the road that she lived in and she bought her rental flat when a family member died. She was a good landlord, the rent increased, but not too quickly. She has sold up in terror of all the regulations/taxes/pitfalls. It was very stressful for my brother.

The worst landlords are those who own shit loads of properties. They spend £0 on them, meet the letter of the law as barely as they can get away with and make tenants' lives miserable. Whatever laws come in, these bastards know how to carry on, not falling foul of them.

It is utterly idiotic of the govt. to do anything that kills off good, small (and often accidental) landlords. But in the lead up to the last general election, people were slagging off landlords all the time. People who owned a second property for whatever reason were considered the scum of the earth. There were calls for the landlords to be responsible for council tax, even when there were tenants living there. It's no wonder my DB's landlord sold up. It was only a cheap flat, £160k - it was making good money for her and it was a good home for DB.

Other relative had bought a house but due to job issue, couldn't move in for 6 months. Wanted to rent it out for 4/5 months, decided (on solicitor advice) not to because the tenants would have so many rights and there was no guarantee he would be able to take possession back.

We are fucking ourselves over. My DS is a student and most of the properties that he and friends viewed for rent were beyond atrocious. They had probably been furnished by landlords just getting free furniture off the street when people leave it out, they were visibly mouldy, shoving 4 students into a space which would be suitable for 2 people etc. The massive landlords who own them are in cahoots with the slimy letting agents - lining each other's pockets and fucking students over with shit and broken stuff.

My best friend sold her only buy to let last year. My manager had one and he has just sold too. Selling to big corporations never goes well.

I'm worried about it too. My landlord is similar rents one property which he used to live in, let's me just get on with things generally and the rents reasonable(and also the most I can afford!) But it's an old property which might not pass the new energy ratings. I don't want to and can't afford to move. I'm happy in my,perhaps slightly chilly, home.

I often see people on MN insisting no one at all should own more than one home....but I've never understood what all the people that need to rent - particularly short term, are meant to do, if that became the case...?

Students, junior Dr's, people on short term contracts, people new to the country/area, people who's home is undergoing repairs/renovations etc etc
N

@Chiseltip I don't know any of these people, maybe you need to change your circle 🤷🏻‍♀️

They vilified your small local LL, you know, that guy who had six BTL's and drove a new Audi. They said he was scum, a parasite, they said he was the reason you couldn't buy a house.

So they tricked you into believing that the reason you can't get on the ladder is because he was stopping you.

But Lloyd's bank, buying up 50 THOUSAND private houses to rent back to you is fine!

You're all idiots for supporting the demise of small landlords.