To think landlords and letting agents often don’t see tenants as people?

I started renting out a flat 10 years ago after getting married and waiting for a good time to sell (happy with breaking even on rent as long as I had no hassle), I had the same tenants for 5 years, never put the rent up and we had a great relationship…until the war on Landlords stated with the tax, compliance and weird council Landlord schemes. I had to get a letting agent to manage the compliance, couldn’t fully write interest off as a cost was just loosing too much money so had to put the rent up, they ended up moving back to Italy as couldn’t afford the rent in London anymore. I now charge more than double the rent I did 4 years ago and by that I mean the rent I charge is absolutely extortionate for a London 2 bed, have had two different sets of tenants whom I never met in person and I make a small loss after tax each year. I don’t know if this is a common scenario, but definitely all the tax and legislation has done is make things worse for both tenants and landlords in my experience. I will sell as soon as possible.

Well, yes if a landlord wants to sell their asst I wouldn't expect the potential stress it causes the tenant to stop this.

It’s a business. All it requires is for tenant to look after the property, and pay the rent on time.

In return, it requires landlords to be reasonable, and keep the property in good order.

totally agree. I hadn’t rented in decades, then I took on a six month tenancy whilst my house sale went through. What a nightmare.

The house had been rented before on a long let. The carpets were filthy when we moved in despite a promise that they would be cleaned before we moved in. From the landlord’s response I figured he would be a bad landlord, so we photographed every scuff and scrape before we moved in to ensure we got our deposit back.

He was slow responding to repairs and he would bodge things himself rather than getting a professional in. When he tried to mess with the electrics, I’d had enough and luckily the sale completed so I could move out.

I feel very sorry for his next tenants and I wish there were airbnb style ratings for landlords and tenants so people knew on both sides what they were letting themselves in for.

A lot of landlords are selling up now to cash in, probably the same ones protesting what a great and lovely landlord they were. No thought to the tenants who are suffering the stress of it, just thought of their own bank balance.

I think this is probably true. But tenants can also be really difficult as well.

I have had tenants call in with all sorts of things - the low light was probably the tenant who insisted on an emergency plumber on a bank holiday when it turned out they just had turned off the washing machine at the wall.

And really unrealistic expectations on how quickly things can be fixed. I do my best but you just sometimes have to wait a day for parts or similar

I think it works both ways. Landlords are often seen as rich overlords raking it in. Not always the case esp if you have someone renting out a property which barely covers the mortgage while tenants are paying late or not at all.

I am neither a landlord or a renter fwiw but I think there are good and bad landlords and tenants. I did rent for years and never really had an issue.

Not all tenants are nice people either btw.

I inherited my beloved nans house and rented it out and the tenant left hundreds of mouldy cigarette butts in the garden and all over the house. He also let his kids draw all over the walls and their cat pissed on the stairs so badly I had to replace the carpet. He didn’t give a toss about the fact that house had memories of my nan and it really upset me