Why so much hate for Landlords on MN?

Can't force them to open windows?

Attitudes like this add to the massive shortage of available rental housing. Asking people to use basic common sense is peak entitlement.

This is a parallel universe.

Inflation means that the £325 paid in 2004 would now be the equivalent of £650. Your daughter's rent hasn't even kept up with inflation and herein lies the issue. Council housing is subsidised by the State.

Again house prices have actually only increased around £40K in real terms over 20 years in your scenario. You have to account for inflation otherwise it's like saying you could buy a bottle of milk for 3p in 1960 and suggesting modern prices are unacceptably high. Inflation is key!

If a landlord bought the house at £180,000 they would be paying around £10k alone on interest each year. They would also need to cover maintenance, letting fees and pay tax on any rent paid to them. Realistically they could charge £1200 a month and still make a loss.

We can't afford for the government to so heavily subsidise everyone's housing.

Why should private landlords not keep the profit made? Bloody hell I wish there was a profit. I keep advising my O/H to sell his place. Its actually costing him more than he's making. He refused the agency's advice to increase the rent for years as he would rather keep his reliable tenants. He's way out of pocket.

I was a landlord. My property was immaculate new carpets, newly painted, new kitchen and bathroom, manicured garden. I maintained it, I kept the rent at an affordable level.

Every tenant trashed it.

I sold.

maybe there are bad landlords because the good ones are getting out as people are total dicks.

I think the housing crisis has caused a giant disparity and ultimately most landlords are in it for the asset and not for the tenant.

in 2004 I private rented a 3 storey 5 bed town house on an ex council estate. My private rent was £425 a month. The identical council house next door was £325. Those similar owned houses were up for sale for £70-85k. The house I was in had an indoor water feature and the landlord failed to fix the leak for 15 months. We finally moved out when the toilet ceiling collapsed on my 2 yo daughter.

Today, my daughter lives in an identical 5 bedroom council house in the same town. Her rent is £460 a month. A house of that same size/same estate is now renting for £1200 a month and selling for £180,000.

make it make sense. I feel awful for anybody that is forced to private rent.

Small landlords are often pretty incompetent, tend to moan about the tenant paying their mortgage doing outrageous things like hanging pictures (🙄), use agencies which do everything possible to ensure they needn’t return deposits and, if you think about it, many are huge benefit recipients, having their btl mortgage paid for by the taxpayer via housing benefit. Unlike councils or housing associations their profit is rarely used to invest in new housing stock, helping keep housing in crisis and ramping up rents in the private sector. And just to add, I am not a tenant and haven’t been since leaving university.

Landlords are leeches on society 😆 🤣 😂 my partner is a landlord, who has had the same great tenants for years. Every year he pays a huge amount of tax for the privilege of renting his house out. What a filthy leech!

This isn't strictly true. The tenant has an obligation to make sure the house is reasonably ventilated which includes using available extractor fans etc but also opening windows where it's obviously sensible to do so. If opening a window requires adequate 'purge ventilation' then the landlord has no obligation to upgrade the kitchen with an extractor fan.

The point is, landlords can not blame tenant behaviour for damp and mould. They can not expect- or force- someone to open windows in their own home.

as I say I don’t open windows when cooking- if I was renting why would I change the habit of a lifetime?
As to why people don’t open windows when they’re cooking - because it’s cold? Raining? All sorts of perfectly normal reasons not to inconvenience yourself because the landlord didn’t retrofit ventilation.

As I said in my post.

I cook a lot. One day a week, I prepare a week's meals and the kitchen is awash with steam / heat. I open a window. No damp problem.

Why do we even have opening windows if using them for ventilation makes a house not fit for purpose? Just have fully sealed glass, non opening.

I've lived in my 'not fit for purpose' house in a nice area for 12 years with no issue through sensible window ventilation. Whereas the previous owner's tenants had a damp problem.

People don't automatically become stupid just because they don't physically own the property they live in.

Landlords will have to do this though. Aawabs law is being rolled out to private landlords. So if a landlord has a property a tenant can’t cook in without “causing damp” then it’s not fit for purpose.

aawabs law isn’t strange.

I find this approach strange.

There will are millions of older properties in the UK that could do with ventilation improvements and other upgrades but realistically this just isn't a financially viable. It's as true for owner occupiers as it is for landlords. Nobody has infinite money to pump into properties like this when the issue can be effectively managed through making relatively easy lifestyle changes like opening windows. If you force landlords to fit all this stuff then rents will inevitably rise further to cover all these costs.

Just to be clear, I'm not taking about dilapidated houses which need essential work, but those that need extra consideration due to their age. I have lived in a few of these over my time and opening windows and drying clothes considerately make a huge difference.

TBH unless it’s an extremely desirable property, in very good condition,
that will command a very good rent, then given the general level of care home fees, it’s hardly ever worth all the hassle - plus of course the income will be taxable, if it takes their income beyond the threshold.

Twice in this family we have thought of renting out a house after a relative has moved to a care home, but after doing all the sums, and factoring in what cosmetic work would be needed, it just wouldn’t have been worth it even with good tenants who paid regularly and didn’t trash the place.

The people they're profiteering off?

People do not tend to discuss good landlords on here, or anywhere.

Yet just yesterday, we had a thread where OP was complaining about a council tenant getting a posh house for "free" and how she had to pay market rent etc, and it it turns out she was a LL anyway.

The right. Don’t forget the right 🤣

Ours is 🤷🏻‍♀️

MN hates everyone, not just landlords.

There are a million things that need doing to my house if I could afford it. But I can't. Further complicated by the lack of reliable and good tradesmen, who are like hens teeth.

But as an owner occupier, I cope with them and make it work.

who said it was an unreasonable proposition?

In this country, anyone can buy a house, every single person has that right. No-one is stopping you. No one is stopping you from buying 2, or 5 or 10 either. If you have 10 and you chose to let them out instead of leaving them empty, it's your right too.

Now if you have a house, and someone comes and declares that it's "unfair"that you have that big house for yourself, and you must stick to one room and give the rest of the room to other families, you won't be moaning so much about landlords and everyone be given the same amount of space or property will you 😂. That has happened, didn't quite work out so well.