Why so much hate for Landlords on MN?

That’s not a regulator, that’s complying with laws and regulations imposed by your license. I comply with the rules of my driving license, I’m not regulated by the dvla.

You’re expecting me to defend it- I’m not. It shouldn’t have been as easy (or possible at all)

They're regulated by the local authority for whatever area they're in. That's where the issues lie. The local authorities aren't doing the checks, or only on the most obvious issues like HMOs.

The graph (which may take a little while to upload) from this article gives the long picture on house prices. Basically, they have indeed risen steeply relative to wages but the situation was even worse prior to 1900.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-7943741/House-prices-174-years-70-year-period-got-cheaper.html

Food is pretty cheap by historical standards. But of course one of the reasons is the incredible economies of scale (cheaper costs when producing in bulk) that modern supermarkets get, along with the very low wastage due to the efficient cool chain, plus (as the link below says), modern farming methods. And they have to be good because their profit margins are thin and competition is intense so they can't afford to lose market share.

This article is interesting on food costs and how they've changed since the 1970s.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-12277823/Money-squeezed-tight-young-hardest-hit.html

As an economist what I think I'd take from this, is that improving housing availability would need modernisation of what we're building and how we're building it, standardisation of what gets built, and economies of scale in renting which would suggest consolidation (but not the kind of consolidation we actually have). The 'wastage' part would be reducing housing sitting empty and maybe making it harder for non-UK citizens/residents to buy housing. I believe that's not totally unlike how Singapore solved their acute housing problem that they had in the 1950s (I'm no expert on Singapore though). Plus much better planning to match housing availability to where the jobs actually are.

The big problem is I don't think we could trust the UK government to do this competently. So in the short/medium term we'd probably be best off enforcing existing housing law (including appropriate action on problem tenants - landlords are currently having to wait up to 8 months to evict tenants who have e.g. not paid rent for years, caused extensive damage to properties etc) rather than just demonising landlords while having no solution other than "the state takes over everything".

In my case it's very simple. My LL can evict me at a couple of months notice and sell the house I live in, as it's his. This means I can never fully relax about housing. Ever.

I do not believe that there was no other option available to you than to rent your property.

I dont understand the concept that many posters have that no one should own more than one home.
There are numerous instances where people might need to rent.....what are they meant to do if there aren't any rentals.
Off the top of my head but there are probably others - students, junior Dr's, people on short term contracts, people whose house might be currently uninhabitable (floods/building work/renovations etc) new to an area/country etc etc.
And ive never heard what the alternative is if no one is allowed to rent out a property.
Im not a LL btw! And im paying rent on a scummy student house that DD lives in!

I was an “accidental” landlord in my 20s. It was a financial crisis, but no need to go into any more detail. I can’t believe it looking back- I didn’t ask my mortgage company for permission, had no insurance- and I was one of many doing it.

im glad that it’s probably not as easy now. That restricts people’s ability to become accidental landlords when they really shouldn’t be.

And I do not buy this "accidental landlord" crap either. It's always a choice.

Mortgages are typically less than rent now though, so letting housing to people at inflated cost is actively preventing swathes of the population from being able to invest in their own home.
I am glad the government are making it less profitable and discouraging more landleeching, they really need to up the building of social housing now to make it even less profitable. And I say all this as a homeowner, I don't rent..

Private rentals have laws to follow but they are not regulated (by a regulator)

In Scotland and Wales there is, and I believe in England now too.

I don't like them at all.
This is partly for all of the popular reasons, IE: They are social parasites, they exploit people in need of housing etc etc.
But in addition to this, I hate them because of what I see. Like letting agents, I've never met one who is a decent person, even the ones that put on a nice front.
Just join a landlord group on Facebook and see how they all talk to each other, the nasty things they say about their tenants, the contempt they have for their tenants that are paying their mortgage for them, the inflated sense of superiority they have even though most of them have no real job or profession and are letting to the people who actually keep society going like the nurses, teachers etc.
They are all very angry that they are being made to take more and more responsibility, and seem to expect sympathy for this because they really do just want to sit back and use their tenants as cash cows without putting on any effort.
It's like a huge percentage don't even see them as people.
I've also run a home improvements company before and landlords really are the absolute worst customers to deal with. They are stingy as hell, will scrimp out on everything and will happily cut any corner possible to save money, even if that means compromising safety. They're also invariably very rude and demanding.

They are generally just awful and seem to attract a certain type of personality I don't warm to.

Every single landlord I know has a full time job and between one and three properties they rent out.

So yes, they do offer more to society. And providing housing to people who cannot afford to buy is a social good.

That should really largely be done by social landlords, but blame the government for destroying the social rented sector.

Because too many are arseholes, and I say this as a LL myself.

Failing to carry out essential maintenance/repairs, hassling tenants with unannounced and too-frequent inspections, whacking the rent up for no real reason other than the fact that they can, and enough people will still be queueing up, deciding to sell, and expecting tenants to put up with would-be purchasers traipsing round their home, instead of waiting until they’ve left, failing to return deposits promptly….
Any more?

I’m a landlord and have received abuse on here. I make a profit, that’s the point, but all of my properties are well maintained. My family have lived in some of them. I’m certainly not embarrassed and if people don’t like it, tough really.

A couple of my properties are quite expensive and rented by people who clearly could buy if they wanted, but for various reasons don’t want to at the moment. Everyone presumes that if people rent it’s because they have no choice and it’s often not the case. One couple I rent to likes to move a lot so buying doesn’t appeal to them.

That’s not the fault of landlords though. And unless people hate home owners for also selling their homes at market value ( just as landlords rent at market value) they are being extremely inconsistent.

Rents are expensive due to decades of governments of both parties making shit decisions. The selling off of council homes, pushing people into the private rented sector, created demand that supply could not meet, pushing up prices.

We have long needed a massive programme of building social housing. Blame governments for the destruction of the social rented sector, not private landlords.

It's not true though that the private rental sector isn't regulated. There's lots of regulation. It isn't ENFORCED (actually neither are the regulations on the social housing sector, hence poor Awaab).

One of the often overlooked aspects of this is the penurious condition of local authorities and all the cutbacks they've made since the financial crisis. They just haven't got the staff, the will or the money to properly enforce regulations, especially while under pressure from central government to show they're adding to the housing stock.

Because no one like a rentier and most landlords I have ever rented off have been cheap, whining, chiseling pricks.

People become landlords for all sorts of reasons. I am both a tenant and a de facto landlord, renting out my mum's house in order to help pay her care home fees. I've seen it from both sides as their are both terrible LLs and terrible tenants.

Because people are incredibly envious about other people’s money - it’s very clear from several recent threads

They’re the only ones regulated. There will be plenty of similar stories in the private rented sector that don’t enact change.

I don’t know, I’ve helped a HA raise a billion- if they were the countries default landlords that wouldn’t be difficult to accelerate would it?

Because in my experience they see the tenants as little more then paychecks who are not important. I have dealt with ones who kicked you out after fixed term as they could put the price up a lot higher or didn’t like they you asked for repairs or becausee you complained about mould etc. they don’t care they are chucking people out I. A housing crisis where there are little choices of houses at a time. It doesn’t even matter if you keep the house nice and pay your rent on time. They also do not understand their privilege or what it is like to be giving two months when you are pregnant or have a small child.

i will say not all LL are like it. The one we have now seems ok. The one we have is a mass LL who just rents out houses and it seems if you pay your rent you can stay so that is a bonus.

Yes, they are leeches on society