To think we should ban private renting?

Where is the money coming from to buy the properties from their current owners (landlords)?

You're really not making much sense.

Personally I only rent out to professionals (though due to the RRA you are no longer allowed to turn someone down just because they are on benefits).

However, of course private landlords are making a profit, just as corporate landlords such as Lloyds are making a profit. If I've got £250k for example and I leave it in a basic savings account, with current interest rates I can accrue about £1k per month in interest. More if I put it into stocks and shares. By contrast, using that money to buy a house to rent out in the short term doesn't give me even close to that return per month. Longer term I have to hope the house increases in value (provided the tenants haven't destroyed it in the meantime).

Maybe as landlords we should just put the money in some tax efficient stocks and shares instead.

@ExpectMorei never post without research. Over 80% report a profit after costs and risks. It’s an investment not a social service. But unfortunately it is one that is funded by state benefits paid to low:average workers forced to rent in the private sector.

That's the rule here in the Netherlands.

I understand completely.

It’s always best to learn through self study so I suggest you google:

landlord costs and profit

landlord risks

I am going to say no because where will you get the diversity. Of tastes, of quality, of everything - length of stay, terms etc.

If I need to rent for whatever reason I don’t want to be stuck with a crap housing association white ikea box. It’s probably not even Ikea, probably worse.

@ExpectMoreplease explain. You do understand that housing benefit/element is paid to the landlord rather than the tenant and that private sector landlords have no obligation to use state funds for maintenance but csn keep them as profit?

Which properties? Social housing is not for profit and rent has to cover maintenance etc. Private renting is a profit making investment and maintenance of the property is patchy and landlords have a nasty habit of trying to reclaim costs through future rent increases rather than using profit accrued. The fact that landlords also pay tax is irrelevant to the fact that they benefit from tax payments that they are not personally entitled to so that they can increase personal profit by charging high rent topped up by the state.

@PocketSand “direct to landlords as profit”. Incorrect. You’re either not understanding the facts or deliberately telling porkies.

So who pays for the maintenance of these properties then?

You do realise landlords are tax payers too don't you?

You were the one that said SH tenants get "luxury" housing, and then went on with the usual stereotypes about SH tenants having gardens of junk etc.

I also do not understand how and why renting privately should be something to aspire to.

@PocketSandagree

At present around 40% of the total budget of tax payer money funding housing benefit/element of UC is paid to tenants in the private sector (ie direct to landlords as profit rather than reinvested in maintenance). This would be higher without caps. This is despite the fact that twice as many social housing tenants qualify for housing support because high rents in the private sector means that individual claims are higher. This is unaffordable. Tax payers cannot afford to pay billions to private landlords to allow them to profit from high rents. Housing benefit that would not be paid to individuals to fund their mortgage is paid to private landlords with a BTL mortgage and a tenant that qualifies for housing support due to high rent. Tax payers and lower paid workers are being exploited to make profit for private landlords. Perhaps rent control is not such a bad thing.

You've totally missed what has been said in this thread? The topic of the thread was wanting councils to buy every single private rental property in the UK and turn it into social housing! Not every private rented property is a shit hole! Every single private rental in the UK would absolutely include anything from country houses to penthouses to cottages by the sea! Have a look on Airbnb etc!

I also keep hearing how first time buyers can't afford to get on the property ladder these days.

Took us ten years to get stable jobs and save depoist - by then we were early 30s and had first kids - we didn't want a starter home we needed a family home.

MIL kept on we should have got a 2 up and 2 down - it would already have been too small and we'd have been stuck there - probably so long we couldn't have had the finial child we wanted.

We carefully matched jobs and houseprices so we could aford to buy but it did write off large swaths of the country and I think it will be worse for DC.

I and DH spent ten years priavtely renting moving round country for work.

One property we rented - which did need work and was damp - was owned by elderly couple DIL was renting out it was paying for their care home.

I renetd a property where woman has moved in with fiancée before marriage but wanted to keep flat in case things didn't work out.

Another was someone who worked abroad for a few years - while I renet and anotehr hwo was studying as mature student - my rent paid mortage so they could keep properties and gave me somewhere to live.

Personally I prefered the ones with bigger property portfolios who were doing it professionally as they were more professional about everything including repairs.

My DC rented with private landlords for uni - and with uni halls before that - they can't buy and likely will need to work elsewhere to build their carrers up - so with no private rentals they'd be stuck.

I do think we need more HA and council housing on massive scale but private renting never been banned and doing so would cause massive problems.

I totally agree with your points about maintenance and going above and beyond, and increasing to cover that, but it's when landlords give a big increase and say that it's because mortgage rates have gone up. If it's actually because of other costs and responsibilities, they should say that, but some (including my DP's landlord) say that it's due to their mortgage rate. So either they're not being honest with why they're increasing it (even though it would be reasonable to say you're increasing because of the extra compliance, repairs etc) or they have borrowed the money and are passing on those borrowing costs to tenants.

The OP is probably imagining some kind of confiscation for the greater good

Exactly. The scale of all this is eye watering. The OP doesn't seem to have considered any of this.

1. What happens when a rental property isn’t purchased by any of the private HAs? What if none of the HAs bite?
2. What happens when a Newcastle family owns a home, but moves to Cardiff on a 12-month work contract? They cannot afford to pay the mortgage on their Newcastle family home and rent in Cardiff in tandem. Are their only options to either let their Newcastle home sit empty and take a financial hit, or sell it? Even if they’re definitely coming back in 12 months?

It had been repainted so all these issues were hidden until the winter/rain.

The landlord I had before that was very good though.

That doesn't mean every landlord would just ignore though.

If the property was in such a state, why did you agree to rent it in the first place? Surely you inspected the place before taking it on and saw issues with damp and holes in the ceiling, even if the central heating problem might have been more difficult to spot before you signed the tenancy agreement?

Especially if you've ever seen the state of some private rents. I have several friends stuck in damp houses that need news windows etc. Window and central heating programmes take YEARS to complete as it is, you'd basically have to pause on all but emergencies for existing HA tenants trying to legally get properties up to standard.

And imagine the workload.

The legal and admin team liaising with landlords and processing the purchase.
You're also imposing new tennacny agreements on tenants and all those need to be signed.
What if the tenants have preexisting debt with the HA?

All the surveys etc that occur when you buy a new house.

Internal property inspections to raise necessary jobs, scheduling those in and the trades teams to undertake even the basic level of stuff.
Home visits to new tenants.
The increase in neighbour nuisance complaints which you get in social housing.
Someone to process all the new rents etc.
Extra admin to handle future calls re repairs, enquiries etc.

OP seems to think they just swap some paperwork for a house, drop the rent and life carries on but cheaper!

So if you get posted to UAE or Singapore or whatever for a couple of years you have to either sell your family home or let it stand empty?

And what about all the rentals used by workers being posted to London for a few years? Should the government/housing association really be in the business of renting out luxury flats to financial services workers?

I was in a private rental with damp, holes in the ceiling and barely functioning central heating as one radiator had a hole in it. Landlord did nothing.

I think the OP title should be renamed "To think we should ban bad landlords from renting properties out"