What are the bad parts about renting?

[KimGa]

As I’ve mentioned in a thread or two before, we can’t find an onward property to buy in the area we want and need to be in to apply for schools this autumn. This is partly due to very limited supply and partly because our budget will only get us something much smaller than what we currently have. We are therefore thinking about proceeding with the sale of our property and going into rented for a year. Once they are in the schools we can look again and can buy towards the edge of catchment without fear.

Aside from the financial implications (cost will be double what our mortgage would be per month) and worries about getting back on the property ladder/what’s happening with the market and mortgage rates, what are the other downsides of renting for us to consider? Very privileged I know l, but we went straight from living with family to buying our first place so have never rented before.

If we sign for a year is that guaranteed that we can’t be told to leave before that (assuming we pay on time and look after the property etc) What is it like having a landlord? Do they come in and check up on you, do you have to call them for anything and everything that might need fixing? Trying to weigh up whether it will be worse than buying a house we are not happy with.

Downsides of renting:

• it's expensive at the start and the end of the contract. Fees, advance payments, deposit, cleaning, not getting all deposit back which can be quite common (though things are better than they used to be, now there is the deposit scheme)

• can be poor quality fixtures/ decor... and you're not allowed to change these

• house owning neighbours can often look down on you and if they are the complaining sort may complain to your landlord/agency not you

• notice can be served when the landlord wants to sell up. Usually the first "term" of the contract e.g. 6 months or 1 year would be respected, once it's rolling after that then you are at the whim of the landlord's plans.

• 6 monthly property inspections by the agency. I don't remember any issues but it does make you feel under scrutiny.

Agents are usually ok about arranging for repairs, but again, you won't really know if they are efficient about that stuff until you are there.

But for this temporary situation to secure thr school - probably a good idea

You have to get permission to do anything like painting walls or putting up a shelf.

We did similar when moving from one side of the country to another and not being exactly sure where we wanted to buy.

It was (for us) a much better choice than rushing into buying something we might regret (we ended up in a completely different town to the one we rented in - different country in fact - England not Wales!).

We were lucky to find a relatively nice property to rent, and had lovely neighbours who made us very welcome, it was well looked after and although we had an issue with the boiler after a couple of months it was quickly resolved. We did have a couple of inspections but they were very relaxed and just meant sitting and having a coffee with the inspector (if I had been the landlord I would have expected a proper inspection ). The worse thing was the nit picking over the final inspection when we moved out, totally unrealistic comments ... if fact I wrote a letter direct to the Landlord who totally agreed with my comments and returned our deposit in full.

Changing schools was tricky as it meant our DS had three primary schools in 18 months, but he is very resilient and it wasn't a problem - he is an only DC, would be harder if you were balancing the needs of more than one DC.

I only have annual property inspections and it's no big deal, they walk round and take photos of anything that needs repairing, etc.

The things that get me down about it are that repairs aren't done when I report them - I have to nag for months sometimes before they'll send someone round; the decor is dated; I can't paint or put up pictures so I'm stuck with bare magnolia walls; the landlord doesn't care about making it a nicer place to live because he doesn't live here. However, if you know it's only temporary then this is all bearable. Are you sure you're going to be able to buy somewhere in a year's time?

As long as you're competent with small DIY jobs then you can do these yourself rather than calling the landlord for every little thing. There hopefully won't be too many big things that need repairing in the space of a year!
If you get a 1 year contract then they have to wait until the year is up before they evict you. If they want to evict you then you have 2 months to move out. Rent increases are usually annual.

I can't paint or put up pictures so I'm stuck with bare magnolia walls

I don’t know if this helps Flamingo, but when I was renting I used Command strips to put pictures up - you can just pull them off again when you need to & they don’t harm the paintwork. command.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/command-gb/

It does depend on your landlord... we rent out a flat and we were very happy to agree to the tenants painting the walls .. it gave us reassurance that they enjoyed living in the property and are therefore more likely to stay long term.

The cost, obviously.

Lack of freedom to change things in the home because you need the LL's permission.

If you get a bad agency who take weeks and weeks to repair anything (like I have).

Fear of the LL wanting to sell up before you're ready to move on.

I'm lucky with my neighbours, but some can look down on renters.

Competition for properties at the moment because demand far outstrips supply of decent properties in some areas.

Even harder to be selected as the tenant if you've got pets.

I'm a LL with 8 btl houses and don't go through agents so deal with all tenants directly. They have the number of the property maintenance team I use and can call them directly for small jobs. Large jobs they ring me first but ultimately if something needs a repair or replacement it gets done. I allow tenants to paint whatever colours they like, providing it is painted back to white when they leave, and no paint on light switches. Tenants can use command strips for pictures. Provided rent arrives in time I only do an inspection once a year on date on contract renewal. I give a 1 year contract, then 2 months before it expires I give them option of leaving at end of contract or renewing contract. So they always know they have security for length of contract. I have had a few tenants for 10 years. I try not to I crease rent too frequently often every other year by amount of inflation in last year. I allow most pets too providing tenants have professional deep clean on leaving and no reptiles. I think my terms are pretty standard.

I was a renter until recently, and I have also been a landlord for 6 years.

Downsides to renting:
The costs are higher.
Hard to have pets...although I just hid them when inspections came around.
Insecurity as you may end up having to move on sooner than you'd want to.
Poorer quality fixtures and fittings.
And fundamentally, the worst thing is that it's not your home...you're just borrowing it.

The worst thing for me, and I don't think I really realised until I'd bought, was the impermanence. Every place I've lived in has been my home, while I was living there. But it's not until now that I've really felt completely settled.

That's clearly not going to be an issue for you though.

The money, the insecurity, the constant reminder that it's not 'yours', and the fact that most landlords are knobheads

I rented for several years after my divorce and from a few different agents.
Inspections have sometimes been as often as every 12 weeks which I always found uncomfortable.
Check the inventory when you move in, I had 2 landlords who were absolutely fine followed by 1 who thought I owed him a new bedroom carpet when I left because of a hole which was there when I moved in!