Liz Jones - I do feel a tiny bit sorry for her but she still has no self awareness

[QuebecBagnet]

Article in the DM today about how she's getting evicted from her rental cottage as the landlady wants to sell. Focus of the article is renters with no security - which I agree is an issue.

So she talks about how when she was made bankrupt she struggled to find somewhere to rent. Had to put all her nice furniture in storage. She has spent 59k "decorating" this cottage - new kitchen, underfloor heating, etc and has now lost all that.

I'm sorry but 59k would be a 50% on a 2 bed terrace in many cities in the UK. I don't know maybe she couldn't get a mortgage for the rest. Though surely she didn't spend all her savings on this cottage. And how did she have 59k if she was made bankrupt a few years ago?

Anyway the thing which really bugged me is she says women of her age have had it harder than "generation rent". Really? Had it harder when she had the opportunity to buy property (and did so) when it was a quarter of the price it is now. She spent years writing about her luxury lifestyle, her horses, trips to Paris, expensive skincare, expensive yoga classes.

I have limited sympathy for someone who has spunked a very good income on frivolous shit and moans about being skint especially when they continue to make shit financial decisions.

Still wish I knew who the Rock Star was. Was Jim Kerr the most likely suspect?

She'll fall on her feet. I very much doubt she's actually going to present as homeless to the council

OTOH, imagine the articles she's going to get out of being housed by the council and how sniffy she's going to be about the accommodation. LJ has an outrageous sense of entitlement that she's supposed to be able to have all the luxurious things she wants in her life and it's other people's job to enable that. It's been clear for years that she needs a lot of help with her mental health - she's written articles about it herself. Instead she gets exploited by the MoS to write articles that have everyone rolling their eyes at her lack of self awareness.

I knew someone a bit like Liz, champagne lifestyle on a shoestring budget but she'd had meningitis in her teens/early 20s and it really affected her brain etc - her sister said so. Whilst her sister met and married someone else, this woman went from one ill-advised relationship to the next and it took her sister sadly dying in her 40s for her to meet (had met just briefly before or whilst her sister was terminally ill) a lovely man and settle down, in her 40s. I'm sure her family was very worried about her, but she's fit, seems happily married and has a nice home now.

My goodness- £60k spaffed up the wall on someone else’s property??
I have little sympathy-
Someone of 60 could have bought when houses in my area ( Now £750k) were just £25/30k
Why was she so utterly daft with money??
She will never get back that £60 k

Landlord must be laughing.

Probably wouldn't have spent £60k renovating a RENTED home then

Well, if she prioritises her bunch of animals then that is her choice, I suppose. I don't think the council will have much sympathy if she rocks up to the housing department asking for a house with stables and kennels! Even that aspect of her life is at odds with the whole SATC lifestyle she maintains the other half of the time.

I don't think I've heard of or read anything by Liz Jones in ten years but it sounds as if she's learned absolutely nothing in the time in between? I've always felt sorry for her for some unknown reason, but how she can be banging on about exactly the same sort of money/ personal life woes she's had before and and seemingly done nothing to address over the years is baffling.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124145720#/?channel=RES_BUY
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128646590#/?channel=RES_BUY
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128655131#/?channel=RES_BUY

Hundreds of properties under 120k.

Hell, there are properties that could be purchased outright and moved into immediately for 59k.

That said, I wouldn't bet the house (lol) on this actually being true. She has form for stretching the truth. I'd also agree with other posters she's never seemed especially well.

The3 problem with Liz is that she was never, ever going to buy something small and unglamorous. Renting it is considered acceptable but not buying. I know loads of people renting in fashionable areas for decades who could easily buy a house further out but will not even consider it and then complain about being unable to buy. Otherwise intelligent people who work high up in the medical and legal professions.

She's made a long list of disastrous decisions - financial and otherwise - throughout her life and all have been grist to her whiny column in the DM. Her problems are entirely of her own making, but she clearly has issues with her mental health and for that, I feel sorry for her. She really needs someone else to manage her financial affairs to stop her making these catastrophic decisions, but clearly that post remains unfilled.

She's a fool

why oh why would you do that????

You don’t understand how it works. They are not exploiting her at all.

I expect you are one of those people that cry ‘Leave her alone!’ when a celebrity is papped walking down the street after some perceived tragedy and don’t realise it the celebrity or their management that has called the paps so that they can be photographed.

Liz is an employee, the Daily Mail are not taking advantage of her. Liz manipulates people for a living.

The estate agent is using the under floor heating as a selling point (well why wouldn't you?) - that must hurt!

I remember reading her stories about her husband years ago and thinking he doesn't want to be with you. I do feel for her and I do suspect that there is an element of exaggeration, but she would also talk about her poor mother alone even though she had brought up 7 (?) kids and think "well you are one of them, go and visit". It's almost as though she has no control over any aspect of her life

Find some in the south of Hampshire. Then I'll be impressed.

Having looked at the listing, I simply do not believe that she spent that on the cottage, especially that kitchen. I think the extra zero was a typo!

there are repairing leases which put the obligation of tarting the place up onto the tenant - usually on estates which may be the case here as I’m guessing that rent includes all the land for the horses. That are however normally longer term, and there can also be a provision that the tenant gets some of the value of any improvements back at the end, though that’s pretty unusual. I don’t however imagine that the DM click bait story is the full one (I know people who spent £10k on the garden lighting system for a rental - it was a very expensive one - and when they were thrown out early when the original landlord sold, they just cut the wires and didn’t say where. Oh so petty but under the circumstances it was immensely satisfying)

Lives beyond her means.
Thinks she's entitled to a certain standard of living "just because".
Infuriating but she's not daft and knows writing this stuff makes her the money she needs.

I am not a fan of Liz Jones (I have met her on a number of occasions) however the improvements to her rental may have been made on the understanding that she was there for the foreseeable future.
We rented a property that was in need of repairs and we got permission to do them on the written understanding that our lease was for two years. When the stamp duty holiday came we were given notice! The landlord was a total shit who used our furniture and style to sell his house (I refused a video and pictures for Rightmove). He tried every legal loophole to get us out. He later stalked us.
Ms Jones may be barking but she has made a huge mistake here. In her position I would be looking for a country estate long term rental and hope that she can keep that location private for once!

She’ll likely be entitled to benefits that will allow her to rent a studio flat or one bedroom place inside the M25, and will be entitled to free bus travel in a few years so she’ll still be able to come into town.

She seems to have enjoyed herself down the years, which used up everything that she earned, so there’s no need for sympathy; it was a valid choice and this is the old-age which she’s chosen.

Yes @BobbyBobbyBobby and she makes other people the object of her stories whether they want to be or not
She exploits other people for her own means

I rented a room in one of the Georgian terraces on Richmond Hill at 20 - fab views but crippling price - Bought a house elsewhere as hated giving £ to landlords.
How a well paid woman like Jones didn’t do this astounds me!

Landlord must be laughing.

I somehow sense that her landlords have earned any money they got from her.

She has been very foolish to spend that on a rented property - just about no one ever does that. The street where the house my mother grew up in (rented) near Sunderland has a house for sale currently at £74k. Admittedly it is not a palace but a better home for money than wasting it on a landlord's place - LJ apparently even bought a new kitchen - is that even allowed in a rented place?

She seems to have enjoyed herself down the years, which used up everything that she earned, so there’s no need for sympathy; it was a valid choice and this is the old-age which she’s chosen

I have friends who aren't highly paid, 'can't afford' to pay into their pensions but have a lot of short trips away staying in hotels and sightseeing, both here and abroad. Fair enough, that's what they've chosen to spend their money on. LJ wants it both ways, though, and I doubt she's made a deliberate choice. My feeling is that she expects someone to come and rescue her.