Anyone struggling to find a rental property?

[Clarebear81]

Our landlord told us he’s selling a month ago now. House has sold for our 8 weeks notice to leave. In our first week we applied for all available properties and got nothing, sadly there has not even been any new properties gone up since. The estate agent who sold our house is also the letting agent, as we’ve been sick good tenants never missed payment etc the agent said we would get first priority on his listing and gave us a glowing reference but even that has
done no good. We’ve a month left then it’s either court and ruin our perfect renting history of 20 years or homelessness with zero help from council.

OP, is it worth checking if the sums work out w a 100% mortgage? All the caveats around it might not be suitable for you but perhaps it is an avenue. I'm so sorry you're facing this stress.

All the landlords pretending they're doing people favours is hilarious.

If too many landlords sell up the government will have no choice but to build more social housing or people will be on the streets. Hopefully it will give them a kick up the arse.

Sorry to hear about your predicament OP. I'm in social housing and I wish there was more of it available for everyone. Private renting should be an option for people, not a necessity.

The new legislation is meaningless and will make no difference at all, S21 will go but the LL can evict if they wish to sell or move back in, with a 3 month min time limit to be able to sell or rent again IF the LL changes their mind, also its still 2 months notice, it should be a min 6 months.

what is really going to make a difference is the EPC changes, vast majority of UK housing stock cannot meet a C standard and whilst there may be exemptions, its just more cost and regulation.

We need a vast increase in Council housing and move housing out of the private sector.... but in the meantime, why can't councils/Govt buy up the rental properties now being sold?

Costly but its an asset on the states books plus having huge numbers of people homeless is not without cost either.

for reference, i'm in exactly the same position as the OP, forced to wait until a court case, i have no where to go and cannot afford 1200 in rent, i don't know what i will do.

@Beezknees Thats really funny, you think the Govt will build more social housing? there is no plans to do this from either the Tories or Labour.

Building houses takes many years, what do tenants do in the meantime? buy a tent?

We had a family member in a desperate situation after their marriage failed and they couldn't find a property to rent. We did end up buying a property so they could rent it at cost from us, otherwise I honestly don't know what they would have done. Even so £700 is still a lot per month (similar properties nearby are being rented out nearby at double that) and mortgages for a similar amount being refused!

Meanwhile the new building around us is all 3-5 bedrooms, just a token number of 'affordable' houses for first time buyers and BTL landlords.

The other elephant in the room is the amount of immigration this government has allowed, another 600,000 people per year and more have to live somewhere.

DD had to leave the house she was living in due to probate, it took them 6 months to find somewhere at a reasonable price. People are being priced out of the nearby city and moving into their town so prices are rising.

@Beezknees Agree. Finally someone talking some sense.

Instead of pitying "poor" landlords, we need to look at the root cause of todays housing/rental crisis. Many landlords were and still are a major part of the problem. After so many council houses were sold off during Thatcher's Right To Buy scheme, many of homes inevitably ended up in the hands of private landlords, who jacked up rents to unaffordable levels, which was the main problem before low supply of rentals became a thing. Thatcher Government also made it so councils couldn't use the money from the sale of council houses to build new council houses. Of course this massively inflated the value of the current supply of housing to the delight of landlords. What we are seeing today is just the inevitable conclusion of RTB and people profiteering of peoples essential human need for shelter. I hope with a change of Government we may actually see a huge effort to acquire housing for social housing again and an even bigger effort to build more social housing in general. Sorry this had to happen to you OP. Hope you were able to find something that works out for you and your family.

Only nobody was choosing to live in a damp cockroach infested hovel were they? They had to, because shitty landlords exploited them for being poor.

In my area unfortunately if you are single you have no hope if renting. If you both are in minimum wage, same. It seems only "professionals" who offer x amount over the asking rent can find a place.