If you live in a rental, does it feel like your home, or just a house you live in?

[Mushroomwithaview]

We rent because we can't afford to buy.

I do like the house we live in, and we have all our own furniture and pictures. But it's not my home. It's someone else's house that I'm living in. Also, it's a bit scruffy. The kitchen needs a lick of paint. The wiring is a bit crap. We have to ask for every little thing, and we're not allowed to just get on and do it ourselves.

We have a 12-month contract. At any time the landlord might decide to sell / to move in himself. We lived in our last place for 5 years and then the LL decided to sell and we had 8 weeks notice to move out. It's like I protect myself from the crushing disappointment of having to move again, by not getting too attached.

Wondered if others feel the same?

I think I need to change my mindset.

I think when you rent, there is always that background sense of unease

It's definitely our home, but at the back of my mind is always will today be the day we are given notice. Our landlord looks about retirement age and this place is worth about £700k according to Rightmove so I would want the money in his situation.

Slightly different but I rent from a HA.
This is my home, this is where I raised my children. I can do pretty much what I want to it within reason.

I definitely understand what you mean. I was brought up in private rental. Moved house so many times, never felt like I had our own home. People kept selling up and we had to move, yet again. Thankfully now as a grown up, I have social housing, so my kids don't have to go through that. It's secure and apart from doing major work to it, we can do pretty much anything else, just like having your own home.

Obviously it’s your home if you rent from a HA? The OP was talking about living in a private rental property. The HA aren’t going to contact you to say you have 8 weeks to leave a property that you’ve lived in for 15 years:/

OP, I get exactly what you mean. I have a fixed contract until next summer (would have been here for 3 years at that point) but I always wonder what the LL will want to do. I’ve just had to ask if I can mount the TV on the wall and I know he’ll say no. It’s just annoying really but it’s not our house so what can we do ey

Just a house. Hopefully we'll be out of it soon. Just waiting for anyone to list their houses in my town. There's been nothing we can afford for months.
I can't really view something as my home when I'm not allowed to put pictures on the wall or hooks for our coats or put shelves up or decorate. Or get a pet. Put up a curtain rail. Or any of the other myriad things we would be free to do in our own home.

renting from council or HA is like a home. Private rental is shit in comparison. Always worried I will be moved on, rent increased. Can't change wallpaper, wall colours, carpets etc. I hate it. That said I am very lucky to have a good landlord and low rent for what it is. I would give anything for a council or HA property though.

Yes the op was talking about her living in a private rental but didn't specifically ask for responses only from those living as she does, only that, in her words, "If you live in a rental, does it feel like your home, or just a house you live in?"

We rent from the HA and yes, our house feels like home. I do understand the difference though and would most likely feel the same in a house that I potentially could only live in for a year. It would feel more like temporary accommodation than home.

I always had the feeling that it wasn't really home, because I couldn't do stuff to it.

I have only ever rented short term in between purchases, so they never felt like home really compared to the ones we bought.

I was in one for 6 months and another for 18 months.

I have a long term tenant though and hope she feels like it is her home as that house is no longer my home (it was mine when I was single) - it’s just a house.

We own a home we rent out more by circumstance than choice. It doesn't yet make us money. We provide a new cooker, fridge freezer and washing machine. In the last year ot 2 we've got a new boiler, fixed the ge roof and had countless other jobs done. Anything needs doing we sort it immediately. We want people to feel it's their home while they are there. We allow pets and would happily encourage people to decorate as they choose.

Anyone who rents a social housing property will feel like it’s their home. Because it is. The same can’t be said for those of us who private rent

I didn't mind the feeling when I was much younger, but recently we rented for a while after returning to the UK as our own house was tenanted and it didn't feel properly like my home because of the inspections, which felt really infantalising. I'd have found it mentally difficult if I didn't know that I had my own property that I owned.

I did feel like that but I'm now in a HA property and it is my home.

Yes, I hate it. Its a furnished property so even worse. In our case we knew from the outset it was only short term as well.

Hoping we can buy our own place at some point.

I rented for 6 years and felt the same. Like it was never mine and didn't feel settled or secure. I'm a real home bird as well so this is really important to me.

We have an assured tenancy so we can stay here the rest of our lives without being told to leave. So that helps and it does feel like our home. But I've been in rented houses most of my life and in all other properties I felt the same as you.

It makes such a difference to be able to paint and things though. We can do whatever we like to ours and we recently repainted throughout. We can also have pets. The previous tenants even put in a new (second hand) kitchen and the neighbour with the same landlord was knocking a wall through in his house last month. The issue is the cost. We plan to buy one day so don't want to be spending much money on doing this place up. I am very aware that it's not our own house but it definitely feels like our home.

My mindset changed to some extent after living in a private rental for 5 years. I had always put off doing much to the garden because it seems pointless improving someone else's garden but in the end I thought even if I'm not here much longer I'll get enjoyment out of it so I dug and planted a huge new garden bed. I'm so glad I did - I love it and have since had an unexpected baby who also loves looking at all the flowers.

But to another extent the house is far shabbier than it would be if I owned it. We don't ask the landlord for anything as he keeps our rent very low but it's desperate for a lick of paint etc. Obviously there are things we could do ourselves but it's always in the back of my mind it's not really our house.

I always think the grass is always greener though - home ownership has it's own stresses especially at the min for those with a mortgage whilst interest rates are soaring.

It's a lovely comfortable house in a wonderful location so I count myself lucky.

I'm a life long renter and the feeling of wanting to paint the walls my preferred colour (etc) has waned now, but it would still be nice to change a few things around the place! I feel this is my home, and whilst the rent goes up from time to time (not every year thankfully), it feels pretty secure.

Have lived in our current place 8 years, no real worries about being asked to leave... Our landlord (who we've never met) is a developer - who built the block with a business partner - and rents out a handful of flats in the same block. We've lived here since new and he has never lived here. Maybe that makes it feel a little different to someone who might return from overseas out of the blue and sell up - for example. Having said that, the paintwork etc needs a bit of a spruce up, not sure if that will happen during our time still living here!

I should also add that our property manager/agent is very hands off - so no inspections or any other real communication! If we have a problem, we let them know and they fix it. There's also stuff they don't notify us about (such as mandatory fire alarm testing) but that's on them if we're not made aware.

Op I agree. Our landlord makes it clear that this is his house, making it difficult to feel properly at home. I’ve never lived anywhere where the landlord has so much to do with a property (not because of reported problems but there are constant “checks”). Landlord also lives on the same street and used to live here so I suspect he wants to move back in when our contract is up.

I don’t like the decor, it smells faintly of mildew no matter what I do, it’s a bit too small for us. But we’re in London and buying is very hard. We’re going to try and buy before we get kicked out of here though - sort of in fear that our landlord will kick us out before we’re ready to buy though!

My young children are very attached to the house though. Because of them, I’d buy it if I could but I doubt landlord would sell it to us!

This is the first time we’ve rented in about 10 years (owned previously) and I hate it. I hate how little control I have over how it looks. I hate that someone could kick me out at any minute. I hate that my landlord sends me aggressive emails when I leave a window a crack open (!) by accident and we’re gone for the weekend. I hate that he knows when we’re gone for the weekend because he’s constantly having people found to do “maintenance”.

I really hope my tenants feel it is their home. There been there over 5 years. I have reassured them many times that I have a surely no intentions to sell. It is their home 100% and feels like it to me even though it used to be my residential home.

Private rental - we feel the same. It's not my home. I don't care for it in the same way as I would if it was mine and neither does the landlord.

I won't invest in the horrible garden. I've given up chasing up on some of the broken things and cosmetic issues. Can't wait to move out. We'll probably lose the whole deposit though, cos the cats have done a right number on the stair carpet

Lost all respect for landlord for getting shirty about about having to pay £1000 to fix the heat pump when it stopped working. The heat pump which has never been serviced in 15 odd years... she was complaining from her £6million house.

I have been very fortunate to get a council property and it's been completely renovated throughout. Having just completed a year I've been given an assured tenants agreement which means it's ours for as long as we want it. It's been a massive help, financially affordable and I can do as I please with the decor. I did move into an empty shell, had to carpet and supply all my own white goods - it's taken me a year to get to this point! Having always rented before through private rentals this definitely feels different, far more secure and less stressful, no worries about huge rental increases or the fear of being turfed out. I'm one of the lucky few and realise that!

Before getting a HA house, we rented which never felt like a home.

Exactly this.

There is no hanging rails in any of the cupboards. It would be the easiest thing in the world to put some in but I'm not allowed to. Can't hang my dresses up. I bet my landlord can hang her dresses up in her house.

My landlord owns 6 houses on this street, all worth more than a million - because of the location not the property itself. We spent 2 weeks without a stovetop because he kept trying to get an electrician to fix the 40 year old hob rather than just replace it.

There are enough houses for everyone to have one each. But some people have 6.