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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be a bit shocked at the landlord who is evicting 200 families because they are on housing benefit

382 replies

wetaugust · 06/01/2014 19:25

Heard this and 'Wow' - I was shocked.

He's being interviewed on C4 News.

He'd rather rent them to Eatern Europeans who are working.

He said that if house prices go up then rents should go up.

He said he's not the only landlord doing this.

Wow!

So some local authority will have to find new housing for all these people.

Where will this end?

I am stunned. Shock

OP posts:
HorizontalRunningOnly · 07/01/2014 08:09

This man owns 1000 properties - worth 200 million. He owns entire streets of homes. It's scandalous really, I live with my dad following a relationship break down, I work part time and have a 3 year old. If I was to rent privately I would need housing benefit just to help that little bit with rent - according to him if be u reliable and not a tenant he would want. But I work - rent it so high I'm priced out.

CallMeNancy · 07/01/2014 08:11

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Custardo · 07/01/2014 08:12

I read this article yesterday and I can't blame the LL. Not only is he running business but the mortgages on the rental prooerty probably have a caveat that he is not allowed to rent to people on HB

the appeal of HB used to be that it was guaranteed income to the LL if paid direct ( for those LLs who were financially allowed to rent to people on HB)

now the rules are going to change, with universal credit when it eventually comes in, every claimant will be paid HB direct.

now anyone who had read my political rantings on various threads over mumsnet - will absolutely know I detest the government and the housing crisis that they refuse to alleviate

I cannot blame the LL here, it is a business, even if his mortgages allowed HB, this is not a long term sustainable way to run a business

he is not a social landlord, he is a business man driven by profit, not for the social good

LittleDoris · 07/01/2014 08:16

Then you chose the wrong landlord.
You could have chosen to find another, but chose not to exercise your right to do so.

Are you serious? Do you think the tenants this man is evicting have any kind of choice as to where they live next and who their LL will be? They will most likely be without a deposit, unable to find a wide range of suitable properties, and they will be facing homelessness.

Tenants anywhere very rarely have any choice. That's the whole point.

CallMeNancy · 07/01/2014 08:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LittleDoris · 07/01/2014 08:20

he is not a social landlord, he is a business man driven by profit, not for the social good

When someone owns 1000+ properties he has the power to affect society in that area.

Is it really ok that one citizen, without being elected, can have so much power over a community?

yellowknife · 07/01/2014 08:39

I was replying to yellowknife's assertion that s/he rented for a decade from the same landlord who they were unhappy with.

I didn't rent from the same landlord for a decade, rather several different ones over that period, and I never said I was unhappy with them (although one in particular was a Wilson-esque twat as it happens).

Simply that there was bugger all for them to do - some utility went wrong maybe once a year, they called some person out to fix it, the end. Quite often they didn't even do that, the letting agency did it or I was allowed to call the British Gas Homecare people directly. I just struggle to tally your description of being as a landlord as "bloody hard work", with my experience of doing long tedious jobs that take 40, 50, 60+ hours a week, that actually were hard work.

bochead · 07/01/2014 09:35

We are going to have a summer off civil unrest and rioting again if the government doesn't get it's head out of it's arse and sort some of the serious social issues brewing.

When I left london several grammar school worthy (levels 5 & 6's) Sats kids of my acquaintance had no secondary schools to go to because there just aren't enough places. We've known about the primary issue for years. SN kids are being forced out of state education by cuts to funding, post qualification teacher training and support services. The NHS is cracking at the seams. Our sewers need urgent upgrading in several major cities. Other areas are reeling from flood damage.

The long term sick and disabled have already been hung out to dry by the benefits system and 20,000 old folk snuff it due to the heat or eat conundrum every winter. More and more people in full-time low paid work join the queues at the food banks every week.

White collar jobs in technology and industry have been off-shored over the last couple of decades. Call centres are now based in Calcutta. The number of living wage jobs available does not match the number of desperate applicants and hasn't for a while.

The pension system is a joke so many baby boomers and younger are relying on income from private rentals to avoid penury in old age. Given the demographics of this nation we cannot afford for every person who hits old age to be totally reliant on the ponzi scheme that is the state pension. Public sector workers are reliant on the productivity of the current private sector workforce for security in their old age, so they are not immune despite the fuss their unions create.

Private rentals only give a family 6 months security before the landlord can ask them to move on. Moving can affect their ability to commute to work and get their kids to school. It's not sustainable to have a massive minority of the working age population living with this level of insecurity.

SME - traditionally how this nation pulls itself out of recession has been regulated out of profitability by the demands of the corporate off shorers. The government is aware that civil unrest has riven many other European nations recently but stubbornly sticks to policies that throw many British families into penury and then homelessness.

I honestly think we are going back to a social situation like that we had pre WW1 over the next generation or two. No pensions, no healthcare, no schooling for the majority with an upper class who have everything. There will be no middle class, a very poor majority working class and a small underclass dependent on church/charity handouts for survival.

SaucyJack · 07/01/2014 09:37

The 'outlaw private LL' posters seem to assume that everyone wants to move into their first home age 20 and stay there for good...

No, we're not assuming that at all.

The plain fact is, that in large areas of the country owning your own home is now something the majority of people will never ever achieve throughout their entire lifetimes. It's not right for normal, working people to be forced into paying over half their salary every month off of somebody else's mortgage- with not a ha'penny to invest themselves for their retirements.

Some people will always choose to rent, and that's fine- but I'm willing to bet they make up just a tiny percentage of current UK tenants.

CallMeNancy · 07/01/2014 09:39

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Holdthepage · 07/01/2014 10:18

Fergus & Judith Wilson - serial publicity seekers, they would evict their own parents if they thought it would get them in the news.

CallMeNancy · 07/01/2014 10:31

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specialsubject · 07/01/2014 10:37

yellowknife, what do you do for a living? I hope it is totally moral.

this big landlord is a poor example. It's like tarring all those who have children and claim benefits with the same brush of the people who have about ten kids, TVs, games consoles etc and live the life of riley on it. There ARE families like this but very few.

Balistapus · 07/01/2014 10:51

It seem wrong for anyone to own 1000 properties, whether it's this bloke or the Duke of Westminister, but it would also be wrong to ban private LL.

What about accidental LL? I lived in London, on an average salary. I took all the overtime I could, didn't go out for a year and saved up a deposit to buy a small home. 3 years later I moved in with my partner. My home was my security that I'd worked hard to achieved so I rented it out. I was also in negative equity at that time too so, yes I could have sold, but that would have wiped out everything I'd worked so hard for plus left me with debt.
The rent is the same as the interest on the mortgage so I make no profit, plus I have maintenance costs. When I switch mortgages I lowered the rent to pass on the deduction. I didn't realise that I was 'scum' for doing this.
I find the idea that all poor people are worthy, while everyone else deserves a kick in the teeth, quite tiresome.

LittleDoris · 07/01/2014 11:01

CallMeNancy

You could exercise your right to no longer do a "job" that you feel is not financially viable.

yellowknife · 07/01/2014 11:12

specialsubject the job I do involves the creation of a product that enhances the quality of life for society, so I would say it is moral. That's not to say all jobs are moral and being a private landlord is the only immoral way to make money. Many people who work in investment banking in it's current form for example, are not doing a socially useful job.

Private landlording is what it is - if you want to do it that's up to you but don't go round saying what a great 'job' you do providing a 'service' people desperately need, and acting like the housing wouldn't exist if you didn't own it. It's leeching money from the efforts of others and nothing more.

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/01/2014 11:14

It's only shocking because he is a LL on a massive scale, renting out a thousand properties.

I am a LL, I only rent out one property and I won't rent to HB tenants either - nothing against them but sometimes it is a real hassle I don't need.

I don't leech money from anyone.

SaucyJack · 07/01/2014 11:15

I find the idea that all poor people are worthy, while everyone else deserves a kick in the teeth, quite tiresome.

I find the idea that we live in one of the richest countries in the world, but still have poor people pretty fucking tiresome myself.....

Lazysuzanne · 07/01/2014 11:17

It's the job of govt to regulate the housing market so as to promote the long term best interests of society as a whole.

Private landlords are bound to act out of rational self interest, but they are in a Position to exploit the poor and needy.
We need social housing.

Balistapus · 07/01/2014 11:19

Unless you live in a communist state you're always going to have 'poor' people as it's a relative term.

Lazysuzanne · 07/01/2014 11:21

I don't think we should blame landlords, what they do is inherently exploitative, that's because the profit motive conflicts with the need for housing.

LittleDoris · 07/01/2014 11:25

I don't think we should blame landlords

I don't blame anyone for wanting to get ahead.

What fucks me off is when they come on to threads like these bleating about the hassle and the hard work.

Its a job. If it doesn't pay you, get a different job that will pay you.

Fleta · 07/01/2014 11:33

Quite Little Doris.

BUT I do not expect to be called a cunt etc etc.

Just to clarify it seems we cannot state - quite rightly - that all people on housing benefits are scum. Yet we can make the sweeping statements that LLs are?

I'm a bloody good LL. I look after my tenants. I evicted one for none payment after we bent over backwards to give him time to sort himself out.

But I won't - because of him - now rent to people on housing benefit because (a) it isn't worth my time and energy if it all goes pear-shaped and (b) the conditions of my Buy-to-Let mortgage state I'm not permitted to.

If I had a tenant who was made redundant and then went on HB I would not evict them in that instance, provided the rent was still paid on time.

Lazysuzanne · 07/01/2014 11:40

There have been some very informative and insightful posts on this thread, and many which show a limited understand of the issues involved.

Then again it's difficult not to be influenced by the prevailing rhetoric, politicians and the media constantly prodding us for the visceral response, the emotional reaction.
Oversimplifying, painting it all black and white

Never encouraging us to take a calm look at the facts, appreciate the complexities and contradictions, rationally weigh up the pro's and con's

Lazysuzanne · 07/01/2014 11:44

Fleta, very true and good for you but your post is all besides the point.

Point being that the government ought to regulate the rental market so that landlords aren't able to exploit tenants.

It's no good just hoping they'll be moral and philanthropic, some will but most won't.

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