to think two months notice is a bit shit?

[Miren]

Just heard from a friend that her landlord has given her two months notice to vacate the property she has been renting for the last 5 years. It's come completely out of the blue, and she is so upset. She has 3 children, all in the local school, so, unless she moves schools, she has to find - a scarce - rental in the area, pack up and move, in 8 weeks. She took on the property on the understanding that it was long term enough to see the kids through first school. So sad for her.

Negative equity simply means that if you sell your house it won't cover the cost of the mortgage. You still have two houses which is two more than many people.

I would say your friend just needs to find somewhere and move, if that means moving schools then so be it- it's the way it is with renting and most children cope easily with moving it the parents that struggle!.

We have been in the situation 3 times in the past few years, my 9 year old is in her third school BUT she is happy, doing really well at school and settles easily into new situations .

Don't advise your friend to stay where she is and jeopardise her references and credit rating that would be really foolish.

With good credit and references renting is easy without its impossible.

The situation is what you make it and cheerfully going and and looking for a lovely new house/new area is better than going through the courts and being evicted any day.

so some landlords have worked very hard, paid off mortgages and are now making profit.

good for them. Good for anyone who works hard and reaps the reward in whatever sphere. I know it is considered criminal by many on mumsnet to make money from a human need such as shelter. However we don't see this level of bile directed at those who work in banks, making money from mortgages, people who work in supermarkets, selling food and so on.

jealousy is a playground emotion. 'I'm not rich, therefore I hate everyone who is' is playground logic.

Special - or rather they've often made huge money in property while sitting on their arses watching house prices spiral up out of the reach of equally hard working but poorer people.

Or been lucky with an inheritance.

Everyone in my family is 'hard working'. None of us have enough spare money to buy another property to rent out.

The only people I know who own more than one property are people who have had a big leg up from parents, early on in their lives.

And they pay off mortgages nice and quickly because they can offset the income from their property against it. Great for landlords. Fucking awful for the tax payer who is paying out literally BILLIONS in housing benefit because of inflated house prices, and losing tax revenue because landlords are allowed to offset rental income against mortgage costs.

The only people I know who own more than one property are people who have had a big leg up from parents, early on in their lives.

And I know many people that have more than one property that haven't. The one case I can think of where inheritance has payed a part was when they lost both parents when they were 18. I know that they would obviously prefer to have their parents still around.

Oh yawn, whenever someone talks about an inheritance, someone always pops up commenting 'I'd rather still have my parents'.

As if you had a choice in the matter. :-(

You tend to lose your parents sooner or later regardless of the matter of inheritance.

Loads of people have to move house for all sorts of reasons. I don't really think advocating that she should refuse to move and wait for the landlord to go to court to get her evicted is very sensible. She will find another property to rent far more quickly if she has a good reference from her current landlord.

I can only tell you about my own situation, but I can assure you I have not had any kind of 'leg up'. I bought my flat about 10 years ago for £70k with a £3.5k deposit I saved up in the first few years of my job after university. After a couple of years I decided to move as my partner got a job elsewhere, the crash had happened and I couldn't afford to sell so decided to rent it out. Since then, we have rented my flat out until house prices improved enough to sell it for what we bought it for and we have rented elsewhere while we have slowly saved to buy somewhere together.

We have now finally saved enough for a deposit for where we live now (somewhere much more expensive) and are in the position to sell the flat. We have not made a huge profit but I am just glad to get rid. I have a couple of friends in a similar situation, no big handouts at all. Of course some do, but not all!

Where has OP gone?

I'm both a private landlord & long-term renter, who has finally purchased within the last few months after 5 years renting.

In 1 of our previous properties we were served 2 month's notice as the landlord wished to sell the property. We were given notice in December, when the rental market was quiet but luckily managed to get something else by being very pro-active. We had DS & issues with school catchments/childcare etc but just had to get on with it. We ended up in a smaller house, as that was all that was available at the time. It was a really shit time as DP had just been made redundant & we worried about credit checks. We were so grateful to have a roof over our heads. This was a private rental.

OP, it sounds like your friend has been renting at a below-market price. Hard as it is, she will need to find something in her budget within timescale. Sorry if that sounds tough, but sometimes that's the way it is.

minifingers I have a BTL. Bought from the proceeds of work. Doesn't mean others work less hard, but perhaps they spent their money differently. For good reasons, in different situations.

yes, some people inherit money. Some people win it on the lottery. Some people make loads by selling cons (anti wrinkle creams, diets).

I repeat; jealously belongs in the playground and the vicious bile spewed against landlords here continues to disgust me, especially as it often contains total fictions.

still, why spoil the fun with facts, eh?

We had great long-term tenants in, and only gave them notice when we needed our flat for ourselves. We gave them four months' notice and explained why they had to leave, and everyone parted on good terms.

If she had a good relationship with the LL, then she should ring him/her and ask for another month or two. You're right - it's hard to sort a move in under 2 months.

It might be worth contacting the LL and finding out if they have any other properties to rent. I once gave notice and my LL started offering me other places because I was a reliable renter who always paid on time. If it wasn't for the fact I was moving to a great place (where I still am 10 years later) I would have taken him up on his offers as he was a decent bloke.

How shit for the landlord that people like this will now go back and tell the pal to stay put. Just because they can see no reason. It's the landlords right. And it's perfectly legal. Tell your pal to get on with looking for somewhere else, and not to behave in a shitty manner. Yes there are bad landlords but some of us are actually decent people.

And yet again the vileness of people on here astounds me. I worked bloody hard to buy my btl properties. Very hard. I had no windfall or inheritance. Just pure hard work and good business sense.

Oh and for the record I don't make shit loads of profit as someone said earlier. But so what if I did ? What I make is my business not anyone else's. Especially my tenants. It's all down to nastiness and jealousy on here I think.

creampaint and sisters, the OP said her friend has specifically been told by the agent not to contact the LL and she has not been able to obtain his contact details even if she had not been told that.

Whatever good relationship the friend believed she had with the LL was obviously not reciprocated by the LL.

Presumably if the LL cared about his tenant and her family he would have been offering her other properties if he had them. However, as he won't even communicate with her to tell her why she is being evicted, this seems unlikely to happen.

I didn't see that she doesn't have the LL's contact details. If she does, she can ignore the agent and contact the LL. She can also ask for an extension via the agent.

I repeat; jealously belongs in the playground and the vicious bile spewed against landlords here continues to disgust me, especially as it often contains total fictions.

I completely agree.

I can't afford a second property and can't see a point when I am able to. I may inherit, I may not.

There are posts on here that do pang if jealousy and huge stereotypes and sweeping statements.

I am private landlord because situation changed, I was offered job and we relocated. We live in rented house and our own flat is let out. We don't make even enough rent to cover mortgage so make shortfall every month and our flat fell in value and hadn't yet got back up to what we paid for it , so can't sell.

Meanwhile every time something breaks in flat we get it fixed or replaced, which costs us money.

Where's this massive profit I'm meant to be making? And my loads of money? I don't seem to have either.

Plus we saved for deposit, no inheritance involved.

A lot of meanness on here, again showing mumsnet up as the spiteful place it often can be.

I read something the other day about a new guide for tenants being published. Not necessarily anyone on this thread, but there is an awful lot of cluelessness and misinformation around here about tenants' rights (yes, shock horror, they have them) and responsibilities.

can't find it - but here is the information gov.uk in the usual large friendly letters and short words.

www.gov.uk/private-renting/your-rights-and-responsibilities

Can I suggest that anyone renting, or about to, takes five minutes to read it.

That's a very useful link, special - thanks for that.

When I had a meeting with the Housing Allocations manager of our local council, to ask him how, as a non-housing expert, I could best support our school families who have been issued with a s21, he said the council does not publish its procedures, only its policies, so he could not be specific as to what help is variable for these families from the council.

So a family with no knowledge of how things have changed for tenants since April (yes, that was news to me, too), would have no chance of knowing what they should do for the best. Some of the parents I work with can't read. Some mistrust people in authority. The government apparently wants people to become "more responsible" for their own housing. How people can do this without knowing the rules is quite beyond me.

While I agree LL should speak to tenant, if he/she has never had this type of contact then why should he? And why should he try and re-home her? And he's heartless because he wants to sell??? Geez. It's a business transaction people, not a "thank god you are doing me a huge favour by renting my house".

Suburban Rhonda - thanks for explaining. It is awful how many people have no real hope of controlling their housing situations, and once housing goes belly up, so much of the rest of your life can follow.

What I find unfair about home owning, not landlords specifically, is that when I look at people my age and a bit older, some bought just before the huge boom, some didn't quite get there for whatever reason. Now, many who didn't buy have always worked as hard, even earned as much, and are now stuck in a position of having to pay far more in rent for a nasty place than others are paying in mortgage repayments for a nice place. They won't have anything to show for it at the end of all this renting, and literally every week the price of buying rises, while compared to those paying mortgages, the renters are simultaneously paying out more of their income on rent - a double whammy of getting poorer no matter what you do. Many people are able to benefit hugely from the current housing issues as landlords, through no skill or work of their own - if the economy and housing availability were different so that there was a good supply of property and low supply of possible tenants, then they'd benefit less through no fault of their own. I don't blame them as individuals. Unfortunately the government have a vested interest in pandering more to the votes of homeowners, and in inflating away their own debts.

Where I do blame landlords is those who really take advantage in the most mean ways - refusing to maintain properties decently or let them in a basic clean condition, simply because the market means they can, and will still let it. There are those who have no human regard for the welfare of their tenants, and will skimp on even the most basic things, no matter how good a tenant is. I doubt the OP's friend's landlord is like this, as if so she'd probably be partly relieved to leave.

Sorry for long post but btw, I do know plenty of people (I accept probably a minority) who have retired in their 30s to live off rental income, based on a home bought by their parents. For example, a child goes to Uni, parents buy a house there for child to live in and to rent out the other rooms to student friends. By now, mortgage gone and lots of money made, especially if you still rent out some rooms. Not to mention that in all those years, you have saved more of your wages because you were not paying astronomical rent.