I should have the right to buy from my my to let landlord after 6 years here

[chocolatekatie]

No government will ever do it as loads of them are into buy to let hence why they do all they can to prop up the bubble.

My landlord thinks he's some businessman doing me a favour by letting me live here. Actually he's the problem, he just had money so can afford to buy up property - push up the price and force people like me to rent.

notauniquename No, I disagree with people trying to get things for less than they are worth, by intimidating and coercing other individuals.

I don't think in general, in life, people tend to give away stuff for less than whats its worth because you ask them nicely, or even if you say they are being unfair, so I don't think its too likely to happen.

I would be in favour of more self-build, which is generally about 1/3 cheaper than developers' prices. Its very common in Belgium, more common in Germany and of course you can save money by doing certain less skilled things yourself. But no doubt there would be some reason for not doing that as well, even if the government did something to actually facilitate more self build. Such as making a certain quota of all new housing self build only.

And if your tenants don't it possibly says something about the landlord, the house, the area, the estate agents or a combination of all those!

I don't want long term tenants - I like renting to contractors. Yes, its an area where lots of contractors come to work, the house is a bit small for a family, and the estate agent specialises in finding such tenants, so I guess that's what it says about the area! Its also quite nice meeting people who move from different countries for work.

Oh my god. Did someone actually try to claim that criticising landlords makes you a NAZI?

I think it's a way of signalling defeat Cactus

I'd quite like the stigma of being a renter removed. What is wrong with renting? Why is property the be all and end all. You're only going to have to sell the house in old age to pay for care homes or your dc will get it all anyway.

My issues with private renting...

1. Paying more in rent than a mortgage would cost
2. Not being able to decorate or put our stamp on a house
3. lack of security- have had to move 7 times in 5 years for various reasons
4. landlords unwilling to do any but the most urgent 'improvements', for example our last house (where we lived with a baby) had a shower which leaked into our kitchen. For an entire year. And was damp in every single room.

Nothing to do with stigma!

I'm a landlord, of one property (BTL mortgage). DH and I own another home (mortgaged). When saving for our first deposit, we slept on the living room floor at MIL's for almost a year while we busted a gut saving. And worked hard ever since. The house we rent provides a home for a family that would be hard pushed to find in this area (it's 5 bed they have 6 children).

The way some people go on about landlords makes it sound like a house dropped out the bloody sky and landed in our lap with the sole purpose of ripping people off and making a fortune in the process.

Oh my god. Did someone actually try to claim that criticising landlords makes you a NAZI?

TheChandler as a Jewish, and as a long-term ex-renter, you should hang your head in shame.

Err, it was a reference to history. Maybe you should read before making such ridiculous claims?

The Nazis were known to base some of their hatred of Jews on the fact that many Jews in Germany were landlords. Its a historical fact.

It doesn't mean that people who criticise landlords in the UK in 2015 are Nazis. Where did you extrapolate that from, and why are you deliberately trying to be so offensive to other posters?

Utterly baffled.

ahh the repairs
in the last house I was in.

Upon the "regular inspection" - which seemed to happen every couple of months, the EA says, "this room seems cold and musty, do you have heating on and open the windows."

To which our reply was,
The room is so cold because the radiator does not work, - we did tell you that it didn't work some 4 months ago.
we would love to open the window, but as we also told you 4 months ago, the handle is broken so the window can't be opened...

Our roof leaked, they didn't fix it until I sent them a video of water running down the walls onto electric sockets.

No, I disagree with people trying to get things for less than they are worth, by intimidating and coercing other individuals.
but nobody said that?

I don't think in general, in life, people tend to give away stuff for less than whats its worth because you ask them nicely, or even if you say they are being unfair, so I don't think its too likely to happen.
unless say they have a greater sense of altruism than you, or it's good for their pre-tax totals so that they can gain in some other way

I would be in favour of more self-build, which is generally about 1/3 cheaper than developers' prices. Its very common in Belgium, more common in Germany and of course you can save money by doing certain less skilled things yourself.

I wonder why in the UK self build isn't as popular as in Germany...
Germany 82mill population 135,236 square miles 606 per square mile
UK 60 million population 93,278 square miles, 643 people per square mile

maybe because there is more competition for land, and it's more expensive?

you could look at Belgium, and say they have a greater population density.
Belgium 10 million population, 11672, 856 per square mile
to which I'd say, take out the Lochs and lakes and hills and mountains (e.g. make it comparable to Belgium)and you get:
England 53 million 50,337, square miles 1052 people per square mile.

Maybe you don't buy that well land is more expensive argument?
How about not being able to get a mortgage on a small piece of land?

That it's difficult enough to save £25k for a 10% deposit of an average priced house in the UK, and that raising £50k (or more) - where you can't have a mortgage on land like that is all but impossible, and then there is the added hassle of getting planning permission, paying architects. and of course buying the materials, and that's before a single "workman" has set foot on the site of your new house!

the UK system just really isn't setup for self builds unless you already have a "load" of money ready to fund it.

surely we are familiar with Godwin's law?

I think that landlords failing to do basic maintaince needs to be tackled as a matter of priority. Its unacceptable for a landlord not to fix a heating system or rent out a complete wreck.

The cost of land varies a lot across the UK. Parts of the UK where land is affordable has very few jobs. Infact there are lempty houses in more deprived parts of the country because of lack of work. Maybe HS2 will bring more prosperity to ex mining regions. We need to stop attempting to house a huge percentage of the UK population in London.

Huh?

Ahem sorry wrong thread

notauniquename nobody gets 2 months council tax free each year. Your bill is for 12 months and most people choose to pay it in 10 equal monthly instalments. If you have paid 10 payments and then move to a new house you should get a pro rata refund for the two months you have not occupied the property and you should be charged 2 months pro rata for the property you have moved into.

There are regulations about lack of heating and unsafe living conditions in rental properties. Unfortunately, in many LA's, Environmental Health is very short-staffed owing to budget cuts.

I've never gotten a pro-rata refund, (though I have to admit to not asking for it either.)

I've ended up paying 12 months of council tax (e.g. paying through catchup months) in the next house. to the same council, with the same name on the account, in fact when the details were changed on the same phone call.

e.g. I don't live there any more please cancel that DD, please set-up a new DD for this property.

uniquename you are entitled to a pro rata refund but you might have needed to ask for it.

For example: when I moved house I moved in March and due to paying my council tax over 10 months I had overpaid for the year. I phoned my old council and told them that date I had moved out and I got a refund for around 6 months worth of council tax. I I joined the new council and they issued me a bill which amounted to six weeks worth of council tax at the new property.
I'm not sure why anyone would think they needed to pay twice for the same period of council tax when they are inky living in one place. I assume if you paid your council tax upfront at the beginning of the tax year and moved out in May you would expect a refund of the 10 unused months so why wouldn't you expect a refund if you move out after 10 months when the bill is full year paid?
Of course a lot of councils now allow people to spread their council tax over 12 monthly payments so if you move regularly and can't be bothered to request your refund then perhaps it would be a good idea to pay the bill over 12 months instead of 10.

Your latest posts on this thread are among the most ignorant, offensive, stupid and ludicrous I have ever seen on this or any other discussion forum

oh come on, enough of the hyperbole

BTL, like any business comes with risks and rewards. We bought a BTL flat on the open market almost 14 years ago - we didn't gazump anyone in the process. The sale completed just after 9/11 and some people thought we were mad to go through with it, but we took a risk. It has been rented out continuously and we are about to renew with our current tenants for a third year. We never increase the rent during a tenancy, and in fact the market has dictated that the rent charged is only slightly higher now than it was in the first tenancy - and it has been quite a bit lower in between. If we were to remarket it now we could probably get more but we would rather keep a good tenant. In cash flow terms it has made a loss most years until recently, but yes, someone else is repaying the mortgage. We always attend to problems very fast and never go round to inspect. Not all landlords are bad! Our reward will be a nice taxed capital gain when we sell, without which our children will have little chance of buying a place. I make no apologies for this - absolutely we have feathered our own nest but there were risks involved that we were prepared to take and the feathered nest is our reward.

I very much doubt that BTL is fuelling the market round here (zone 4) as the numbers have not stacked up for a long time - purchase prices have doubled but rents most certainly have not over the last 10 to 15 years.

Are you suggesting that the owner/private landlord of a property you rent should be forced to sell his house to you at a massive discount? How would that work then?
so he has taken all the risk with fluctuating interest rates and price collapses for the last however many years and has paid out for maitnenance that you have benefited from, and yet you swoop in and buy at a knockdown price having had no risk and no capital outlay whatsoever?

Are you sure you've thought this through?

ItsRainingInBaltimore The OP is either taking the piss on an industrial scale (in which case we have all fallen for it) or really is suggesting just that.

Have to say I'm quite impressed that such a ridiculous AIBU has made it to 11 pages!

Alwaysf, that's true of London - prices are so high that the margin on letting is worse than most other cities in the UK so unless you get capital appreciation (which people probably won't get for 3 or 4 years but will longer term - prices in my area dropped 1.6% in the last 6 months alone - zone 5).

Many landlords are good people with one property they bend over backwards to keep nice for tenants. However a core group of tenders hate landlords with a passion. Presumably they are just jealous that the hard work of the landlord paid off.

Presumably they are just jealous that the hard work of the landlord paid off.

Yes, that's exactly it.

The landlords of the first flat DH and I rented together in London were brothers who were a few years older than us. Their wealthy father had bought then a "fixer upper" house and given them the money to fix it up. We were their first tenants, and by the time we moved out 3 years later they owned 5 more properties in the area.

I didn't hate them. They were nice enough chaps (in a rather bumbling, posh-boy sort of way) and they carried out repairs promptly. I may have been slightly envious, but it wasn't of their "hard work".