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Original poster

Non oaying tenants should be arrested!!

268 replies

JakieOH · 02/07/2015 23:02

Just watching a programme about landlords and tenants. I know there are bad landlords out there, however, surely it should be a criminal offence not to pay rent on a property?? It can take months and months to evict a tenant from your property and it costs a fortune too. Meanwhile the landlord has to pay the mortgage etc. it's awful, these people should be arrested for theft because that's what it is.

More a rant than a question really, I rent out my old flat and it worries me a lot! If my tenets decided to stop paying rent I would most likely default on the mortgage and loose the property. There would be very little comeback to retrieve the money Owed.

I'm lucky because I have great tenants, they get a lovely oroperty at a very very reasonable rate (just covers the mortgage and any breakdowns/upkeep etc)

OP posts:
SurlyCue · 04/07/2015 12:18

How does anyone know who is or isnt an immigrant on this thread? Confused

ThatBloodyWoman · 04/07/2015 12:18

Is this about immorality of squatting?

I stayed in a squat in the 90's that was an empty local authority flat with the whole block gradually being emptied prior to redevelopment.How is that immoral? People homeless on the streets or living in a vacant property depriving no one of anything?

Reality check?

suzannecanthecan · 04/07/2015 12:19

Even people who can afford a house cant buy one because of the high deposit required by the banks

many more cant save a deposit because over inflated property prices mean they have no disposable income
?
Houses are UNAFFORDABLE, they have risen in price far out of proportion with incomes?

MaggieJoyBlunt · 04/07/2015 12:19

I think that there is a lot of jealousy on this thread.

Not that old cliche again.

I agree Really - it's all a bit 'I can't afford a house so I don't want anyone else to own one'.

Personally I'm 'all a bit'; "Owning one adequately sized property for my own use is quite enough for me and if we all stuck to that maybe most people who wanted to could buy (including future generations)".

milliemanzi · 04/07/2015 12:26

www.theguardian.com/money/2015/apr/11/buy-to-let-landlords-earn-returns-of-up-to-1400-since-1996

Don't be naive enough to think you're not being greedy to own more than one property. Many people have enough money to do this but don't choose to, let that property go on the market for someone else to buy and live in.

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 12:28

ReallyTired "I expect that the same people who hate landlords would hate immigrants who take jobs and rent property."

Wow, just fucking wow. Speak for yourself.

Original poster
JakieOH · 04/07/2015 12:35

Millie, if that comment was directed at me I don't own more than 1 property. I had to move city's and now rent somewhere else. I'm not going back to that flat so will probably sell when the current fixed rate mortgage expires. I will of course speak to the tenents and consider keeping it if they wish to remain there. In that situation everyone wins. I know 1of them is saving up for a deposit to buy her own place and can only do that because of the cheap rent I charge!

Maybe your right, maybe I am a fairy god mother after all Wink

OP posts:
ASettlerOfCatan · 04/07/2015 12:43

So many reasons why I chose to sell up at a loss rather then be a landlord... This highlights them all. The system is screwed for tenants and landlords

soapboxqueen · 04/07/2015 12:45

So the basic gist is we should only be able to rent where the government tells us we can since they will control all rentals. Only rich people who can afford a deposit should have freedom to choose where they live.

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:06

ThatBloodyWoman - 'Thats a standard response of the priviledged.'

How am I privileged? I was a council house, free school dinners kid in the 80's, went to a state school, did ok in my exams and managed to buy a house. The reason we rented our house out is because DH got a job abroad and we didn't want to sell up for good as we want to return to the house. How in anyone's reasonable mind is that 'priviledged'? The rent we charged didn't even cover our mortgage, so it's not as if we were raking it in.

SurlyCue · 04/07/2015 13:12

I was a council house, free school dinners kid in the 80's, went to a state school, did ok in my exams and managed to buy a house.

Ha! Nice omission of the most important fact in that sentence. The part between doing ok in exams and buying a house. Nobody buys a house because they passed their GCSE's.

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:13

No but doing ok in my gsces enabled me to get a half decent job that I worked hard at. Sorry, I didn't realise I actually had to spell that bit out to you....

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:15

Just realised that again (silly me) I wasn't totally explicit - that job that I got due to my gsce grades actually paid money, so I could buy the house. Clear enough?

SurlyCue · 04/07/2015 13:18

I was just wondering why you omitted it. Almost like you didnt want to mention it. Where did you live while you saved for your deposit?

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:21

BeautifulBatman
You are one person, again, anecdote - some friends of mine did this as well.

Thing is, it is likely that for a number of people in your position they rent the property out so that they may return to it some day.

But if the housing bubble didn't happen and properties to buy were still linked to the traditional 3 times one salary plus the other blah, blah (like when I bought my house) then you wouldn't need to do this would you because you would know that you could re-enter the property market.

In most cases like yours, I would assume that people know that if they sell the property and move back years later you will be priced even further out of the market. Why should it be like that?

Or in some cases, you don't return and sit on a nice little pension whilst someone else pays off the mortgage.

ThatBloodyWoman · 04/07/2015 13:23

I did well in my gcse's.

Still waiting for a pot to piss in.

See in the 80's not all of us were lucky enough to get a half decent job.

I was long term dole after I left school.

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:25

So what, you were lucky Beautiful Batman.
My friend's son did 'ok' in his GCSEs - 10 A*s and will likely replicate that at A Level. He won't be able to buy your house will he? He certainly couldn't buy mine without a fantastic job earning shedloads and a massive deposit.
There was a time before this btl explosion when normal people in normal jobs could either rent or buy their own homes - like we did.
Not any more. And it is wrong.

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:25

At my parents until 19 (I didn't go to uni, straight to work after college), but I had a part time job in pub/restaurant since I was 14. I paid keep at home until I left, then rented a flat with a friend. And saved, whilst working two jobs. Worked in an office all week, then Friday night, all day Saturday, and sunday lunch shifts a the pub. Hardly privileged, eh? My dad did by me a 13 year old car though, so I guess in MN terms that puts me up there with Kate Middleton.....

ThatBloodyWoman · 04/07/2015 13:26

Oh,and Thatcher had put my dad on the dole too,so no parental financial back up there either.

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:31

soapboxqueen
Why would you conclude that tenants could only live where the government tells them.
If the housing market was 'normal' they could buy a house in an area they wanted to live. I bought a house in zone 2 in London on our joint wage only twenty years ago. We were local authority workers on an average wage.
Today, the maximum I would imagine that we could borrow would be around £250k. Not even a quarter of what my house is 'valued' at.
If there were more local authority and Housing Association properties to rent, tenants could swap homes if they needed to move - as they used to.

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:31

I appreciate entirely that not everyone's path and opportunities in life are the same - in the same breath, not every landlord is money grabbing, substandard housing renting scum, and that not every person who owns a house they don't live in is 'priviledged' either. It works both ways, even if it doesn't suit your agenda.

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:34

ThatBloodyWoman
Sounds pretty similar to me (except I didn't even get the car Wink)

I was still damn lucky to buy my own house at that time.

And that there were proper, permanent jobs available (even for those that weren't academic) that allowed me to save for a deposit.

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:36

No, BeautifulBatman, but more than most are.
And I totally disagree that if you have more than one house you are not privilidged. Particularly if someone else is contributing towards the mortgage payments or you earn an income from it.

BeautifulBatman · 04/07/2015 13:38

I don't have more than one house though - that's not what I said!!!!!

needmorespace · 04/07/2015 13:40

And why is my 'agenda' any worse than yours? You say it like my agenda is a negative thing.
You support the btl market, I don't
You also have an agenda to maintain that landlords are all fuzzy wuzzy, milk of human kindness sorts.
I used to work in temporary accommodation where we were required to rent properties from the private sector to house families in need.
My experience tells me that the fuzzy wuzzy sorts are very rare.

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