To be pissed off at having just seen my tenants spending a load of cash whilst they're behind on rent?

[JennylovesRosie]

I am fed up to the back teeth.

This is the third month now where they're falling behind.

(I know them by their appearance and we have a mutual friend on a social networking site)

I have just seen them paying for a spa and no doubt it'll be up on social media next week (they like to brag and display all their newly acquired gains in Instagrammed glory.)

Next month my kids won't have the birthday parties they wanted because I'm subsidising these idiots living expenses and incurring charges as for their late/part payments.

Has anyone managed to get tenants out despite then not being 2 months late on rent. The Lettings agency have told me I'm stuck with them . Can I fine them?

They got a 12 fixed contract in January and surprise-surprise they started to default from day one of it.

I'm so upset.

[Oysterbabe]

Definitely second the importance of references and financial checks. We used an agency for that part and finding the tenants but manage ourselves.

[katsopolis]

Next time considering doing it on your own. I had tenants through a letting agency who ended up trashing my flat. Refused to use them again.

Advertised myself on Spare room looking for tenants who had impeccable references from two previous landlords that were contactable through reputable sources and i've had no problems. Paid his rent late once but that was a genuine misunderstanding. I also rent my flat unfurnished- sure they can damage the walls, floors etc but it takes away the temptation of trashing 100 year old pieces of furniture like my old tenants. It took me longer to find someone than I would of liked (about 5 weeks and I am in a well populated area) but I was pretty certain it was going to work out as soon as we met.

Unfortunately some people just don't respect other peoples property.

[cruikshank]

Tabsicle only one in eight housing benefit claimants are unemployed. The majority just can't afford their rent without a state top-up.

[cruikshank]

Of course there would be no need to pay housing benefit in the astronomical sums we as tax payers give over to landlords if we reintroduced rent caps. It works fine in other countries and used to work fine here. It's absolute nonsense for people to talk about 'market rents' when actually the 'market' is propped up by billions of pounds of public money. Ok so maybe fewer people would be landlords if they were prevented from putting their piggy little snouts in the trough. Well, ok, buh-bye then.

[mathanxiety]

You would need fewer people or more houses.

The electorate would need to sit down and spend some time thinking. I suspect a lot of voters would not like to think of their hard earned taxes going into the pockets of private landlords.

Or London employers in particular might have to consider paying people a living wage.

[Tabsicle]

So what would happen if private landlords couldn't receive HB? If you are renting from one and lose your job you have to move out?

I don't understand what the alternative is to paying landlords HB?

[mathanxiety]

It's Monopoly with real money.

A service is provided, very true.

But should private LLs be paid from public money?

Annual cost of HB is £23 billion. Over one third of HB goes to private landlords. That is a lot to pay for reluctance to pay for LA housing or low income housing.

I suspectone of the factors rents are indexed to is HB. The availability of HB also keeps London real wages lower than they really should be. The winners are to be found in the private sector, both employers and landlords. The losers are those earning a low wage and living in overpriced accommodation with no hope of getting off the gerbil wheel.

Government policy has directly caused the supply and demand bottleneck and it is also government policy to use taxpayer money to feather the nests of the landlord class and inflate the rent they can ask. In a way, HB is like Passing Go for the better off, isn't it? It is means tested for the poor but no accountability is asked of the ultimate beneficiaries.

[BoffinMum]

The people who rent from us are usually either house hunting or working in the area for a year or so and then moving somewhere else. I think we provide a professional service which is appreciated, and I don't understand the vitriol, TBH.

It also misses the root of the problem. Around here, like a lot of the wealthier parts of the UK, a lot of people around us are quite frankly over-housed and very greedy for space. There are many wealthy individuals, usually retired, or affluent childless couples, perhaps with inherited money or who have managed to flip a business suddenly through sheer dumb luck, who live in family houses on their own or as a couple and turn numerous spare bedrooms into luxurious dressing rooms, gyms, home cinemas, meditation rooms, collectible display rooms and so on, while their less affluent neighbours are cramming bunk beds into smaller homes in a desperate attempt to house young families. For example the woman who lives in the other half of our rental semi occupies a three-bedroom, two reception room house on this basis, with one room just for her clothes. If we put our half up for sale she would be first in the queue, and no doubt want to knock through so she had six bedrooms and another three reception rooms to spread out in, just for the hell of it (she has indicated as much). I find this obscene and a kind of condoned hoarding of space and goods. I think we should tax under-occupied houses much more heavily than we do.

At least when you rent out a family home out to a family and each bedroom is properly used for people rather than possessions, it is sharing out the space equitably and reducing pressure on other forms of local housing. People should think about that before bashing landlords quite so readily.

[mathanxiety]

BoffinMum, your description sounds like a lot of American rentals. You get a kitchen, but usually you use a communal washer and dryer in the basement. Basements usually have dedicated storage pens for each apartment. You furnish your apartment yourself. Carpeting is extremely unusual in older buildings, many of which have gorgeous hardwood floors and hex tile bathroom floors. Anything beyond 'normal wear and tear' to the apartment results in a deduction from your security deposit at the end of your lease. Pet deposits are usually required, separate from the security deposit. You pay extra for parking. Most leases are twelve months.

It seems to me that people who are willing to use the government-generated phrase have not really put much thought into how the system works, and what the government is trying to cloak by use of this phrase. To wit, heavy subsidisation of an owner class by the public coffers, and the opportunity presented by the systematic and deliberate strangling of local authority housing provision, leading to the creation of a landlords' market that really only benefits landlords.

[Oysterbabe]

There will always be people who want to rent. The family living in my btl can definitely afford to buy but they don't want to as only intend to stay in the area for a few years for various reasons. There's a huge student population in this area too.
When this family move on I think we'll move into the house and rent out the flat we live in now, probably to students.
LLs aren't all evil and are meeting a need a lot of the time.

[SauvignonPlonker]

These are much better descriptions, Martha.

[MarthaCliffYouCunt]

Amateur and career LL are probably more accurate terms for those let their former home and those who do it as business.

Accidental LL does grate because its as if theyre saying "wasnt my fault, i couldnt help it"

[Handsoffmysweets]

Oh we're still at it then!! I'm not being goady in any way but 'accidental' landlord is a bit of a silly phrase really, because it literally means you accidentally became one. Clearly you didn't and the decision to become a landlord was a calculated move to ensure that whilst you moved countries, cities etc you kept your property and had someone covering your mortgage whilst you forked out for living expenses elsewhere. (Nothing wrong with this IMO). It's a bit perdantic though of some people on here who are being goady towards 'accidental' & 'reluctant' landlords when I'm sure they know full well they are only using a phrase conjured by our government & not actually invented by the posters themselves.

[AriaTloak]

The goady fuckers comedians are out in force today.

99%... Hahahaha

[GreenMarkerPen]

However, hard floors rather than carpet in a flat, isn't that noisy for the people downstairs?

not usually a problem in germany as the building regulations regarding noise protection are much tougher.

[MarthaCliffYouCunt]

Another comedian

Link for your 99% 'fact'?

[MarthaCliffYouCunt]

@ laura you're hilarious. Do you write your own material.

[ItsLikeRainOnYourWeddingDay]

Jenny I fully support you on this.

I get so fed up off lazy fuckers who don't give a rats ass about anyone but themselves. That's prob why they are still renting and haven't managed to achieve the salary/achievements/drive to be home owners themselves.

Flame me all you like but it's true. 99% of the time home ownership isn't from some big fat inheritance or the back of mum and dad. Is hard work. It's saving. It's education.

Jenny I hope you get them out and make sure their reference is suitably detrimental to them

[MarthaCliffYouCunt]

I'm an accidental landlord, moved in with DH to see how it would go, so didn't want to sell up my place

There is nothing accidental about your situation! It was a deliberate decision based on a desire to have your financial commitments served whilst you tested out another living scenario. Your tenants didnt tumble into your house and claim tenants' rights!

[Laura812]

People who put the financial intersts of their family above other things have the moral high ground. It's called love. People who don't invest in anything and piss their income up the wall or sit on their bottom all day doing nothing have no moral high ground. Landords are a social good. We are lucky to have them.

[JapanNextYear]

I'm an accidental landlord, moved in with DH to see how it would go, so didn't want to sell up my place. Tenants moved in on the understanding that it would be short term, and they've stayed. I don't want to sell up from underneath them, but I also don't really want to be a landlord anymore.

[SauvignonPlonker]

I think there's a huge difference between "accidental/reluctant" LL - who often bought just before the 2007/8 crash & would be in negative equity if they sold, or temporarily relocated for work etc - and the BTL portfolio types.

And the reasons for renting are complex too - in my case it was following redundancy & self-employment when we couldn't get a mortgage - so we rented for 5 years & finally bought age 41.

Deposits are much higher nowadays; I can remember the days of 5% deposits, or 110% mortgages. And even 6-8 X salary mortgages, interest-only etc, or endowments showing my age. So lending has changed dramatically too.

I think the recent taxation changes will start taking effect soon. Unless you have a tiny mortgage, the profits are very small in LL'ing, contrary to what people might think. I think many will sell up in coming years, when they realise it's not simple, easy or that profitable.

[Shining15]

We wouldn't have 'generation rent' without btl
The btler gets her pension and secure future
Genrenter never has a secure home, will never have the kind of retirement where you can relax a bit because the mortgage is paid off, where you can sell the family home downsize and release some of the equity that you built up.
Genrents money has all been siphoned off by the BTLer so that she can have a really cosy retirement, at the expense of the generation below

[Shining15]

Boffinmum, I've heard that about Germany but I'd happily comply because I love peace and quiet😇

However, hard floors rather than carpet in a flat, isn't that noisy for the people downstairs?

[Shining15]

If people like the OP didn't rent out their family homes as 'accidental' or 'reluctant' landlords there would be hardly any 'family home' stock to rent

If people like the op didn't rent their family home out they would sell it at a realistic lower price helping to gently deflate the housing bubble an allowing a family (who would like to buy but can't because prices have been pushed up by landlord hoarding properties) to have a more secure future as owner occupiers.

Landlords are not sainted beings housing the nation, they are profit seeking renters who have a damaging effect on the economy, the housing market and family life.
They buy up property and prevent other people from ever becoming owner occupiers