To think that if a landlord evicts you ie makes you homeless to sell you shouldn't get stiffed for cleaning charges by the agent when you move out?

[Bleddry]

Clean your own house if you want to sell it you tightwad.

Fortunately, it will never happen. I can't believe anyone thinks the private rental market will ever go away.

Ooops, sorry! Wrong thread!

That’s an angle I hadn’t considered, Idont.

KissingInTheRain

I’m not in negative equity, but I could be if compulsory purchases at below market value were enforced. I’d certainly be at risk.

Re nest eggs, as I’m a private landlord do my children have less rights to an education and all the other things parents work hard to provide for. Are you suggesting it should be whipped from under them in some charitable act for the greater good?

I’ve worked for the money I’ve invested. It didn’t fall out the sky. I don’t work 70 hours a week for the good of my health.

It works both ways. My job got compulsorary relocated 100s of miles away. I rent out my property via an agent (at lower than market rate) & requested a long term tenant if possible. Guess what the tenants left after a year, for their own reasons. New tenant moved in at an even lower rent. However, it's preferable to paying council tax & bills for an empty property.
Perhaps I should become one of those evil landlords that everyone hates ?
Yes I will be selling at some point in the future, because my job will possibly be relocating again.
There was a news article last year that said that the Government owns 1000s of MOD properties that are sitting empty, why are these not being rented out ?
I also rented for 10+ years & moved 10+ times due to various reasons
Someone is self employed as a hairdresser, child minder, accountant earns money, that is OK
I rent out my house, due to a distant job location, that is seen as bad !?
At least I work & pay all my taxes

My current tenant also asked if they could have a pet & I agreed to that too at no extra charge
Evil landlord - Definitely not !

The letting agents also have a lot to do with it. Our tenant moved out last year and the agent wanted to hold back all the deposit for cleaning and some paint chips. We told them to give them the money as this was just wear and tear. The agents wanted to send there own people in to do the work.

Does that make us evil?

One day we will want to sell the house and will have to give our new tenants notice to move while we would expect the house to be left clean we wouldn’t expect it to be spotless.

Thirdly my property is not a BTL, it is owned out right, paid by working more than one job & living frugally
Before someone says house prices have increased, there are lots of places where properly is affordable

L0veaD0ve we live hundreds of miles from our property which we rent out because of the nature of DH’s work. He’s 5 years off retirement, we’re in the ‘enviable’ position of being both lls and tenants. The rent our tenants pay is slightly below full market rate in that area (because of outlying location) does not cover the rent we pay ourselves at full local market rate on a property about a 1/3 the size. We earn enough that we can offset that deficit and still be able to save towards our retirement but we’re hardly profiteering off the backs of our tenants. They’re long term and we hope they will stay until we return but we and they both know the score, we will eventually be going back to our home and they will have to move. We can’t afford to buy property in the area where we work, it’s outrageously inflated for both buying and renting, and should Kissing’s dream of compulsory govt buyback of rental properties below market value ever become reality, we wouldn’t be able to afford to buy something else there either.

I don't think it matters what the circumstances if it is in the contract, it is disheartening, I keep my place really clean I rented an apartment for 4 years, I repainted the cream walls the sam colour twice while thede, on leaving I scrubbed the oven, washing machine dry all the things required
I only had 70 taken but have heard people often lost their deposit with this agency.
If it wasn't for landlord's what would people do, yes there are bad landlord's but most are investing and their property should be respected.

compulsory purchase ... would be an inevitable consequence of making private renting much less attractive for landlords

Doesn't that depend on what measures were brought in? You write as if LLs can act exactly as they want, but in reality they're already (quite rightly) bound by heavy legislation so I'm not sure "a bit more" would have the result you expect

Unless we really targeted them just out of spite of course - in which case the worst type of LLs would just ignore the regs, knowing that money won't be made available for enforcement

This happened to us last year OP. The landlord was selling the house he had inherited from his father, it was sold as needing modernisation/renovation and went under offer for over £450k the same week it went on the market.
We did as the agents asked and as per the contract - carpets shampooed, oven professionally cleaned, cleaners, about £250 in all. Also had to pay (which I think is outrageous) for the company the letting agency used to do the inventory check.
It was immaculate when we left and in a much better state than when we moved in, I have the email trail of having to get the agents to get the cleaners back for a range of things not done as well as quite a few other issues we had over the period of our tenancy.

I honestly expected that the landlord would go round the next day, say yes it’s fine and release the deposit.
They spent ages prevaricating and docked just under £250 for a range of things including some very minor scuffing/wear and tear of the carpet on the bottom stair and some chipped paintwork. After 3 1/2 years for there to be just that tiny area of wear and tear is pretty impressive in my view but they docked about £80 for that.
They even docked £10 for a broken window hinge. Now bearing in mind this was a house in need of renovation.... we had previously had a broken window hinge in our bedroom meaning we couldn’t open the main window and I like fresh air. The agents organised a builder to come and repair it. There was much chasing and nagging. Finally they said the builder said they didn’t make fittings like that any more and it couldn’t be done (tough luck with summer hot weather around the corner). My DH scoured the Internet and quickly found a supplier and bought a new one and presented it to the agents who got another builder to fit it. So did we bother our arses reporting a different window with a broken fitting when we were going to be moving out? No we didn’t but apparently we should have and as we didn’t that was another £10 and so it went on. They even tried for a broken light fitting which was broken when we moved in but hadn’t been recorded as such on the inventory in the semi derelict outbuilding which leaked and was the first part of the house to be demolished by the new owners.
The landlord obviously wasn’t going to make good any of the things charged for.
It was a straight great - bank £450k ( less tax etc) and goody, another £250 from the tenants for a slap up night out to celebrate.

By comparison DD was moving out of her student flat at the same time, five of them, parties had been had, shower had been flooded etc. I never expected her to see her deposit back. But they all chipped in for a cleaner recommended by the agents and got the full deposit back the day after they returned the keys.

We should have contested but didn’t want to delay release of the remainder of the deposit and I planned to send a strongly worded email to the landlord telling join exactly what I thought of him instead.
But initially I was so furious I thought I had better wait until I felt calmer. Then I found I just didn’t want to revisit my rage and left it. Reading this thread has made me think perhaps I will spoil his Sunday and belatedly send him that email.

The tenants that moved after a year - Their deposit was returned in full too

The examples being given are exactly the sort of thing that good housing law would exempt. If somebody rents out their home and rents themselves elsewhere they’d be obvious exceptions. They don’t own more than one property.

As for what would be imposed on qualifying private landlords I’d suggest, for starters: rent controls; longer minimum ASTs; tenants having a right to leave at a month’s notice but landlords having to give a year’s notice; landlords having to make substantial escrow deposits that the tenant can claim in the event of disrepair, interference with quiet enjoyment etc; quick independent assessment of tenants’ deposits (paid for by the landlord) with a strong presumption of full return; and a right to buy from the landlord.

Kissing

You must be living in some alternate universe...

Kissing you'll probably be surprised to hear I agree with a lot of that - though not the disparity in notice or the right to buy

Could you expand on the rent controls though, in particular what framework could be used that didn't just amount to "I don't want to pay that much"?

I disapprove of BTL and would like it phased out. What’s so bad about that?

What’s bad is you think private landlords should shoulder the burden on a broken system. Like every private LL is vile scum who should be punished.

I’d be happy for licensing, longer notice periods etc. Rent control is a bit odd without any control on property prices. Your suggestions address symptoms, not causes.

I don’t disagree the housing market is a mess but you can’t fix it by targeting the 20% of private lets.

Kissing why don't you direct your wrath at councils and govt who have sold off and failed to keep enough housing available for social rentals? Why blame individuals who are choosing to provide a service? Only the bad landlords and bad tenants get publicity, the good ones don't.

tenants having a right to leave at a month’s notice but landlords having to give a year’s notice

House chains complete in 3 months. You would end up with houses being sold with tenants in situ thus restricting the market to other btl landlords and making it even harder for tenants to become owner occupiers due to lack of availability

Tenants are not going to want to choose their next rental 11 months in advance. One of the benefits of renting is flexibility. So tenants will carry on choosing their next rental at the point of looking to move thus making a one year notice period pointless

Depends really if it's clean but just has a bit of dust then they shouldn't charge you for that. But if your one of those scruffy twats that leaves a landlords house with stained walls and carpets, shit stains and mouldy food then yes you should pay.

Puzzled

I agree that rent controls would need careful calibration to an area. Some general protection against profiteering is overdue though.

I can’t see why a private tenant shouldn’t be able to buy their rental home. Council tenants can, and private leaseholders can force the sale of the freehold to them.

There won’t be new legislation adversely affecting landlords: the whole ruling elite class are landlords.

I can’t see why a private tenant shouldn’t be able to buy their rental home

Neither can I, but they're already able to do that if the property owner chooses to sell
I'm just not sure what creating a "right to buy" would add to the situation, unless tenants hoped to dictate the selling price too