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.

The Government is supposed to be building 20k houses per year, everyone says not in my back yard !
There are lots of empty houses in parts of UK, but some people don't want to relocate.
Businesses are also relocating abroad to cheaper places
There has never been a time when everyone owned their own home & there probably never will be
Try redirecting your energy to the Government or large companies who pay zero or little tax !

BlackCat

Those are certainly all issues. But they don’t relieve the need to do something about the dysfunctional private rental market.

Nobody is going to be able to rent or buy property if jobs keep going abroad to places where wages/living costs are cheaper.

The two months notice is indefensible
I agree this isn’t long enough for people to find alternative accommodation to suit their needs and budget. On the flip side it is a very long time for tenants, who are trashing the place, upsetting the neighbours or not paying rent. Tenants only need to give one months notice so it is more flexible for them. In reality, however, a ll would struggle to hold a tenant to this ergo a tenant can just give notice and vacate immediately and not pay the notice period?

I oppose BTL because I don’t think housing should be at the whim of small private landlords. It’s a policy issue, not a personal one.
Short of following in the footsteps of Zimbabwe, BTL is here to stay. There’s no money in the coffers for a massive policy shift. Blame Maggie for selling the old housing stock off, refusing to replenish and “ring fencing” the funds, which have long since been plundered.

I am a landlord and finding all this hatred quite upsetting

I think I'm a decent landlord and many of my tenants have been a property for 8-12 years

We took this route after DH's third redundancy as a desperate measure to cover childcare and pension

I am all for being fair but if so then
why on earth should ll have to give a year's notice and tenants only a month?

Recent legislation has made it much harder and more expensive to be a ll, yet goodness knows what the govt would do if private rental was abolished! They can't possibly afford to buy up all those homes

People also seem to forget that some tenants rent for flexibility, so they don't have the cost and time issues connected with selling when you want to move

For OP, sorry it sounds like you had some unfairness in agreeing level of cleanliness. We have never had a dispute like this and understand it's upsetting being told you need to leave. Hope you are happy in your new place and can walk away from the situation

It's not the first time I've been fucked over by landlords they all try it on. The one before this they did the checkout inspection before I'd even left and tried to say I'd left things behind. What like forty boxes and all our furniture it was a joke. The time before that the place was fucked I mean it was fucked when I moved in but it got worse which is why I left. I don't know what caused it but there was like water seeping up through the floor part of it collapsed. He tried to say I'd damaged the carpet because it was damp but it was because of this water. Really it was awful I don't know what was wrong with that house but it was something very bad. They always fuck you over and I'm sick of it.

You can spend your hard earned money however you chose, unless you spend it on houses in which case it should be assumed a charitable donation.

Bleddry it sounds like you have been very unlucky
Not all landlords are like this

Make sure you take plenty of pictures and video and if they use an agent, have it verified. (Understand might be too late for this time but useful for next)

I think the ones who are good landlords like you sound to be don't get how bad some of them can be. I have other friends who rent as well and they've all had things not repaired and then been stiffed for deposits. it's more normal than nice people like you imagine I'm sorry to say. Not just things like boilers not getting fixed but ceilings collapsing and water tanks emptying onto kids beds that happened to my friend. And people are bus going on about well you need to make it clean and it's a contract and how are your cleaning skills OP and don't give a shit about all our money we earned that we have to hand over to these people and get shit housing and fucked over when told to leave.

Bleddry, that works both ways, decent tenants probably don't realise how many bad tenants there are out there, which makes it hard for you to understand why landlord should deserve some protection from the law too.

As things stand, the law is very much in favour of tenants, and rightly so because someone's home is more important that someone's investment. But bad tenants can easily cost landlords thousands of pounds and landlords have no support from the law whatsoever in those cases, and what they do have they have to pay a lot for. The system has its flaws, but tenants aren't screwed over as much as you seem to think. Of course everyone has the right to decent shelter, but landlords are just providing a service that people need, and are rightly getting paid for it. Why do you seem to think that you shouldn't have to pay for your home and the things that go with it?

You can spend your hard earned money however you chose, unless you spend it on houses in which case it should be assumed a charitable donation.

You should only be able to own one house unless you’re willing to become a heavily regulated landlord.

Why this belief that people should be able to accumulate housing just to make themselves wealthier?

@Jackstini Your finding it upsetting!! (cough cough)

So, how do you think tenants find it being priced out of the housing market because landlords managed to get a foothold early on, maybe it was good timing, maybe it was inheritance, maybe it was remortgaging ...Whatever it was, shouldn't landlords step aside and let other families have a chance of the same security that both you and I share....namely..a home of our own?

Sorry, but I haven't heard a single justification yet as to why private landlords cannot offer the same rent costs and security as those found social/council housing. If its because you can't afford it, then be honest to yourself and get out, or if it's because you like screwing people over, then take a good look at yourself.

Either way it stinks!!

A colleague I work with pays £400pm for a 1 bed flat, the landlord has already admitted it was his grandmothers that he got through her for £14K ! My colleague will have paid his £14k off in 3yrs. BTW his boiler packed in 2wks ago, no heating and no hot water....the landlord is away on holiday!!
I've bought him a heater, and bring him to our house after work to use our shower!!
He's a great kid, doesn't deserve this shit because of other peoples greed!
Detest the fucking lot of them!! Fucking parasites!!

As things stand, the law is very much in favour of tenants

I beg to differ.

You can spend your hard earned money however you chose, unless you spend it on houses in which case it should be assumed a charitable donation.

If you want to buy a house, fine. If you then choose to buy one that isn't for you to live in, and rent it out to somebody else, that's another issue. You're providing a vital basic service for someone and yes, as Kissing says, that needs to be regulated. If you don't want it to be regulated, don't get into the business of providing a vital service.

Personally, I would rather live in a society in which the basics are provided at a cost, but not at a profit for personal individuals. Housing is as basic a provision as it gets.

Practical tip - when you move into rented accommodation photograph everything.

It works both ways and I have been in both boats.
The deposit fund means if you don't agree with a deep clean having been necessary (by taking photos before you leave) you can dispute it and it may be upheld.
If a tenant has broken the contract however by smoking or keeping a pet and the carpets need steam cleaning or a deep clean is required, why should the LL have to pay that?

I blame housing developers for a lot of this.
They make a fucking fortune developing land, building cheap houses and charging top price for them because people think they’re getting a premium product - they aren’t - and this usually always pushes house prices up in the surrounding areas. Not only does this price people out of the market, but it means that people will invest in property to make money. Which ends in greedy landlords. Everyone wants to make a fortune on property.

Think of some of the sums the larger developers will be making on even small sites of 50 odd houses - the cost of the planning and drawings and labour and materials are tiny compared to what they sell for.
A development was built near where we live - we had a nose around the show home. House was slightly smaller than ours, garden was about a third of the size. They wanted £250k for it and at the time ours was worth £180k. Since that development went up, its dragged our house prices up too. I wish the cost of new builds HAD to be capped - at least benchmarked against local housing. It’s the biggest con ever.

I wouldn’t object to being regulated. As I’ve said before our rentals are in better shape than our own home. I’d have no objections to licensing for rental properties etc.

I object to the suggestion of compulsory purchasers at less than market value and that I should somehow make a loss to improve the lives of others. I don’t in my 9-5 so why should I in my sideline?

If you need the rent money to cover the BTL mortgage, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Absolutely. Minimum cash reserves and contingency should be part of a landlord’s licence requirements.

P.s. we are landlords too. We have also never put the rent up and have always gotten things fixed immediately when asked to do so.
We are about to have a change of tennant and will be renting to a young adult with special needs - below market value - so that adult can (with the help of his carers) integrate in to society after being in care most of his life.

@ethelfleda I doubt they are making that much, The land had to be purchased, All the surveys, bringing in utilities, building materials and then the labour costs... I honestly don't think theu make as much as you believe.
I think a carpet ban on ALL new builds being for BTL should be implemented and enforced in legal stipulations on the properties. It wouldn't solve the mess, but would be a start.

As things stand, the law is very much in favour of tenants

I beg to differ.

Oh come on! If in any other area of life, you damaged someone's property, be it their car or their shop, the victim would be able to prosecute, without having to pay. But tenants can cause unlimited damage to a property and the victim has to pay to even have it recognised, has next to no chance of being paid back, and the person that caused the damage can carry on with life as before.

If someone steals my car or my handbag, I can get help from the police and if caught, the person who didn't that to me will be punished. Someone steals three months worth of accommodation in my property, I'm on my own, and have to wait weeks and spend a fortune to be allowed my own property. And again, the person that did that to me can carry on as before.

I'm not against tenants having more rights, but it has to be fair as it's not only the tenants that take a risk when they sign a contract. When making up your ideal new rules, it's worth remembering that many tenants like short term flexible contracts, and many landlords would be more than happy to have long fixed terms.