Crisps In Europe there is much tighter legislation around renting - look at 3-6-9 contracts in Belgium for example. It's incredibly difficult (and expensive to evict tenants). It works incredibly well for renters (and there are plenty of landlords too). It's a much more stable system for long term renters and encourages renters to lay down roots and value the property they're living in.
On the contrary, the Belgian system would get howls of protest here because although the l/l pays the cadastral, the tenant pays for everything else. Thus, you pay about €300 for your share of the inventory check when you occupy. The deposit has just gone up to 3 months, and you cannot get it back unless the l/l agrees; it sits in an account doing nothing. The tenant has to pay for buildings insurance, boiler servicing, water softener servicing, the gardener, the chimney sweep. Everything that I pay for as a l/l in the UK, I pay for as a tenant in Belgium.
You then pay your share of the leaving inventory and there isn't anything quite as rapacious as a Belgian l/l. No inkling of wear and tear. Even though a property may have been tenanted for years, it is expected to be returned in pristine condition. If they can screw you over for it, they do, so a scratch on the floor can mean replacing the whole floor, regardless of how old it is. There were marks on a wall at the last place, made by the tenant before us, and they were trying it on for €500 for half a day painting. Witnessing the steam coming out of my husband's ears, and the fact he could do the entire wall for far less and in less time, they decided to let that one go. After we had agreed 'damages' and everything was signed, they tried to touch us for another €750 for damage to an external plinth, caused by the previous tenant, and clearly visible in the incoming inventory photos before we moved in. They accused us of chatting so the inventory guy forgot to look at the outside of the property. No bloody apology for saying we were dishonest either, or for their error in not making sure of their facts before they accused us of damaging their house.
The inventory guy said on going round that he could see he wouldn't be making much money from us, as it was cleaned to a high standard, but still wanted money for the shower door, which I had cleaned repeatedly, but if I had used more force, would have shattered, and it was opaque wavy glass, which made getting the calc off very hard.
There is little flexibility in the system. As a PP said, if you leave within 3 years you are on the hook for extra rent, even with the 9 year contract. We are leaving just into our third year (having had to leave the last place as the l/l wanted to reoccupy), so will have to pay 1 months extra rent to compensate. Had we been on a 3 year contract we would have been liable for all the rent had we left before the third year was up.
You also forget to mention the automatic rise in rent each year, according to the price index. Most l/ls apply this. The current one doesn't as the house is part of his family estate.
Be very careful what you wish for, before putting forth the Belgian system as an ideal one, because it isn't. The last l/l wanting his house back cost us €10k in moving costs, (as we had to rent both properties for a month, deposit on new house, everything had to be serviced before we left, irrespective of the fact it had been done within the past year, and costs for the moving company, even though we did most of it ourselves and with the help of friends, about €700 in inventory costs for leaving and moving in) and to clean to a standard higher than a military march out took time.