To think that if you private rent your life should not be dictated to by the landlord whose mortgage you are paying

[Nursejackie1]

So many of us are stuck in private renting with no choice paying over the odds, while landlords are making a mint. Most landlords have all these rules that you can’t decorate without permission, can’t even put a wall hanging up without asking. Often can’t or need permission to have pets, have regular inspections. I pay loads for my home and due to that cannot save a deposit. My kids have never had their bedrooms decorated in the way I would like.. having to stick with plain magnolia. Why should somebody else decide whether my kids get to grow up with a family pet or not? AIBU to think that if you are paying somebodies mortgage for them then while you are in that house you should be able to treat it as your own within reason and not have your life dictated to and controlled by them?

20 year leases might convince landlords to say “yeah I don’t care decorate how you like- it’s yours for 20 years.” The problem is many people are on extremely short term contracts that mean the landlord is in essence only thinking about the next tenant.

Not RTFT but not all landlords have completely free choice about this. For example, leaseholders may have things about pets and floor coverings, especially in blocks of flats. Similarly, some landlord insurance doesn’t provide for the possibility of social security tenants and you have to go to a specialist broker. Some mortgage companies don’t allow you to renew (based on some misconception about the law, I think). Unfortunately rental supply has to come from someone and without a big pool of institutional investors looking to get into it, we are stuck with the situation, unlike, say, some of our near neighbours (where you might even have to put down laminate floors, full kitchen - hence fitted kitchens not so popular - each time you move, which is much less often).

Uk laws are very renter focused.

Haahaahaa! That's the funniest thing I've read in a while. The UK is like God, an absentee landlord (always 'accidental', of course).

The Uk is renter focussed. The only thing guaranteed in europe are rents. You need to maintain the property yourself and you will lose your deposit (often far higher depending on tenancy) in it’s entirety if you don’t return it exactly to how it was; that includes cleanliness. People in the UK have no idea how lucky they have it — most people renting here wouldn’t be able to afford to rent in Europe due to the costs as people on benefits / students etc require guarantors.

I’m a landlord, no mortgage it was my Granny’s downsize, it didn’t sell back in 2010 so we rented it out and have kept it that way since. We’ve had two tenants in that time and have been more than happy to let the last ones redecorate to their taste. We just agreed that they would put it back to something plain if they move out (would probably only do the bedrooms though as the living room looks nice) and if they didn’t it would come out of the deposit. Our letting agents helped us draft an agreement in writing.

Re pets It’s a definite no re that. The house that I now own was previously let out and the last tenants had dogs which f’ing ruined loads of original features (chewed spindles, architraves, scratched skirting boards and piss stains all over every carpet) obvs we knew what’s we were buying but I felt so sorry for the owners as it would have been worth a lot more had the previous tenants not left it in that state it all required a specialist joiner and every carpet had to be ripped up with the costs equating to much more than the tenants deposit would have been. The tenants just f*cked off and left it - so you see theirs unfortunately people put their giving tenants a bad name and a reason for landlords to be strict.

If you’ve not ask the question do so or ask a lettings agency to try and find you a property where the landlords might be more amenable.

Obviously don't have experience of the rest of the world there, Teddy, if you think renters in the UK are 'lucky'. PMSL.

If I go out and buy a coffee I don't expect the barista to give me grief for not having the wherewithal to make one at home.

Hang on - it's the customer giving the barista grief on this thread! I'm not defending every landlord, of course there are bad ones, but here are a hell of a lot of assumptions on this post about why people are landlords and how much they make - I like other PPs was one accidentally - I had to move away for work, renting, and rented out my only home. Believe me I did not make a fortune after covering my interest only mortgage - so no paying off there - agents fees, all the things that tenants needed doing ( oven lightbulb changing cost me 100 quid when they could have done it themselves for a fiver) and everyday repairs that no tenant ever has to cover, plus the damage they left that the deposit didn't even nearly cover. Yes, renting has its downsides but it also has its upsides like not having to pay anything for the maintenance of the property, buildings insurance etc which runs into the thousands every year.

You should be able to ask your landlord if you want to do things and they should be reasonable, but tenants are not always angels either, and a landlord does have to look after their property, they don't usually have fortunes stashed to cover everything. There is a lot of the politics of envy coming through here and landlords really are not the main reason for high rents - there are myriad factors including overseas investors buying up properties to leave them empty and a lack of housing construction. Compared to other countries I've rented in, the situation is massively weighted in tenants' favour in the UK (in Spain, for example, I was responsible for all repairs) and with the proposed changes coming in too, many landlords who rent out of necessity simply will find another way round their situation, they are not just going to sell their only home and flood the market with cheap properties as some seem to think.

You can get removable wallpaper and wall decals. You could do a cracking superhero theme.

Landlords really aren't the reason you can't afford a house though. There are lots and lots of factors that drive house prices.

If you want someone to be angry at is start with Thatcher for selling off the social housing stock for a start...

For everyone saying 'it depends on the landlord':

(i) It's manifest from this thread that many landlords are fucking arseholes

(ii) If you're renting, it's difficult to impossible to tell what your landlord is going to be like before you move in. It therefore stands to reason that many non-home-owners will end up beholden to callous, acquisitive shits.

I say this as a smug home owner with no jealousy axe to grind.

I bought a rental property, it was a huge financial risk for me and I was by no means 'rolling in it ' . I really tried to help my first tenants- have them my buggy that dd no longer needed it, reduced the rent when she was on mat leave. They asked if they could put a shelf up, which I agreed to. They put it up using cement- which they mixed up on the bloody carpet and left the house in a disgusting mess. The next tenants had rules - once bitten and all that.

And for all the people saying 'people who haven't managed to buy have made poor choices':

If you look around you, most of the people who have managed to get on the ladder at a reasonable age have had a huge slice of luck, either inheriting the property itself, or getting a deposit-sized chunk of money from their family wealth. Absolutely Jackie Chan to do with 'choices', all to do with background. There are noble exceptions but people from such backgrounds have not got a fucking clue about the challenges of growing up poor.

@BarnabasTheMaineCoon - I have rented around the world. The UK is the easiest and have more rights than other countries.

I have family renting in “Europe” (it’s a big place!) Their flat is absolutely maintained by the landlord, they’ve had the kitchen replaced for example while they are there and it is redecorated every few years.

I guess I lived on another planet then, Teddy, because this is one the shittiest ones I've ever rented in . One of those with the most piss poor attitude towards renters, too, given the expense.

There are a o many people saying it isn’t the landlords fault that you can’t afford to buy. It’s not entirely true is it? There are parts of the UK that are absolutely full of second homes which leaves very little housing stock and, until recently, rules on owning multiple properties have been extremely lax.

There are also a lot of people saying it’s nobody’s fault that you can’t afford to buy. That’s also not true. Austerity is the government’s fault. Falling real terms wages is the government’s fault.

Of course I would put things back as they were before leaving the house

You may well, yes - or perhaps you'd bring to bear your very obvious resentment about the arrangements and take the attitude "why should I?" Obviously I can't know either way, but then neither can the LL, which is why these tenancy regs are pretty standard

I liked a PP's description of the Scottish system for checking LLs before they can rent places, though - we could do with something like that down here ... along with a better system for evicted problem tenants

Can we stop hiding behind the ‘accidental’ descriptor please. No one is an accidental landlord. You always have the choice of selling.

Well some people only have the option of selling if they also fancy going bankrupt

ANd many mortgages companies will refuse a negative equity sale

It makes no sense to sell if you are only out of the country for a few years, the alternative to renting for us would be to keep the house vacant.

Say what now? Yes you might make a loss. But you always have the option.

the alternative to renting for us would be to keep the house vacant.

You could do that too.

Yes we could do. Put it would only increase scarcity in the housing market and push costs up further, so I'm not seeing who would benefit?

You don’t have the option if the mortgage company won’t release the property for sale