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?

"sending in cowboy contractors etc"

That was me who said that In response to someone who said tenants had the same choices as homeowners They do not which is what this bloody thread is all about. Perhaps if you are going to bring it you should do it in the full context.

NALALT

Sending in cowboy contractors annoys me too. I’m sure that’s what my tenant thinks but the reality is I’m sending in people I get from
The yellow pages just as I would with my own home, it’s not being done to wind them up if the repairs aren’t done properly andcosts me a fortune

And when they cock up in your home that you are living in do you use them there again?

including payment towards protecting the tenants deposit (why!)

Because too many landlords see/seen the deposit as theirs regardless of what state the place was left in.

My first ever tenant was genuinely shocked when I gave her the deposit back as she'd never got it back before in any rental.

It was in the right context Helena.
I was explaining why LL may feel the need to explain their positions as there has been huge negativity about LL on this thread. That includes people talking about cowboy contractors. It’s the negative words and suggestions that this is what LLs do even if it’s
Not said outright. Generalisations left right and centre so people are defending themselves. Interestingly a lot of renters on here though have been positive about their LLs.

I think all housing should be state owned - abolish home ownership completely and let everyone have access to housing

The really worrying thing about this post is that it might even be meant seriously ...

It is still a fucking grim way to live when you can’t even put up a picture frame
I'm not sure you properly understand the realities of a "grim way to live."

That said, there are plenty of ways to make a house feel like your home that don't involve painting or knocking holes in the walls.

I'm not sure you properly understand the realities of a "grim way to live."

Oh come on. People can’t think “well this is not good” unless they’re in a warzone with no roof and a polluted water supply? Everyone above that should tug their forelocks and shut up?

there are plenty of ways to make a house feel like your home that don't involve painting or knocking holes in the walls.

There are indeed - and yet painting and putting up pictures (not ‘knocking holes in the walls’) tend to be things people like to do in their homes, which is why owner-occupiers and council tenants do that kind of thing.

It is not nice to be reminded constantly that your home is not somewhere you belong and you’re only ever a temporary guest on somebody else’s whim, so don’t get too comfortable now! It isn’t. And in a better system, people would have alternatives to living that way, not just “suck it up for the 20 years it’ll take you to get a deposit and buy an ornament or two in the meantime.”

Things I have been forbidden to do by various landlords over the years:

• paint
• touch up the existing terrible, flaking cracked paint
• put up pictures in any way at all, including removable hooks
• have overnight guests without having written permission from the landlord first
• change the colour of the bedclothes (this was a furnished flat; I swapped her bedclothes for my own, she was furious)
• leave books on the floor in the living room
• weed the garden
• leave a jacket on the chair in the kitchen (they moved it into the bedroom and told me off).

I think all housing should be state owned - abolish home ownership completely and let everyone have access to housing

Um no. The worst houses I have ever seen were social housing. One had rats in the boiler so no central heating, the electricity was also shut off and the filth and stench unbelievable. The other one had dog faeces over the floor and piss all over the chairs, human and dog. Some of you lot really need to wake up to what 'grim reality' is. And please stop ignoring that the law says you can put up pictures and paint and that a landlord cannot unreasonably withhold permission. But that doesn't fit the agenda I suppose.

Never an issue when you rent a hotel room though or a villa for a few weeks... (deliberately misses point)

Jumping to the end.

I own my £500k property outright.

I have £300k in savings. I could buy more than one renters with my savings and equity.

But I don't because I don't want to be part of the wedge being driven between the haves and have-nots, as I rent out a house to someone who will be paying more in rental payments that they would as a mortgage in the same property.

I think it's immoral.

Personally, I want to see 'ave a go landlords taxed out. I can understand there is a market for rental property, but I think the vast majority of tenancies should be majorly long term (think some continental ones, of decades); that a tenant should have greater freedom regarding what they can do with the property; that people with 'one or two' properties should be taxed in a way that acknowledges that they've bought up somebody else's first home- and rented it 'back' to them, thus enriching themselves while impoverishing the tenant.

This insidiously drives the widening divisions in our society.

Very early on in this thread, someone suggested the OP needed to take 'a good hard look at the life choices they made' regarding why they can't afford to buy.... I'd ask that poster what they'd done that they could.

My 'luck' is being in my late 50s, with an overseas house purchase and sale at an opportune time, and a hefty inheritance where my parents bought a house for £4.5k in 1969 which I sold in 2017 for £450k. Thus, I am not smug, I am lucky.

And know it.

Mijah, I get exactly what you’re saying. But the part where you say about it being immoral to charge someone a rent that’s more than they would pay in a mortgage for that property. What about the fact that they haven’t had to buy furniture, get windows cleaned, gardening often done, all appliances services, boiler replaced when broken, painting done, basically there are no outgoings on the property for the renter. So actually it might be cheaper than paying the mortgage? Of course charging astronomical rents is awful but a bit more than a mortgage for the ability to not have to pay for anything being fixed or replaced isn’t so bad in my view

@Miljah

Landlords are being taxed out. They’ve lost some tax incentives already and are set to loose more by 2020. There’s not much profit in it.

No landlord is going to let you decorate to your taste as they have to be able to rent the property out after you and neutral works much bettter from their point of view. There is no way any tenant is going to repaint back to neutral before moving out. It just doesn’t happen.
Not all landlords are cashing in millions. The average landlord owns one or two properties and costs can be quite high. Its not always the gravy train that you describe.

Yes Puzzled you bet I’m serious. And I fail to see what isn’t to like about that plan tbh. Everyone able to live in a secure house, no matter their earnings. They decorate and maintain the property as if it were their own. Want to move? Simply apply for one in a different area or swap. No 5-figure deposits needed, no letting agents, no connection to the capitalist consumer market

Rules are very much on the side of the tenant

You are Jacob Rees-Mogg and ICM5UK

What about the fact that they haven’t had to buy furniture, get windows cleaned, gardening often done, all appliances services, boiler replaced when broken, painting done, basically there are no outgoings on the property for the renter

And what about the fact the landlord ends up with a hundred thousand pound asset and the renter ends up with nothing?

miljah I agree with a lot of what you’re saying and you strike me as a very principled person.

If landlords are made to be locked into long term contracts then the tenants would have to be too! Tell them they can sign up for 5 years but they cannot move before then. The same rules would apply to both!

I fail to see what isn’t to like about that plan (for all housing to be state owned)

For once I honestly wouldn't know where to start with that, but anyway Stalin called from the other side

... he wants his principles back

But that’s the deal Laurie. That’s what renting is. I won’t apologise for it as I didn’t invent it and can’t change it. There are advantages to renting whether you want to admit it or not. Of course not everyone who rents wants to do so but don’t make out it’s like some kind of purgery for all renters.

For example I rented when I was younger and I loved that I could move about with little or no commitment, that I could get things fixed at no cost, it was a perfect way to live for me at that time. Of course I understand that this doesn’t work for everyone and that’s widely been talked about on this thread but let’s also acknowledge that renting has advantages for some people

*For once I honestly wouldn't know where to start with that, but anyway Stalin called from the other side

... he wants his principles back wink*

Not even USSR went THAT far!

I went to rent a private property a few years ago as I was suffering from anti social neighbours. I paid two months rent & the bond & signed a tenancy agreement. The landlord said he would send me copies of the agreement & a receipt for the money I had paid. The next morning I went to start moving in, the boiler didn't work, I had no hot water & when I looked round after the furniture had been moved out that was there when I viewed, the walls in the lounge were covered in mould. I rang the landlord & he agreed to get an engineer in to sort the boiler after the weekend. When the engineer came he told me that the boiler hadn't been fitted professionally, it was dangerous. I rang the landlord & told him I wanted my money back, he laughed in my face & told me that I would only get my money back when he had rented the property out to someone else, I would be charged for the time it was empty. I returned the keys & stayed in my council property, I eventually got my bond back but he kept all the rent, even though I had driven past & seen the property was occupied. I saw a solicitor but because the landlord had never given me copies of the paperwork, I didnt stand a chance of getting my money back. That's why I would never private rent again, too many bad landlords.

Miljah that's very kind of you to be so understanding by the way! I love people who still can empathise and have understanding when their worlds are so far apart financially. There's been some awful comments on here, people can plan all they like if their income don't stretch then it doesn't stretch! People saying you should have brought a house first, worked harder and had kids later, not everyone knows whats the best plan to take in life especially if they haven't been guided in this and are just starting out in adult life! Back in the day it was easy to buy a house, now the deposits are ridiculous, house prices are ridiculous, rental prices are ridiculous and wages are ridiculous! Houses were so cheap when people who are now in their 50s brought, the houses they brought would be 10 x the amount to buy now if not more