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?

Not everyone is a landlord to make money - many people are accidental landlords because they had their own house and are now in a relationship or because they work overseas or even because it was left to them in a will. The new rules on tax relief means most landlords barely make enough to cover their own mortgage payments on the property

It's not landlords who are causing the lack of homes for private buyers - it's because we simply don't build enough homes in the UK. Are you saying if there were more homes available you would be able to buy not rent?
Most rents are comparable to mortgages and 95% mortgage deals are back on the market now so really most people should be able to buy - unless you're in London where house prices are ridiculous!

I rented for several years and had to just get over the issue of not putting things on the wall etc because I always knew at someone point I'd own my own home. Same with having pets

Having had bad tenants in the past has never put me off allowing my tenant to treat the flat we let like his home. He has decorated his bedroom, hung his pictures, and made the place look much nicer than it did when we lived there. It was at the end of his first years lease that he asked about doing these things when he'd already built trust by being reliable, decent and generally wonderful.

He's a tenant I'd allow to have pets if he wanted. I go out of my way to treat him well. We had new windows out in when he started to get a condensation issue, updated the boiler when it went funny, and got him a new cooker rather than repair the old.

What I'm saying is that you need to build a relationship and then talk to your landlord. If the basic relationship is there then asking for stuff is no big deal. Mine just texts me if something needs sorting and it gets sorted. Similarly if he wants to make a change he asks and I've not refused anything yet.

I would move heaven and earth to keep my tenant and I have had no inkling that he thinks badly of me for being a landlord. I charge a sensible rent and haven't put it up since he came to me (in our 4th year now). I hope very much he feels the same and settled. An agency would make this relationship impossible, which is why I don't use one.

I wouldn't feel disposed to being so generous to someone who I felt had some of the attitudes to landlords that I see in these threads.

Exactly @Foxmuffin and also as a landlord paying tax on the income.

It amazes me that tenants have this attitude, poor me, look at my rich landlord, how dare they own more than one property!

Bluntness, I don't know where you live but house prices are out of handin London. The house I bought in 1998 for £106,000 would sell for more than £850,000 now (not my current house before anyone accuses me of bragging). House prices go up when there is greater demand than supply. Buying to let has increased exponentially in the same 20 years. You will not persuade me that the 2 aren't related. I've got a few middle class landlord friends and I have to avoid the subject with them otherwise we'd just argue.

I think it’s an absolutely shitty state of affairs that people who can’t afford to buy (and that’s a significant proportion of the population) are denied basics like having pets and decorating their living space to suit them. In a small way, it’s a denial of their humanity.

There should be much more robust laws to better protect tenants and give them their freedoms. At the same time as protecting landlords assets, because obviously trashing properties is not on.

Some of the posts on this thread underline why some people hold private landlords in total contempt (of course there are honourable exceptions).

A particular highlight is crazyidea suggestion that poor people are not 'entitled to stable housing'. Really eye-opening.

I think it’s an absolutely shitty state of affairs that people who can’t afford to buy (and that’s a significant proportion of the population) are denied basics like having pets and decorating their living space to suit them. In a small way, it’s a denial of their humanity.

^This, all day long.

YANBU. Private renting seems to be the only situation in the UK where you hand over a vast proportion of your income to pay for something and are expected to be grateful for the privilege of doing so.

To those banging on about "entitlement" do you really believe a safe, secure and comfortable home shouldn't be considered a fundamental right? It seems to me like such a basic ambition for humanity; why on earth wouldn't you want to work towards that?

Well I think my landlord does pretty well out of it as she lives in pretty much a mansion in an affluent part of town, and every time I try to contact her about anything she takes weeks to get back to me as she’s on her next holiday abroad. Before anyone trots out the old you are being jealous business I am not. Just stating facts.

Some of the posts on this thread underline why some people hold private landlords in total contempt (of course there are honourable exceptions).

This. Some of the people on this thread make Margaret Thatcher look like a left-winger!

Are you saying if there were more homes available you would be able to buy not rent?

Things are more expensive when there are fewer of them available to buy. The law of supply and demand is not a new theory in economics

Some people on here are so blind to the realities of life

I don't think everyone that disagrees with you is blind to the realities of life.

You made your own choices, no one made them for you. If owning a home was important so that you could have pets or decorate as you liked then all the years you worked more than part time you could have saved like crazy. As a single person you could houseshare etc and live very cheaply. You made the huge financial and time commitment of children before home ownership, a valid choice but you can't then moan you can't have it all.

Yeah thisisacrazyidea you should indeed be entitled to stable housing just because you’re alive. Also clean water, education and health services. I haven’t lived in rental accommodation since I was a student and I’ve also been an accidental landlord (who allowed pets and redecorating). Yet somehow I haven’t lost empathy for the millions of people who haven’t had the same luck as me. And it is luck, whatever you tell yourself about hard work and Starbucks drinking.

And for all those saying how hard it is to cover the mortgage and so on, I’m sure that’s true.

At the end however you have a very valuable asset and your tenant has nothing, so my sympathy is limited.

I own btw. I thank my stars everyday that I’m not dependent on renting in this country.

Renting should be a mutual arrangement like any business transaction. I have great tenants, I appreciate them for looking after the properties, paying their rent and being reasonable to deal with and in turn they have a secure tenancy, keep pets, hang paintings, decorate and if the house needs a repair I sort it promptly. I’ve had crap tenants too who have cost me money but that’s life.

These threads often result in landlord bashing, but ultimately you need them and they need you. It’s not a one sided arrangement.

We’re private renting. I think the landlady owns the house, as in no mortgage. We pay a ridiculous rent as we’re in a very naice area.

However we chose it and knew the rent beforehand.
Why not move somewhere cheaper if the rent is stretching you?

Also you’re renting a home, it’s not yours, so rules are rules. Our landlady has let us make small improvements and we’ve got good communication with her. Can you maybe chat to the landlord and see if small changes can be made?

Somebody upthread stated that just because I am alive I shouldn’t feel entitled to a standard of living. Well I do feel that when I work long hard hours and spend a hefty sum of my wages on a small house for a large fee then I should be entitled to feel like I have a normal life!

I in part see where you're coming from on house prices and buy to let. The people who go into areas of towns, buy up family homes and convert them to HMOs to make student lettings, the people who buy a dozen properties, drive up rent and raise house prices do have an impact on people's ability to buy in part.

But I also know lots of people who became accidental landlords (think renting out their mum's property for cover care home costs, hard to sell their property when they moved in with DP so rent it towards their pension etc) and the tales I've heard are awful. Most accidental landlords I know have had tenant issues than haven't. I understand why they don't want to have to deal with 'we said you could paint but it needed to be reasonably neutral and easy to replace, but you've now got pink glitter paint everywhere and the carpets are a mess' / 'we said responsible pet owners but 6 months in and your cat has shredded the edge of the carpet and chewed the skirting boards'.

Renters aren't doing landlords a favour. They're buying a service and the service comes with terms and conditions.

I also don't get anyone lamenting their desire to buy whilst shelling out hundreds on paint, new carpet, remodelling the garden on a property they get no pay back for that investment. When DH and I were renting we put up some pictures and had a range of neutral soft furnishings but there was no way we were spending money decorating a house when we wanted to buy our own.

If owning a home was important so that you could have pets or decorate as you liked then all the years you worked more than part time you could have saved like crazy.

Plenty of people out there are working full time and barely covering their expenses. Many of them didn’t have the ability or opportunity to get better paid jobs. What about them? waits for someone to suggest taking in ironing

Where do you get this idea that all landlords are making a mint? They’re not. We did it for a while, young, naive, exchanged on our new place before our old, buyers buggered us about and we were stuck for 9 months.

Would never do it again. I’m absolutely sure most tenants are respectful of someone else’s property but ours weren’t and I cried when I first saw the state they’d left our new home in.

It amazes me that tenants have this attitude, poor me, look at my rich landlord, how dare they own more than one property!

I couldn’t agree more.
They’d be really pissed off if they knew that you’d dug the money tree up before you let the property, because no landlord ever in the history of time has ever worked hard to own and maintain more than one house in the first place.

Exactly @foxmuffin but I have never missed a payment, always kept the houses I have rented in good condition, respectful to neighbours etc. So in return after the landlord understands they have a good tenant a bit of leeway would be nice but after years of being in this house I still have not been allowed to decorate. I have beige carpets throughout and 2 children. I have replaced carpets when they have needed out of my own money. I think the onesidedness in my experience comes from the landlords still wanting to have control of every little thing. It’s undignified and way over the top.

They are minor issues your real anger is because you can’t afford to buy your own property. Look to the chain of events that led you down your life’s route. See if you can change something, in reality you may not be able to but your frustrations are directed incorrectly.

THIS ^^

You could look at in another way op you are not the owner so say if you need a new roof because it's leaking the owner your landlord pays not you.
As a homeowner I have a big mortgage and not just decorating costs which tbh I would begrudge paying if I didn't own it's things like new bathroom , windows etc . I need to replace the fencing and I'm saving as I need the front room & hall re plastering & decorated all of these things I wouldn't pay for if I rented .
I can see your point and I wouldn't want to be in your position but your not the only one and I understand it's difficult to get on the housing ladder .

Where do you get this idea that all landlords are making a mint?

You don’t have to be making a mint. However you are building up a tangible asset. Your tenant isn’t doing that.