Selfish bastards on Homes Under The Hammer

[SquishyBones]

Watching this shit show as I was bored and a family bought a house. The woman then proudly explained that they already own 700(!!!) houses in the area already and are hoping to own 1000 by the end of the year. How the fuck is this even allowed?? AIBU to think selfish bastards like this should be stopped and there should be a cap on how many properties a person can own? Even 10 houses per person would be ridiculous but would stop the likes of these people

Not if they were "black"! Because he didn't want the houses "smelling of curry". Or single parents. Or battered wives. Attached is an example of the guidance he sent to EAs who were letting his properties for him.

The document you attached doesn’t say anything about him not wanting black people or people who cook curry in his houses. Is that anecdotal?

This is going to be an unpopular view, but I’m not sure that it’s a private landlord’s responsibility to house somebody who might not be able to afford the rent. I suspect that is what the ‘letting criteria’ are about. If I owned a bunch of houses to rent, and that was my business, I wouldn’t be happy if I were effectively co-opted into providing social housing at below market rent by having to take a haircut in the rental income.

As a landlord, I am genuinely interested in hearing why what I do is not right. I am not arguing it, I just would like to know the perspective of some of the posters.

My OH and I own our house and bought two new apartments that we rent out. We work full time in good jobs and we earned every penny spent. The flats were new when we bought them (only few years ago) and top of the market in the area we live in. They are rented to professionals. They are often paid for by their companies as they are here for a project for 1-2 years, or we had a couple who then went ahead and bought a flat in the same building (they wanted to try before buying basically).

To be honest with the recent change in regulations we don't make much money out of them: between taxes, agency fees, maintenance etc we almost go even with the mortgage. However, we made the investment thinking long term and we still hope something will change. Else we will sell.

Would anyone would be able to explain how my specific situation makes me greedy/evil?

Our property was trashed, graffiti on the walls, weird cat claw marks up the walls when there was no pets. Dirt, rubbish, horrid, that year it wiped out any profit whatsoever (as whatever some people on this thread may think, landlords have to pay tax of 20-40% if personal income, then landlord insurance, gas safety certificates, tenancy finding services, and any maintenance, plus if you have a BTL mortgage, then a few hundred on that, so it can be hard to make much on that in a bad year).

Watch Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords.

Some of the landlords on that are appalling, and they tend to rent to vulnerable people such as recent immigrants or very low waged workers who won't have much choice.

Some of the tenants are appalling, and genuinely can cost £10,000 to repair a house that has been trashed, even just to remove the rubbish, replace furniture/kitchen cupboards and so on.

You cannot just believe the best of people, you have to hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Unfortunately due to the lack of guarantees and the risk of one bad tenant, this has created an unsustainable rental market for private landlords as they have no incentive to take risks on riskier or more vulnerable groups- such as single parents, low waged or unemployed, people on benefits, people without large deposits. The councils are trying to remedy that say by lending deposits but it doesn't sort out the root of the problem.

I wasn't able to go to uni when I was younger due to being out on my own from 17 Mmmm! Are you my sockpuppet?

Both DH and I were independent at 17 too! He worked on building sites and I was a bar maid. We started with pennies to our name, not even a bank account between us (does anyone else remember wage packets, those little brown envelopes with cash ad a wage slip?).

It can be done. Honest!

It’s pointless being annoyed at one person. Why don’t you petition the government OP instead of being annoyed at people earning a legal living?

I’m not a LL btw! But from I hear BTL LLs don’t have it that easy so these people must have got there with a lot of hard work.

Also, property investment is a huge thing, why are you annoyed at huge corporates who do it?

Housing in the U.K. is in a horrible state, it’s driven by greed.

Whereas in the rest of the world, outside the awful UK, it's driven by pure philanthropy isn't it. I do wish people would realise that many bad things are the same the world over and in many places a lot worse than in the UK!

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER in Scotland it's no longer possible for a landlord to end the tenancy just because you feel like it. Residential leases are for indefinite periods as opposed to being fixed term and you can only evict for one of a very few specified grounds, essentially tenant being in breach of the lease and reasons such as the landlord intends to sell or live in it themselves amongst a few others of a similar nature. None would cover a change of heart on the landlord's part. Notice periods are also longer than they were before depending on the reason for ending the lease. Leases are far more tenant friendly and give more security than they ever have.

To be honest with the recent change in regulations we don't make much money out of them: between taxes, agency fees, maintenance etc we almost go even with the mortgage. However, we made the investment thinking long term and we still hope something will change. Else we will sell

This is what I have found, most smaller landlords have to have BTL mortgages unless they are accidental landlords, so that's a good third of the money gone, then as I say you either pay 20-40% tax personally or corporation tax, then all the certification, then the maintenance, and so on. It is not pure profit per month unless you don't need a mortgage and even then it is taxed.

I'm not whingeing, because the other option for money sitting around- invest or just sit in a bank with minimal interest, is either too risky or the money is just depreciating.

People looking at headline rents though, and imagining the landlord getting all the money, may not be quite right either though!

So, the market is becoming dominated by larger professional landlords or companies- is that better? Do they care more individually for their tenants. Um, that would be a no! They simply do what is profitable for their business model, like all businesses.

I think quite a few people on this thread aren't aware of the recent changes to landlord and tenant rights in England, I'm not sure they are going to solve all the problems, and others have come up with some good solutions concerning using existing housing stock/councils reclaiming empty homes, for example.

I have rented as a student, then when my job moved me to an area I could never have afforded to buy and didn’t plan to stay long. I also rented when I initially moved back home as I was used to living with my partner and wanted to take our time finding a house to purchase. Each time I had a landlord all were pretty reasonable. Letting agents were the biggest pain in the bum as the link between myself and the landlord. My mum also rented for years after divorce and has only recently bought, in some ways she is much worse off now as her mortgage is higher than her rent was (for a similar size property) but she also has all the maintenance costs involved and at her age will likely not benefit from having paid off her mortgage.
My dad is a landlord and mainly buys properties that no one wants in quite run down areas. He is linked to an agency that houses people on housing benefit (as many private landlords will refuse benefits)
His properties are decent and he’s always there fixing something or other. There is a definite need for this as he has notes through the door or people ringing desperate to know if he has any houses available.
I agree that letting agents and landlords need far better regulation. However it is definitely needed!

It can be done. Honest! - no it cant be done now. I was independent at 17 because I had no choice, left care, did some sofa surfing (whilst working as a barmaid) - rents were a small proportion of wages or you could easily rent a decent room. Young people have it very hard now. Well, anyone has it hard trying to rent if they are on a low or "medium" income.

Before blaming all the landlords refusing this and that

look at the conditions of their mortgages who do not allow them to rent to whoever they want

look at how little protection they have from bad tenants too..

It's funny how small and medium landlords are always hated and vilified, but huge landowners from the upper class are given a free pass on the hatred. Jealousy?

I agree should be maximum of say 5 houses per person, to stop the greed and so everyone gets a chance to possibly own a home. Bet if you went to the auction these 2 would outbid you every time

user1471523870 ok I will try and help you understand- and let me just say I’m not angry with individuals as such but there is a bigger picture.
Let’s also take out the emotive language that you hard earned every penny, lots of people work hard and have no money to save.
You have a home, you are fortunate enough to own a home and not be at the mercy of a landlord. Why do you need further homes to be an asset? By removing stock from the sell market the stock has diminished which in turn drives up the cost of the remaining stock- supply vs demand

i agree. i don't think people should be allowed to profit from housing. it's immoral. like for profit healthcare, prisons etc. it just doesn't work in a successful society that actually wants it's citizens to live fulfilling lives rather than oppressing vulnerable people

housing associations should be providing rental properties and operating as charities/social enterprises

Why would you get annoyed about that? People who cannot afford to buy, rent. Who do you think they rent them from? They are Landlords. They spend money buying property, improving them then let them out. They have to ensure they are safe by paying for annual boiler maintenance etc. They pay tax on the profits of their business as other types of business do. They pay Capital Gains Tax when they sell them. What's the problem?

Do you have the same problem with Tesco owning thousands of stores and hundreds of Tesco Express branches? Landlords are providing a service in the same way as many companies are.

no it cant be done now. Really?

I think you may be mistaken! I see many young people renting decent rooms, they seem to prefer house shares these days, don't go so much for bedsits. I see them every week! All sorts of income levels. It's part of my job!

But then again, I don't love in London, or any other great metropolis!

@MerryDeath

i agree. i don't think people should be allowed to profit from housing. it's immoral. like for profit healthcare, prisons etc. it just doesn't work in a successful society that actually wants it's citizens to live fulfilling lives rather than oppressing vulnerable people

But owner occupiers on the whole profit from owning property, my own flat has significantly gone up in value, if I chose to sell it I would make a profit.

I think ‘ property developers’ are scum . They buy up all affordable housing and make it too expensive for people to buy . The acquisition of wealth is disgusting . We bought our house cheaper and renovated it ourselves it was the only way we could manage to get a house the size we needed . There was a propert developer trying to outbid us and snapping at our heels , luckily the vendor wanted to sell to an actual family .

I agree with a PP that safe, long-term and affordable housing should be universal.

I agree but only if that property is respected, kept decent and a reasonable rent paid on time!

Don't try making sense of it Simon communism doesn't really work for the workers... but some still anticipate that they will benefit from all the social - isms without a thought for how they are financed!

700 homes is a ridiculous amount. However to pp who said after owning one you should be heavily taxed, get a grip. We bought 1st house and paid over the odds, we outgrew house but if we sold it we would have at a push broken even but lost money due to solicitor costs, stamp duty, moving costs and redecoration in the sum of about 40k, so we kept it and rented it and bought another. We will keep this property as a rental, as this will provide a pension for me and DH when the time comes as he is SE and only began paying in to a private pension recently. We also both declare our income for the other property (which doesn't even cover our mortgage on it and we have to top it up) so we are taxed on top of this. So actually us having a 'rental property' provides a family of 5 with a home and we pay more tax and are helping our economy. Not all rental properties allow the landlords to get rich sitting on their arses doing nothing.

The acquisition of wealth is disgusting . We bought our house cheaper and renovated it ourselves it was the only way we could manage to get a house the size we needed . And will you sell it at cost? Or will you exoect a profit?

@curiousaboutsamphire! Wow! Let everyone know that they are wrong! There is no crisis in housing or rentals! Those idiots living in B&B! They just need to choose from the many lovely cheap rooms you know of in your job!

That's going to be a massive relief all round!