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

If anyone on here thinks tenants only have problems with corporate or private landlords then they have never been to a council meeting on housing.

Housing charities are anything but philanthropic towards tenants.

Young people have it very hard now.+

They had it hard in the past too. When was this period of "milk and honey" that people seem to think was a reality?

More youngsters than ever are going to university, financed by student loans for both tuition fees and living costs. The opportunities to get a good education and therefore increased chance of a higher earning job have never been so good.

I'm mid 50s. I could afford to buy my own house until I was mid 30's after several years saving hard after qualifying as an accountant. I left school at 16 with no O levels because of the crap comp. I worked in a shop, self taught O and A levels in the evenings and weekends and managed to get a trainee job in a tiny father/son accountancy practice where I earned less than a pound per hour full time, and still managed to finance my own accountancy distant learning courses, taking my annual holidays for study/exam leave and paying my own exam costs - all from less than a pound per hour and still working in the shop at weekends. I qualified mid 20s and then moved firms a couple of times to get better jobs, my last being 90 minutes from home, which I did just to get money for the deposit (12 hour days inc commuting).

If I could leave school with no O levels and work minimum wage jobs to get qualifications and ultimately qualify as a professional, then so can today's youngsters. And yes, it took years to save for a deposit for a house in the 80s/90s, alongside sacrifices (i.e. no new lease cars, several foreign holidays, takeaways nor gadgets) - just like people can do today if they're motivated.

couldn't afford, not could afford.

@Dishing Wow indeed!

Which bit that I posted do you disagree with in particular.

Without misquoting me with ideas of "cheap rooms" - which I didn't say.

Or anyone in B+Bs - which I also didn't mention.

Or there being no housing crisis - which I have posted on, with links to all sorts of reputable data and everything!

Or is it that I said that many young people seem to prefer house shares to bedsits these days? In my experience that is true. I see many more HMOs than bedsits. I see developers making one bedroom flats from 2 bedsits. I don't see any properties being split into bedsits.

What part of what I have posted have you interpreted as it as actually written? How much of what you ascribed to me is made up from wholecloth?

I think we do need landlords as a service because buying for many is out of reach, but equally I think there should be a limit of how many one can own at any given time, 50-100 would provide enough income, I do think owning 1000 properties is just pure greed.

It does take away opportunities for other people, yes they buy and renovate dilapidated properties that others won’t touch, but they also buy properties that need smaller amounts of renovation that first time buyers could undertake and I do think that’s unfair that they are priced out due to landlords like this who view properties like that as just another income stream on their already bulging portfolio.

^Not everyone wants to own though - renting suits some people.
Mumsnet is strange about housing^
YY house-buying was pushed by Mrs Thatcher when she sold off the LA housing stock but MN acts as though everyone always wanted to own a house and that it's standard rather than a direct result of years of Tory policy pushing home ownership as something aspirational. It was pushed by the Tories to take support away from social housing. Most other countries in Europe have thriving rental markets. They actually realise lots of people want to rent rather than buy. It's impossible to have that discussion on MN though.

I was going to report this as the usual playground jealousy 'I've been taught to hate landlords' thread (which is what the OP intended). However there are lots of useful facts on here so it might be better in MN classics. They include the truth about Shelter, the housing charity that has never sheltered anybody and whose ill-thought-out campaigns often backfire, that HAs and councils can actually be worse than private landlords, that it isn't landlords that trash properties and so on. Yes, there are bad landlords. Yes, there are bad tenants.

And yes, it is a business to make profit - I don't see threads complaining that food, clothing etc isn't sold at cost. If the OP works I don't imagine she does that just for travel expenses.

I have a BTL to make profit. It is still well-maintained, entirely within the law, etc etc. That can be done if you do your sums right.

as a bonus a lot of the replies on here will really piss off the OP so win-win.

More youngsters than ever are going to university, financed by student loans for both tuition fees and living costs. The opportunities to get a good education and therefore increased chance of a higher earning job have never been so good are you joking? Coming out of uni with 10s of 1000s debt is having it good?

And yes, it took years to save for a deposit for a house in the 80s/90s, alongside sacrifices (i.e. no new lease cars, several foreign holidays, takeaways nor gadgets) - just like people can do today if they're motivated said the daily mail. Clearly people are using food banks to save towards their trips to Dubai
Honestly the cost of housing and travel today are extortionate, wages have been stagnant for years. Why are the older generation so oblivious to how much harder the younger generation have it. I’m happy to put run through a scenario with coatings to highlight my point too!

I don't think people should be allowed to profit from housing. it's immoral.

but as above, profit from
food
nappies & sanitary protection
medication
medical supplies
basic clothing even
mandatory school uniforms
funerals
dentistry
medical procedures if the long delays on the NHS force you to go private or die...

is absolutely fine
and you could make that list a lot longer!

Wouldn't the answer to poor quality rental property and housing insecurity be to make and enforce laws that all landlords (council, HA, private) have to stick to? It wouldnt solve the problem of nightmare tenants but it would solve the rest of it.

We need LL's to provide housing for families who either can't afford to buy as no deposit or who don't want to buy and prefer to rent. LL's pay income tax on income earned so contribute to society. They provide a service. Local authorities do not have enough housing stock to home all in need.

Flip it op. If no LL then less money paid in taxation so less to spend on public services like benefits and NHS. Far more families would be put in B&B accomodation.

People without houses would not be able to find up 10 per cent deposits from no where.

B2l LL are a business just as a business with s string of shops. You are being very unreasonable and sound jealous and bitter.

Most councils own far more than 700.

"the cost of housing and travel today are extortionate "

Speaking for all areas of the country are you there @OnlyFoolsnMothers?

Why is that always an issue?

A poster says today's youth has it bad and those of previous generations had it easy, lower ratios rent to wages etc etc

An older poster says actually it was also fucking hard back then, Biggest visible difference is we didn't have gadgets and gizmoes and the leisure opportunities that have become normalised thses days.

Older poster gets told to fuck off, they have no idea!

BOTH statements are true, BOTH perspectives have merit.

The only thing that has changed is the absolute numbers and the lifestyles that are considered normal! The hardhsip levels are similar, the details differ!

Provide whatever costings you like, from either end of the time scale.

Every generation benefits from the things the previous generations saw as the most heinous and worked to change. This generation will do the same. Its kids and grandkids will turn round and blame them for that generation's problems!

Janice
Don’t forget water

We are LL. One of our tenants is a refugee single mother on benefits. The council had nothing they could offer her that was suitable for her young child - the housing officer spoke to us as the council helped with the deposit.

How are we the problem? The lack of social housing is the problem. If low cost social housing was available with longer term tenancies then the demand for private rentals would be lower.

Porcupineinwaiting well where housing is cheaper the job opportunities are few and far between and are often more poorly paid. If I leave London, where I’m from, then I could afford a bigger property, I would also take a 30k+ pay cut

@anneofqueen sables most othet countriea do not have council or social housing though
Renting is mostly private
If the councils had spent the money on building new houses from the money they had from right to buy that would of helped
A lot of properties sold were also i need of a lot of work so keeping and bringing up to standard would of coat also
The biggest problem is many get stuck in the rental cycle as they cant afford to save whilst renting
If banks loaned mortgages woth very small deposits and took into account if you had rented with no defaults for years this would help people get on the ladder and those who want to buy could .
Yes some prefer renting so we need good landlords but we also need for everyone to have a chance to buy of they want

Biggest visible difference is we didn't have gadgets and gizmoes and the leisure opportunities that have become normalised thses days I’m sure but the ability to eat and afford a roof over ones head is harder today and these things aren’t nice to haves

I think housing has become really divisive. I really think it was easier to buy a house in previous generations. I was talking to a man in his 80s who bought his semi detached house for 10k in the 1970s. It's probably worth 1m now. Theres no way wages have increased by 100 times.

But I think it's ridiculous to say no one should have second homes as renting in a lot of circumstances is a lot more flexible than buying. And holiday let's have pros and cons. I prefer self catering to hotels so am reliant on someone owning a property they rent out, to stay in. (Or if they own it and rent it out, should they also rent.....so that they only own 1 property...? ) But I can see the massive downside to towns reliant on tourism and that struggle with services for places that have only half the houses occupied in the winter.

I am old enough to remember renting before we had so many private landlords and it was a nightmare. Our first flat had no central heating and leaked like crazy but we loved it and it was 100% better than anything else we saw. We saw one place where somebody had obviously died and nobody had even tidied: a body shape dent in the bed, dead flowers in a vase, etc. Anywhere even half decent unless you were the first people to view you'd get there and find the people who viewed it before you signing the contract at the kitchen table. None of this "I'll think about it" stuff.

I think there should be more regulation and tenant protections to make sure landlords behave in a professional way - but overall I'm glad there are more landlords than there used to be, and more competition between rental properties.

well where housing is cheaper the job opportunities are few and far between and are often more poorly paid

That's not always the case in other cities. There are still jobs in banking, law, medical staff, other professions, and the cruicial difference is that people in jobs that pay nurse and teacher type salaries (eg £25-35k) can buy property, unlike the south. So while you might earn less, your disposable income after housing costs is often more, especially as you're more likely to be able to live near work and not have to pay for a long commute.

If low cost social housing was available with longer term tenancies then the demand for private rentals would be lower.

Depends on the location, quality, type etc. We have a council estate in a nearby town with lots of empty properties simply because no one wants to live there, however cheap, due to anti social behaviour, drug taking, etc. It got that way over several decades because some clown built a huge sprawling estate nowhere near any jobs nor the town centre, so even when newly built, noone wanted to live there because it wasn't convenient for anything.

I own a holiday home in Brittany, France. I don't rent it out when I am not using it but I do allow family and friends to stay in it free of charge in weeks it is vacant. Does that make me a CF too as it is empty for many weeks of the year? We pay all local taxes.

Property developers are not my favourite people, but surely you realise they are not stopping people living in them. What did you think they did with them?