To hate landlords?

[MsPeachh]

Last month, I had to move suddenly. I found the flat I’m in now, it had just been bought by my landlord and I’m the first person in after the former owner moved out. It’s an ex-council house that the owner had purchased under “right to buy” and now I have to pay a third of my salary to a private landlord for what was originally meant to be affordable housing.

I’m a scientist in my late twenties with good qualifications and I feel total despair that I might never be able to afford my own home, and I will be lining someone else’s pockets via rent for the rest of my life. Let alone what anyone in a position less fortunate than mine is supposed to do.

To make matters worse, I looked up my landlord’s info on Companies House and I discovered that they have 22 properties in my area! It’s a village on the outskirts of a town where lots of people move when they are ready to move out of the hustle and bustle and settle to raise kids. And more and more of these properties are being snapped up by this landlord. It makes me sick, honestly. I know a lot of people become landlords accidentally in later life due to remarrying etc and ending up with two houses between one couple, but this landlord sucking up 22 houses in such a small area disgusts me. I feel like I’m completely losing hope for the future of people my age and younger as house prices keep soaring and soaring.

AIBU?

Thatcher's legacy sadly.

The landlord who owns the house next us evicted the tenants I the middle of the pandemic. They had nowhere to go cos no places available to view. So landlord gets someone round to scare them. The tenants were very frightened. Contacted Shelter etc but not much anyone could do for them at that moment. They had no money for solicitors or in any way able to stand their ground. The scare tactics made sure they didnt want to try and rough it out. They did find a place and left but the landlords behaviour was beyond scum. They have now sold the property for a good price

Across the road are 4 flats which are also let out and are slum conditions.
We r in London so the rent is ludicrous but the flats are always occupied. The landlord collects the cash rent every week and no doubt pays not a penny tax.
A friend of mine lived in s flat with a large part of the ceiling falling in. Vermin. Damp etc.
She had a newborn baby. Landlord did nothing then evicted her.
Yea these types give landlords a bad name but when they are bad they are awful and it seems ther isnt much tenants can do but it seems landlords cant be compelled to do much either

I have read that rents are dropping in London so I hope the easy money for crappy property ends soon.
Makes me so angry.

Why so many questions about me?

I think only asked to clarify the 5x thing?

What’s your situation?

What do you want to know? I've said on this thread I live in London, I saved my deposit by living at home, if I had to pay rent I couldn't have done as prices rose super fast.

I am a landlord. I have 17 properties. I charge reasonable rents as I don’t bother with awful agencies, I do everything myself. I am available to any tenant with an issue and promptly sort all maintenance issues.

I worked like a dog to get my first property. I worked like a dog to pay for it. Then I was offered a relocation with housing job, which I took. I rented out my first property, charged a fair rent, which I used to pay the mortgage. I then remortgaged the property and invested in a second one. And so forth. I still work like a dog in my chosen career and manage all the properties on top.

My rents go on mortgages, nothing much more, apart from a contingency in the event of any maintenance issues.

Tenants have messaged me with the most ludicrous issues, all of which I tend to or politely explain why it’s their issue. Such as the tenant who asked me to clean his bathroom. The bathroom of the flat he’s rented from me for three years. Or the one who was drunk and locked out and so I drove, while 9 months pregnant, to let back in at 3am because the spare key holder was not responding. Because it was 3am. And because the locksmith thought he was a crook.

Not all landlords are slummy money grabbing arseholes who don’t deserve the assets they have.

Some interesting comments here, thanks everyone. I think I will take the advice of writing to my MP actually!

Some people seem to interpret my comment about being a scientist as me disparaging other professions and that is not the case- I mention it because I “did all the right things” that you are traditionally told to do to guarantee security in life and I’m still struggling. I worry about this issue widening the gap between rich and poor, and I think my case illustrates that success is not at all based on merit or “working hard”.

Same some vitriol for the local people who are selling their properties to these buy to let buyers. They have a choice, and they go where the money is....

You are a scientist? You posted THAT graph and expect people to take it seriously?

Also, I have savings and I have been paying the full amount into a help to buy ISA every month. Those savings are worth half the purchase price that the previous owner paid about 15 years ago. They don’t touch 10% of its current value.

YABU to hate all landlords. YANBU to hate the situation. YANBU even to hate your landlord. Please don't generaluse there s good and bad in every grouo

@itsadress

Why so many questions about me?

I think only asked to clarify the 5x thing?

What’s your situation?

What do you want to know? I've said on this thread I live in London, I saved my deposit by living at home, if I had to pay rent I couldn't have done as prices rose super fast.

Sorry just seemed a lot of questions but I apologise. I didn’t get the luxury of being able to stay at home to save so had to rent, neither was I given money for a deposit. I’m just trying to say that despite people saying it’s not possible in those circumstances it most definitely is as I did it pretty recently, and in the south east in one of the highest house prices areas outside of London. So did all of my friends. It took some longer than others as there are a range of incomes and relationship status but now in our early thirties I don’t know one person that rents, the last one bought earlier this year. So obviously my circle is doing something differently to these other people!

@Mustbe3ormorecharacters

You are a scientist? You posted THAT graph and expect people to take it seriously?

And what is wrong with the graph, exactly?

@Puzzledandpissedoff I've always worked on the basis that DH & I can afford the mortgage on a single salary if necessary. Hence why we don't borrow as much because I don't work f/t & earn less.

@MsPeachh

Also, I have savings and I have been paying the full amount into a help to buy ISA every month. Those savings are worth half the purchase price that the previous owner paid about 15 years ago. They don’t touch 10% of its current value.

How many years have you been paying the full amount into your isa for? Your not going to be able to buy with just one year of saving but give it 4-5 years and you’ll have a very decent amount to buy with. House prices haven’t and won’t be going up substantially in the next few years so keep it up and you’ll be fine!

Nothing's wrong with the graph, unless you were in denial that house prices have become less affordable now I guess

Right wingers attack anything but especially statistics that dont back up their political beliefs. Its how the government got away with austerity for years when a 10 year old could work out why it wouldnt work. They have to literally deny reality to keep neoliberalism in place and people not asking uncomfortable questions about their basic rights to affordable housing etc.

Young people cannot be asked to take any more expense on.

@Racoonworld the point is 6 years ago is actually not that relevant when the law on lending has changed & prices have gone up in my places. I think it was 2014 when London was crazy (my property doubled in value). I'm in my 30s & most of my friends are also on the ladder however we all realise if we faced today's circumstances we would likely still be renting/at home.

many not my

Yes, unreasonable and short sighted to blame landlords for your not being able to afford to buy a house. And no, I'm not a landlord.

Why not investigate:

• private land ownership in the UK (in many cases thousands of acres gifted to peers of the realm way back when, and they've just hung on to it ever since, exacerbating land shortages and supporting a rise in both land and house prices)
• wealthy individuals like James Dyson buying up agricultural land which will not be developed despite a housing shortage, because there's no inheritance tax on agricultural land
• housing developers who set house prices on new builds and have enormous profit margins
• the government's failure to implement policies - which could include land reform - to tackle the national housing shortage and provide affordable homes that are actually affordable relative to people's earnings
• the two Duchies owned by the Queen and Prince Charles, both of which own vast tracts of land and neither of which pay any income tax to the nation
• poor rules protecting renters and how they live in, decorate etc a rental property

It's a complex issue.

Real living standards in the West have stagnated for a few decades. I’m not talking about the OP here, but really the older generations need to make this point clear to teenagers.

Yes, you can enjoy all the fruits of the modern lifestyle: traveling all over the world, living in a cool city, Apple products, lots of monthly app subscriptions. consoles and computers, expensive food and takeaways, pubs and bars etc OR you can afford your own place. Both is often not doable. Living standards in the West have stagnated for decades (except for the top 0.1% who are raking it in). We can’t have it all - our societies are not set up for it, there isn’t enough real wealth to go around.

And with the relative rise and rise of the BRICS economies, things are probably going to get worse before the get better.

Kids are back now, joy 😜

Good luck @MsPeachh, at least you know not all homeowners think you need to try harder.

[quote itsadress]@Racoonworld the point is 6 years ago is actually not that relevant when the law on lending has changed & prices have gone up in my places. I think it was 2014 when London was crazy (my property doubled in value). I'm in my 30s & most of my friends are also on the ladder however we all realise if we faced today's circumstances we would likely still be renting/at home. [/quote]
But that’s the thing some of my friends bought this year and others in the last couple of years and managed ok. Maybe it’s just London that’s impossible. I wouldn’t be able to buy in London

[quote itsadress]@SchrodingersImmigrant Thats great but I'm specifically talking about 5x for lower earners, did you miss that? [/quote]
Sorry. Yeah. My advisor said that I can push to 5x. I did have great credit score (as anyone who wants to borrow sum like this should to be honest...). I found house just 4x in the end anyway as I didn't want to overstrech so chose cheaper postcode.
That was 4 years ago.

Home ownership in London is not possible on minimum wage and very hard on London living wage. The deposit is double and 20k is hard to raise and not 'dip into' when it gets past 10k'.

With a help to buy loan of 40% and a 5% deposit it's mathematically possible but not really affordable on the London living wage you'll get stuck in a 'fleecehold' because virtually all of the affordable new build properties are flats with hefty surcharges and the looming threat of overpriced communal building work.

(£21,150 x 2 x 5) = £211500 mortgage
£211500/ 0.55 = £380,000 home (plus 4K ish for fees)
£380,000 x 0.4 = £152000 government loan
£380,000 x 0.05 = £19000 deposit.

Example fleecehold
www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/57001680

Houses shouldn't be leashold. Ever. It's ridiculous

I think it is teenagers who need to make it clear to the older generation: it is much more difficult to get on the housing ladder now than it used to be. Affordable housing, free education, wages, NHS stretched to breaking point, free movement within the EU all gone and the environment trashed... a real mess has been left behind for younger generations.