Housing crisis

[lollipoprainbow]

Aibu to feel really angry about the housing situation in this country ?? I think it's terrible that tenants that privately rent only get 2 months to find somewhere else to live once issued with a section 21 surely in the current climate of a rental shortage it should be six months ?? I think it's awful that people can't get mortgages despite paying the same or less in rent each month. I think it's disgusting that 'affordable housing' is anything but for the normal low wage earning person. There is zero help for people working on a low wage. Sorry but I just need to vent, I want to complain but don't know who to !!

@spaceman1 this js the problem, with fewer and fewer rentals it's going to get a lot lot worse. I'm incredibly worried.

[quote 70kid]@UggyPow
Why would a section 8 take 1-2 years
My neighbour was evicted recently by the council using a section 8

Although he had been convicted in crown court of ASB and couldn’t return to the property . So the council had all the evidence needed I suppose .

It didn’t take the council long to evict him under a section 8 using ASB[/quote]
Would have had to wait for a court date - as a private landlord people are reluctant to be involved & provide evidence of ASB, even the management company didn’t want to get involved.

@FairyCakeWings exactly !! The bad tenants are making it bad for the good ones and all of us are being tarred with the same brush.

There’s a flaw here: btl selling will increase the amount of starter homes on the market so ftb can buy, freeing up the rental market for those who want/need to rent.

There may be less available rental properties but that is only because they were traditionally starter homes that were bought by btl landlords, taking them out of the viable market, thus increasing competition for rentals and prices. If those ftb homes return to a buyers market there will be less people needing to rent and it will balance out better. They always have to create space for ftb to get on the market as they are the ones keeping it going!

@SenoraMiasma so my flat that I have rented for 9 years will be sold to a ftb but it won't be me as I can't get a mortgage despite paying more rent per month than a mortgage would cost. It's infuriating.

There are going to be massive problems when the laws relating to the Energy Performance of rental properties take effect. My home is rated D. My EPC says it could be improved to a C but would cost ££££. Who is going to pay to bring all the housing stock in the private rented sector to a C rating on the EPC?

@BeryltheMenaceneePeril why the hell is the government making it so hard for landlords when there is such a housing crisis ? No wonder they are selling up.

[quote lollipoprainbow]@BeryltheMenaceneePeril why the hell is the government making it so hard for landlords when there is such a housing crisis ? No wonder they are selling up. [/quote]
But if the government were seen to be going easy on landlords there would be an absolute uproar, no?

Second homes and BTL should be discouraged fiscally to reduce the demand for properties and curb property price rises. More FTB buying homes will free up rental spaces.

Alongside this LAs and HAs need to be investing in good quality housing stock to provide good value rental accommodation. There needs to be LA oversight and government policy to reshape and manage the "free market" rental system.

@UggyPow ah right my neighbour was convicted in crown court of several serious ASB against neighbours and was in prison on remand for it and then got sentenced
So the council had all the evidence they needed to use a section 8 plus he wasn’t able to live in the property as part of his sentence .
I think from when he got the section 8 letter . It only took a few weeks for the council to go to court and get it signed and get the property back

He probably didn’t fight it either as he wouldn’t have had any grounds

@lollipoprainbow

No, the cost of the ftb properties will go down so you will be able to afford it. Once the btl market is less attractive those properties will flood the market bringing the prices down. Every second home owner I know who rented out their btl in the last 10- 15 years are selling/getting out. I imagine Brexit is also a factor as less renters?

@SenoraMiasma I won't be able to afford it !! No way. That's exactly the awful situation I'm in right now my landlord is selling, he tried it as btl but no one was interested so now it's out there for all and sundry including ftb. You can see how unhappy I will feel having people viewing the home that I have been happy in for 9 years but not able to afford to buy.

Spot on @OohRahhMaki123.

@fallfallfall

the problem with tenancy protection is that some people are not good tenants. if you want a "your" home...well you need to buy it. a renter is always a renter.

What a disgusting and stereotypical thing to say

@ISpyCobraKai

This is why I'll never give up my HA home. I have a three bed, just for me, but if I swap to a new area and downsize I'll lose my lifetime tenancy. Why on earth would I do that?

With respect, it's people like yourself who are taking up 3 bed homes simply because they've always lived there. Yet there's families with 3/4/5 kids stuffed into bedsits desperately hoping for a home. My friend & her 5 children recently had to flee Domestic violence (he'd never been abusive before, just suddenly changed) as their lives were severely at risk. They're currently in a Refuge, squeezed into a single room and she is bidding furiously every day of the week, even bidding for 1 bed flats as it gives them a slight improvement on what they have already ☹️ Yet every single property she bids on, also has at least 3 THOUSAND other bids on it. Minimum. Despite living in a Refuge and being severely over crowded, she still loses out on every property she bids on. Even the 1 bed flats. So you can see how it's pretty infuriating to see people still sat in their 3 bed HA homes, long after their kids have grown & moved out; when those homes could be an absolute life changer for families like my friend & her kids.

@Rrrob

We are accidental landlords. Just got new tenants in and realised the rent is WAY below the market (other properties in the building have just let for 30% more than ours). Totally our fault (and it costs us a fortune in service charges that we pay and don’t ask the tenants for).. We are tied in for 12 months and have lovely tenants. BUT DSis rents in the same town and has just been served notice. She can’t afford anything locally (her current rent is £200 below market rate at least). She doesn’t drive so must live in the town for work. What are we supposed to do now?!

You can't do anything except let your tenants know that you'll not be renewing the tenancy at the 12 month point, in order to give them plenty of notice.

@SweetPetrichor

It’s a pity that there isn’t investment in quality social housing now. I bought a flat from the council around 8 years ago. They were selling it off so actively getting rid of potential housing for someone in need. It was a great flat, really solid build from around 1930s. We now rent it out. Last year we bought a house which was part of an estate of social housing built in the 1920s/30s. Again, really great house. Solid built, quality home. I doubt any of the estate is still social housing, I imagine it’s all been bought. But there’s no chance they’d built homes like these as social housing anymore. There’s just not the investment anymore.

YOU are part of the problem! You saw the council selling off housing cheap (a potential salvation for a first time buyers trying to leave the rental trap) and snapped it up to rent out.......

@PaddleBoardingMomma

Just before covid hit DH's business had a huge windfall and changed our lives. Until that point, us getting on the property ladder was impossible, and frankly crushing. Owning our home has been (and will always be) the most life changing event for us, no matter what else the money brings that security is something I genuinely thank our lucky stars for every single day. Being mortgage free let alone being on the ladder changes everything. I honestly think had the bizarre series of events that unfolded to allow us to do that hadn't of happened I'd have had some sort of mental health crisis by now. The worry and stress of an unsecured home and renting made me feel ill almost daily. Home insecurity is a huge crisis in the UK, and yet every single landlord we ever had had MULTIPLE houses and portfolios, hoarding masses of accommodation and charging more and more from their tenants year on year. I find it borderline immoral.

Whilst I agree with your final point, I'm not sure bragging about your lucky windfall, house purchasing and subsequent pure joy, on a thread filled with people discussing hardship in an unfair rental economy, is particularly kind, in my personal opinion, @PaddleBoardingMomma

@Babyroobs

Makes me furious that so much council housing as sold off and it has been so easy for people to buy second homes then charge extortionate rent. I was speaking to a friend yesterday whose relative is paying £1800 a month, most of it from benefits so tax payers are paying for that whilst someone else gets rich on the back of it. It's appalling that it has been allowed to get this bad. Waiting lists for HA/ council housing can take years, people stuck in emergency accomodation for years or at the mercy of landlords and no stability. The cost to society is huge, it just baffles me as to why councils wouldn't provide more affordable stable housing rather than the goverment subsidizing huge rents??

Absolutely NO WAY will Benefits pay £1800 (or even half that) towards rent, even if they have 8 kids and both parents disabled. Yes, their total income from benefits could be that or more (mine is due to disability) but not anywhere near that amount in rent. Not even in London. If she privately rents, they'll only pay a set amount towards the rent. It's called Local Housing Allowance and there's set rates for each area. Google it for your area. Whoever told you that is lying

The bedroomed home owner here, just DH and I now. We’d consider downsizing to a flat or bungalow, but those in the private sector (think McCarthy & Stone) would cost as much if not more than our house. There are also service charges, and like lots of older pensioners we have a pretty low income.

One solution might be for not for profit landlords to build older people’s independent flats or bungalows for an affordable rent. Cheaper rent than retirement homes, we wouldn’t be claiming benefits as we’d have a bit of capital from the sale, and family sized houses would be freed up for younger people. No property maintenance to worry about either!

@Imsittinginthekitchensink

I'm a teacher and I rent following a divorce. My rent is 67% of my income. To buy the house I rent I would need to earn 4 times more, or have half a million deposit. MN says time again that I should move to a cheaper area - there aren't any really nice and even if I did, I'd be hundreds of miles from anyone I know and would have to start over at nearly 50. I can't go back to where I'm from, as it's a stronghold for second home buyers and I'm priced out of there too.

Where do you live that you need half a million pounds deposit? If you want to live it what sounds to be an extremely expensive area then you can’t complain about the rental cost, millions of people don’t live in particularly nice or their area of choice, they rent or buy where is affordable, and yes MN is right you need to move somewhere cheaper, it sounds like you are living completely beyond your means.

I honestly think there should be some sort of landlord reference system. So if you've been able to pay for example £800 a month rent for 1 year without any late or missed payments then you've proven you're good for that financial commitment so you can get agreed for a mortgage with an equal or slightly lower monthly payment. The current system is ridiculous and based far too heavily on circumstance.

[quote Fretfulmum]@Blossomtoes LLs do pay far more tax. They pay additional stamp duty land tax when they purchase a BTL, they then pay tax on rental income and then pay even more tax when they sell the property (capital gains tax). Your knowledge about what LLs are subject to is short sighted[/quote]
Yes and they are taxed now on revenue, even of they make a loss!

No business can function like that, it makes it much too risky. No business in any sector is taxed on that basis. And this is a business involving large capital outlay and market risk and interest rate risk so... it was obvious that this would lead to people exiting the market and therefore a lower availability of rental property, therefore a supply shortage that doesn't meet demand and huge price rises. This is really, really basic economics.

It's weird that people are surprised by it.

(I'm not a landlord btw and have never been one.)

We got on the property ladder via a stair casing scheme (sort of a rent to buy) and it was a god send. Neither of us inherited money so we were looking at years of saving for a deposit however this allowed us to accumulate equity while we rented (we'd have been renting while we saved anyway so it was just an added bonus).

I can't understand why similar schemes aren't more widely available to be honest. I can't speak highly enough of the one we used and the difference it made to mine and dh's life. I loved that house and was very well advised at the start of the scheme what would happen if the house decreased in value or I was unable to make payments on the property.