Landlords are hated but

[Parsley1234]

I am a landlord tenants been in situ for over 10 years very happily in a character Victorian terrace rent raises minimum I leave them alone get repairs done in a timely manner however from 2028 I will have to either sell holiday let or leave vacant the property as the modifications are untenable for me. Double glazing adding internal walls to make small rooms smaller etc. We are in a housing crisis this is going to make it worse and for all of you who want to have a go at landlords maybe look at the government housing policy first

So investing your money in a pension is ok but investing money in a house and renting it out is not ok?

There is ethical investing and not so ethical investing though. Many people choose quite carefully for their pensions nowadays.

Most agents in the area where my BTL is were pretty on it anyway as there was a Multiple Murder arson attack where the landlord was subsequently jailed for fire safety issues (ironically he was a fireman) as well as the murderer serving life. No smart landlord wouldn't do these checks, but their are plenty out there willing to cut corners and hope for the best
This is exactly why many landlords are selling. Too many risks for very little gain. Too many people who don't have a clue what demands are put on private landlords. Why would you deal with the constant stress of insuring you do everything right or potentially risk a hefty fine or even jail but no financial gain? I very much doubt those damning all landlords would!

So investing your money in a pension is ok but investing money in a house and renting it out is not ok?

You can, as long as you realise its a LONG term investment and sometimes you will lose money.

Repairs, interest rate increases, market rate increases - none of this should be a tenants problem.

Set the rent, and leave it be.

You should not be making profit from rental payments.

I think most landlords take the best tenants and not ones that find rentals hard to come by and charge the highest rents they can get. Whether they are a larger business or smaller independent probably won't make any difference.

@Onandupw I think those usually apply to HMOs/commercial landlords. Around half the private landlords in England rent out only one house (e.g. the kind of landlords posting here).

@Phineyj traditoinally yes but expanding now. There are at least two councils in London who require it for single dwellings (ie let to one family.

southwark have just started to require It for all rentals. Oh and bexley

Just to make my position clear, I wouldn't have an issue if a landlord ticklist type checklist was brought in given that I believe I'm already doing everything required.

Cynically, I imagine boroughs wouldn't want it though as they'd have to put resources in checking compliance - no doubt they have plenty to do with the HMOs, social housing, student halls etc.

So 31 who don't then? 94%?

@Onandupw that's interesting. Can local rules like that be compulsory without national legislation? Presumably the info comes from council tax? Bit of a headache for landlords who do have multiple properties if areas all introduce different schemes.

This thread is really interesting - so many factors pushing towards an increase in landlord size.

Absolute pain in the neck. About £650 for Southwark for a one bed flat. And frankly as a landlord I have not felt any more supervised than before. I suspect it is more revenue raising than effective scrutiny.

I have another property in a traditionally soft hmo area and that licencing regime is more policed which I welcome (eg check fire safety etc)

When I was renting, the people I had the biggest problem with were always the estate agents.

The best thing about buying is that once bought, you never have to see the estate agent again!

How would not making a profit from rental payments work in practice?

Let’s say landlord sets rent at £x a month.

6 months later the boiler has to be replaced. Rent goes up for the next y months to pay for it? Landlord makes a loss?

Who are you to say LLs should not make profit from rental payments?

For most small time LLs it is not a passive investment taking up time and care to meet rules and do repairs. Any LL would want to make a profit to compensate their time, plus to offset the large risks of damaged property and void periods.

LLs can't be expected to take these risks for nothing, or they just won't do it. With the government not providing enough housing, there has already been around a 48% reduction in rental properties. Not great if one doesn't want, or can't afford, a mortgage.

Don’t, worry…. Re-read your post and can see you think the landlord should take the hit.

If it were me looking to invest, I’d rather buy the house and leave it empty. Less risk.

Not much of an investment if you are paying a mortgage but not receiving any rent because it is empty.

And that should be made illegal. Horrifically unethical to hoard buildings.

Exactly.

Ouch re £650!

Regarding buying property to leave it empty or mostly empty, there's no need to discuss that in the abstract. There's plenty of that already going on in London and (if a documentary I saw a year or two back was accurate), Manchester.

Dealing with people is a hassle! (my tenant is super though).

Not in Scotland they don’t. Because the law was changed and landlords can only evict in limited circumstances. The government in the rest of the UK is perfectly able to increase tenant security through changes to the law, if they wished.

Actually, the reality is they can’t access social housing as the previous tenants bought their council homes. Again, it’s government policy that has caused this problem.

Depends when you mortgaged - some rates are incredibly low and it’s entirely feasible the mortgage and council tax would be less than expenses and tax when renting out.

Legal changes/laws are useless if they're not enforced though, aren't they? There was an example upthread of a tenant trying to get a landlord to deal with mould. The landlord preferred to paint over and re-rent. You can't "strike a landlord off".

Because the current laws amount to guidance, only the responsible people comply anyway I guess, which does nothing to tackle dodgy landlords.

As a point of fact, during Covid the law on evictions for England (not sure re Wales) was temporarily suspended. There are landlords now who've been in legal limbo for several years, owed thousands and thousands in arrears.

I think also the pressures on housing are very different in SE England to Scotland (except Edinburgh). No council is going to want to worsen their housing problems if it can be avoided - a reduction in rental stock of any kind for any reason would do that.

They are introducing legislation in England now. Interestingly, private landlords tried to argue against it though because it may apparently cause landlords to leave the sector, which could reduce access to housing and exacerbate the housing crisis..

I looked at those landlord tenant mortgages mentioned upthread. The tenant still needs a deposit of 5%. So even if the landlord does 10%, for a 2 bed in outer London, the tenant is still going to need to find maybe 20 grand to purchase the property they live in. Not really a solution as if they had those kind of funds, presumably they'd have bought in the first place.

So, landlords shouldn’t make monthly profit, should be prepared to lose when there are non monthly expenses (which happens many/most months) and should only make profit on the house price once it sells (which will be affected by, for example, changes in capital gains tax)

Have I got that right?