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

You just said that your tenants are not paying those bills but if you set the rent high enough to cover those bills they effectively are. It's not like a pension if you are not the one making the payments.

It's not like a pension if you are not the one making the payments

Well, it is - but a free one, bankrolled by new immigrants.

It's a fair comment I'll give you that.
Where do you suggest my tenants live?

I think they should be living in social housing @Itloggedmeoutagain and they would have been once. I don’t blame you for taking a perfectly legal business opportunity and I respect you for acknowledging that the points made to you are fair. The whole btl thing just leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

”No, someone purchased a service. That's what a rental agreement is. The purchase of a service.”

I agree with this but equally, the landlords on here who act like they’re doing some excellent deed by renting to a single parent or older couple need to be taken down a peg or two. I don’t expect landlords - be they ‘accidental’ or corporate - to provide a charitable service. It’s a business transaction. Therefore, they should not act as if they’re doing their tenants a favour.

The posters who think ordinary people could magically purchase a home if they were fewer landlords are seriously misguided. There are so many barriers to property purchase and BTL landlords and similar are only one barrier. Many average earners in London and the south east wouldn’t be able to afford property even if the price significantly reduced. Fuel and food and other utilities are going through the roof. They could perhaps sit in their property in the dark and cold?! There are far more barriers to secure housing than landlords. And no, I’m not a landlord nor have I ever been one. I’ve been a tenant.

It’s not a race to the bottom is it really ? If you have luck in whatever form it is I am happy for you not trying to make your life worse

Not at all. I’ve lent them the deposit free of charge, allowed them to use my great credit history for nothing, arranged for and paid the fees and tax on the purchase on their behalf and keep it in good repair for them at no charge. For nothing. Because they are only paying the mortgage, right?!

You don’t go into Tesco’s and rant that they should give you food for free, as we all have to eat and it’s immoral they have more than one person needs. Or claim that you are paying the hire on their lorries so they should be yours to drive off? Yet Mr Tesco and his shareholders are generating fat profits off from the food you are forced into buying.

Also, buy to let let mortgages by investors are usually interest only. So even if the tenant pays the same amount of money each month as ‘the mortgage’ is, they are not in any way ‘paying the mortgage off’. They are paying the fee to borrow the money (while getting the benefit of the deposit, the financial fees, the landlord’s credit rating and the actual property itself. If they were in able to get the mortgage, they could buy the house, couldn’t they? Especially as residential mortgages are cheaper than commercial ones. If there is SO MUCH PROFIT in it, people wouldn’t need to rent. They could just buy and not line the landlords pocket. If tenants can’t do that, the landlord IS adding value to the mortgage, somehow, and the tenants are paying for something else. They must be. Landlords can only profit at all if they can provide something tenants can’t get directly.

Usually the landlord is providing the deposit. So if you are going to so ludicrously state the tenants are paying it ‘for’ the landlord, you have to also allow that the landlord is graciously providing the tenants their deposit. It’s a really silly way of looking at it, anyway, but it’s deeply innacurate unless you acknowledge the deposit and fees as well, even without considering repairs. It might be better to view landlords as providing a 100% mortgage top up. Or even a ‘house subscription’, like those cars you pay a monthly fee for and nothing else. (Actually, that’s a much better analogy. I imagine its much cheaper the buy the car yourself, no?!)

I don't think I'm doing my tenant a favour (although I am charging under market rent). She's not doing me a favour either. She needs a house. I have a house. She'd be renting privately from someone else if it wasn't me. Probably paying more, and living in fear of not finding another landlady who actively likes cats (we had enormous trouble finding somewhere we could bring pets many years ago when we moved here - and there was plenty of accommodation available then).

So many accidental landlords who’ve accidentally acquired a spare house in addition to their own, accidentally brought it up to rentable standards, accidentally acquired letting agents or accidentally taken on management themselves, accidentally advertised for and secured tenants, accidentally issued contracts, accidentally maintained regulatory certificates. You must all be terribly unlucky to have such things just befall you.

Nothing unlucky about me. I bought a tiny flat (less than 450 sq ft) in the dip, moved into it and painted it myself, paid a mortgage at 6% and worked my ass off to overpay. 65 hours a week - met the ball and chain through work, he said it was too small, I wasn’t prepared to lose my flat when I moved in with him in case of red flags and now I let it out. It would be anti feminist to sell it and buy with him. He owns his place and I own mine. And if he ever fucks me off, I’ll move back. I can take 2 months in a hotel. I’ve got a passive income as well as my job dontcha know. And I’m not in the slightest bit ashamed either. Anyone can do what I did. No a levels, 4 GCSEs at a mediocre level and no money growing up.

slag me off all you want for being an “accidental” landlord. I’m fucking delighted with myself.

It would be anti feminist to sell it and buy with him

It wouldn’t be the smartest move from a self preservation point of view. But anti feminist? Come on! 😂

I’m no mug to shore up another man’s finances. If we buy together it won’t be anything to do with selling my refuge. That’s my flat, I worked my bollocks off for it. He can’t have it and he can’t benefit from it. Feminism is about choices and that’s my choice.

Isn't one of feminism's original issues that women didn't own property?

From what I see here and around me, women lose out big time when entering a relationship/marriage and have kids. IMO it's essential to hold onto your financial independence and think @MnPrem has done the right thing.

It doesn't sit well with those who hate landlords but we can't pander to those who don't like what we're doing and how we want to structure our finances.

Ah, landlording because feminism, I see.

I’m a landlord for save the whales and hedgehog preservation, then.

Good for you, sounds like a noble cause.

I'm not an accidental landlord. I chose to do it. When I arranged the BTL mortgage, it was on my own earnings and they didn't ask me anything about DH or his earnings.

I did think that was progress actually. It's only in my lifetime that women have been able to get mortgages in their own right at all and when I bought with DH, they "accidentally" left me off the mortgage paperwork .

The whole of the town centre where I live is a conservation area, but most of the properties aren't listed. My friend has rented out her Victorian cottage, because she's moved in with her elderly mother to care for her.

She's having a right palaver with this. She's been told that the listed building exemption doesn't apply (understandably), and when she spoke to the council's conservation area planning person, she was told that she can have double glazing, but it has to be special heritage double glazing, that is still sash windows, and wooden frames, but double glazed.

When she looked into it, these windows are deeper than the existing frame, so the whole window recess will have to be rebuilt in wood. The quote she got was at least £5k for each window! My house is bigger and has loads more windows, and I got all of them, plus doors, replaced for the price of 2 of her windows. My BIL is a builder who does lots of renovations and he thought that was pretty reasonable.

She's going to move back in, and her mum will get paid carers in during the week. And she won't have to pay, because she's on pension credit.

Builder BIL is already doing LL refurbs to the new standards. In older houses, he insulates the walls with this stuff called a thermal blanket. It's pretty thin, and then he puts plasterboard with some sort of foil backing over the top. It only adds about 200mm to the thickness of the walls but meets the standard, apparently.

You don't appear to have much of an idea about the housing crisis then.

And for all the people knocking landlords, my tenant kept getting kicked out of jobs, through his own fault, drinking. So I had to cover the mortgage, as well as my own housing costs, and I could not legally get him out for 6 months. This all in the year my daughter had her first child, and I was saving up to get married, yay! Not every landlord is a greedy, multiple home owning billionaire. There was no Govt help for me at all, and my tenant swanned into a social housing tenancy.

It's even harder having four 😂

Wtf?? Invest your money but then give it away to a total stranger at a time when cost of living is going through the roof and you’re losing your income from the rent which you may be dependent on, being a landlord does not mean fat cat multi millionaire it’s ridiculous how people don’t understand that.

The housing crisis is caused by a lack of homes to rent or buy. Landlords selling their homes isn't going to reduce the number of properties.

Why should a landlord who has struggled to pay full purchase price, plus additional second property purchase taxes, plus hours of unpaid work to maintain the property, be asked to sell a home for below market price? Would you expect that level of generosity from a person who has inherited properties? I have taken financial risks and worked extremely hard to have a rental property, it makes a lovely home for a family that needs it at an affordable rent (no increase in 4 years). I have no chance of any inheritance. To suggest I should sell my property at a discount to advantage someone else, plus I'd have to pay tax on the modest profits after costs and mortgages... Seems like I'd have done it all for nothing, and still leave my own kids hardly anything. I don't see that as very fair, certainly no win for me!

I think the idea is deprivation of assets - if you deliberately minimise your assets, when seeking help with care home costs for example, you could be in trouble. Your also liable for capital gains tax on any profit, so deliberately selling below market value could look like tax evasion.

Except that many landlords already own their properties and don't have mortgages on them.

Maybe BTL mortgages should be banned. Not sure how the mortgage industry works and if that would be possible. Does the mortgage company always have to know who is living in the property?