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

The problem is not individual landlords. The problem is that the government has done nothing to develop a proper professional private rented market.

People need to stop hating individual landlords and start lobbying politicians, of all parties, who have monumentally failed to develop an effective housing policy across all tenures, private rented, social rented and home ownership.

Given that there are too many people buying properties as an investment rather than somewhere to live and this has probably led to an increase in house prices, I can't see the problem with some landlords selling up.

@Eastangular2000 @Mousemat25 Yes to both points

If you can’t see the problem with landlords selling up, have you tried to find a property to rent recently? It’s chaos.

@Eastangular2000 that's utter bollocks! Local people have been forced out of their homes for decades in tourist hotspots. Industry can't survive if there are no workers.
If you make housing more affordable people would be able to stay in their communities and industry would thrive. Some coastal towns have become ghost towns in the winter months. Many properties not used from year to year.
We don't need more holiday let's down here. We don't need more second homes either. We We don't need more bloody tourists creating chaos. We have fantastic local business and industry that are selling all over the country and all over the world.

What we need is affordable housing for local people and decent landlords!

That's what I mean about ludicrous! There has been talk of trying to bring this in for the sales market too but given the age of UK housing stock I can't see it ever happening. I think closer to the time exemptions are going to be coming thick and fast.

A friend of my mum's has two houses, effectively two parts of a house that were originally the same house. So he lives in one bit and the other half is rented out. It's not very big and has storage heaters. His tenants are happy with it and say it's warm. But the council have been around and said they will prosecute/fine him if he doesn't change the heating. He is 90, by the way. The tenants are happy with the existing heating but they don't get a say, apparently.

I am sure the rules were brought into stop landlords giving tenants a one bar electric fire or some such nonsense. Not to require a working system to be changed when tenants are in situ and don't want the hassle either.

(I know people hate storage heaters but I don't - my mum has them and she is warm all the time in winter as opposed to only being warm when the heating is on with gas. However I don't think you can actually get them anymore).

However, I'm not going to ever feel too sorry for landlords, who have at least one house more than everyone else (excepting those who rent out a house in one location while renting themselves in another - I've done that myself, though only for six months).

You might wish that to be true but it simply isn't. Rightly or wrongly some areas in the UK are reliant on the tourist trade, if you kill that trade then other industries aren't going to suddenly appear overnight to provide the same level of employment and injection of cash.

Perhaps sell it to them at a lower than market value, if you are concerned. If they are still there in 2028 (16 years), they presumably will have pretty much paid for a large proportion of the house anyway.

@Parsley1234

Victorian does not mean that it's automatically listed - I would have thought that most of them aren't.

The reason I ask is that listed buildings have a qualified exemption from needing an EPC. So for example it is unlikely that you would be granted permission to change the windows to double glazing but secondary glazing may be allowed.

This explains it better,

www.mishcon.com/news/do-you-need-an-epc-for-a-listed-building

Not exactly a substandard house! Some of these houses, my own Victorian house, simply can’t achieve the C grade. No way am I building new walls covering up my original features to get a bit more insulation in. I tell you one thing though, while it’s certainly not as energy efficient, it’s built a hell of a lot better than a lot of the new builds they throw up!

I have Secondary glazing in my Victorian listed flat that I rent out. It was converted in 1995 from a school but won’t make the EPC C either despite the relatively recent conversion, roof insulation etc. It can’t be clad on the outside due to the listing and red brick. Not sure if government expect all rooms to lose space and new flooring/skirting etc to insulate the walls. Most people who own won’t be doing this in their own homes either so I don’t see why it should be done in rentals. What tenants require is honest estimate of bills and how much a property really costs with bills to rent. I agree onus should be on landlord to disclose this but landlords would only pass on any Refurb costs into higher rents anyway so really not sure how that would help tenants.

@makeitsonumber1 listed is coming for EPC s
@dianthus101 i will see what happens

Yes, and this is what happens when Government has relied on lots of individual landlords, often renting only one or a small number of properties, to supply the private rented market. It also makes private renting precarious as tenants live under constant potential of landlords deciding to ‘sell up’. This is why we need a proper professional private rented markets, provided by companies, not individuals. In countries with this, private tenants have security of tenure, and so there is less desperation to become home owners to achieve housing security.

there is nothing with being a landlord per se

there are good landlords and bad landlords - good tenants and bad tenants

the problem is the sheer number of private landlords which has created a shortage in affordable, secure rented accommodation. The percentage of home owners has barely changed in the past 40 years (it hovers between 65-70%). The biggest change has been the growth in private rentals and the fall in social rentals (housing associations and councils). When the Tories began selling off social housing they didn't appreciate that most of it would end up being rented out privately and exacerbated the problem by not replacing the properties they sold off. Hence the situation we have today.

@Eastangular2000 nobody is suggesting getting rid of existing holiday let's or second homes. Bringing in a change of use law will allow individual councils to manage the number of let's and second homes and rightly so. New build homes here already come with either a locals only rule or a primary residence rule.

It will not kill the tourist trade. It might give locals a chance.

That was just one example but it just shows how ridiculous. I will get the cavity wall done and that will bring it up to C according to what I can see.
To other posters.....
We're not all evil.
If I have a problem with my own home, unless it's an emergency, it gets sorted when I get round to it. If there's a problem with my rental it gets sorted ASAP because they're paying to live there and they deserve a decent house.
I live near a large hospital with medical staff on temporary contracts who do not want to buy because they will move on. This is a large proportion of the rental properties where I live. The family in my house have recently arrived in the UK and will not qualify for a mortgage even though they have qualifications and jobs. Where do you suggest these people live?
My own home that I live in has more than trebled since I bought it 25 years ago. If I sold it today I would make a massive profit. These people slating landlords, if any of you are home owners will you be selling your home at a reduced rate to help the housing market when the time comes to sell? If you're downsizing after the kids have left will you not be using that money in your retirement?

Your previous post seemed to imply that the changes would be used to reduce the number of holiday lets and second homes by making it more expensive and difficult for owners/landlords, you also seemed to suggest you thought that this was a good thing. Apologies if I misunderstood and you are in fact happy with the existence of holiday lets and second homes, that wasn't the impression your posts gave.

Eastangular ive yet to see a 'tourist hotspot' that isnt aa poverty ridden dump. The only people who really benefit are the business owners.

The area I live has always been a bit of a hidden gem, that sadly was discovered during covid when people were desperate for places to go in the Uk and local government heavily advertised and pushed what our area had to offer. And we're already seeing an impact. Landlords who previously rented out houses at a price that reflected local wages or in some areas housing allowance are now using air bnb as it's more profitable. The cheap, little houses that were starter homes for so many and got low earners on the housing ladder at under 100k are being snapped up as second homes and holiday lets. Us locals are really worried and I wish people were a bit pickier about where they holidayed. I'll only stay in hotels or holiday lodge type parks because when we pay to stay in a ' holiday cottage' we're taking away a home from local people and we're filling the pockets of greedy landlords who don't care about that fact.

@Parsley1234 I'm not sure what you mean?

Quite. The near destruction of social rented housing, has meant much of the population has no choice but to move into the private rented market.

If an individual has the opportunity to move house and rent out their previous home, they can hardly be blamed for taking that opportunity. Most people never have opportunities to build investments. Of course they will take the opportunity to do so in a legal and legitimate way when government policy has created a market for it!

Are we really going to decimate and destroy all our Victorian buildings?
We have potential for the most amazing off shore wind in U.K. and with nuclear to stabilise the grid we would have been absolutely fine if government had just listened to what all the energy experts have been saying for years. It is the failure of government to ramp up renewables and nuclear quickly enough that is the real issue.
Things like cheap loft insulation, insulating windows with film and draught stoppers etc all fine, Led lamps, appliances with good rating and modern boilers but insisting on wall insulation for the vast majority of Victorian properties is not feasible and not econically viable.
Anyway Op, I am not worried that I won’t be able to keep renting out my flat because it would affect most London flats and all the young professionals who contribute massively to the economy would have nowhere to live so I fully expect there to be plenty of exceptions that apply. It just isn’t workable otherwise.

@makeitsonumber1 listed does not need an EPC atm the the assessor told me it’s coming soon

@Eastangular2000 it will make it harder but not impossible.
Council tax rates in wales have been put up massively for second homes. That will hopefully make people think twice about not using them.

For example in a village not far from me there are several cottages that are now in poor state of repair - they are 'second' (or 10th) homes for foreign investors. They have not been used or lived in for years! Why is this ok!
Nobody has a problem with used second homes where people are contributing to the local community. But houses that are not used or used for two weeks per year, when locals cannot afford to live their get peoples backs up!

There has to be a balance. It's not ok for communities to be destroyed by there no longer being sufficient residents to make a community.

It isn't 'subsandard' in the sense you are assuming. It is about installing cavity wall insulation in properties that have solid walls, so it's impossible to do in a very old house with those thick solid walls. Also putting in double glazing when you need to remove original Victorian sash windows which are both beautiful and practical. I think you are thinking people are wanting to rent out slum standard properties which is not what this is about at all.

This policy will yes force many landlords with one property to sell, probably at a reduced rate. It will also mean that rents will go up because there will be a reduced number of rental properties.