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 new laws are ridiculous. No doubt there will be ways around them.

Sadly a long old time. The upfront costs of things are prohibitive and this will put people off. I am currently looking at installing a heating system from scratch and the tech associated with air and ground source heat pumps is not really there yet if you have anything other than a new build property or are willing to extensively alter for the worse a period property. Options like biomass boilers are still about double even with the govt subsidy. The focus should be on improving these technologies rather than forcing people to spend time and energy installing systems that need significant improvemet

@AppleBottomRats round here a lot do have the picture rails and cornice if not it's often a feature of planning permission to reinstate them to get permission for other works. I know some do have the cozyglazing on the inside but it seems to only be in the snug etc as the windows are beautiful.

Luckily it looks like our local planning is sticking to the conservation rules over EPC. Just hope it doesn't result in people being pushed out if they can't be rented out. They would be sold very quickly and to the highest bidder which won't be a struggling first time buyer.

I've agreed to go look at the one DH loves but we are just finishing our current project. I know it has a 50 year restrictive Covent on the land over what we can build in the garden so he saying bye to the pizza oven!

If there are ‘too many landlords’, why are 20 people turning up trying to rent anything that goes on the rental market? Are there a glut of rental properties where you live? Cause there certainly aren’t here in Edinburgh!

Hollow laugh here.

That might work with London house prices but for much of the country with similar old stock, £67K would be close to 50% of the sale price as well as physically impossible for many of them.

Op its hopeless expecting some people to realise that LL are not the enemy.
There are many reasons people CHOOSE to rent.
Gov policy has forced rents up and many thousands to sell rental properties, reducing the supply and forcing rents ever higher.
Fine a few FTBs may be able to buy, but there will always be those who need to rent, and with a shortage of fairly priced, well maintained rental properties available they will have a major issue finding a home.
Not to mention small LL who have always been more amenable to those who don't fit the normal criteria, in recent years l have rented to :
Someone who had bad credit through no fault of their own
Someone with two small elderly dogs
a pregnant woman fleeing domestic abuse with little deposit

NONE of these could have got a rental through a bigger LL, and soon there will only be big companies owning BTLs.
Sadly l have made no profit on my rents since the tax changes introduced by this idiotic Gov, and have just sold up. I have my own mortgage and bills to pay.

I wish people understood that LL are not a charity, but people running an often small and stressful business and paying tax.

You would not expect your corner shop to give away food, or your local M and S to give away clothing, yet somehow many expect LL to not make a profit.

More social housing needs to be built, and retained.Sadly it is now far too expensive to build on the scale required, and to the size of most old council houses.

This is exactly what my EPC assessor said. He said he's already seeing a rating 'drift' in that houses that previously would have been borderline are now being rated on the higher side. He predicted that drift would continue to enable many more houses to be rated C without the need for radical and impractical changes to Victorian houses.

If there are 20 people trying to rent every property it is because there aren't enough properties in Edinburgh or there are but they're being used as holiday lets i.e. too many landlords leasing properties on short term lets.
Unless you are actually building properties you aren't increasing the number of places people can live in by being a landlord. If you stop being a landlord the property won't disappear assuming you aren't going to burn it down.

😂That is quite some mental gymnastics you have got going on there. So now the problem isn't too many landlords as previously alleged, it's now that they are the wrong sort of landlords. As i said previously you can thank the 'tax the landlords' mob for the switchover from ASTs to AirBNB

If you warn them about it now they've got 6 years to save

Demand has caused rents to surge.

Reduce the demand and they have to fall.

Where does the extra demand come from?

I would sell my BTLs in a second if I could, but they are all flats with either cladding or fire safety issues so are not mortgagable or sellable until this is fixed which could take years. So at the moment they are all worth sod all (though they do rent very easily). Not, I'm not feeling sorry for myself either. It is what it is.

I will say that I have quite a few friends in their 50s and 60s who rent and have no desire to own a house (they all used to own houses but don't now), so they are very glad that there are landlords out there.

Where did I say that there isn't a problem with too many landlords and that it is now just that they are the wrong sort? I think there are too many people buying property to make money out of it rather than to live in full stop. Regarding AirBNB, there can be restrictions to prevent "switchover" from ASTs. I think that is happening in Edinburgh and other places.

Demand comes from an expanding population and fracturing of family units. More people living alone than previously. And where I am, airB&B. Expanding student numbers too. In previous years I suppose most 18-21 year olds lived at home and worked until they rented, now with 50% of young people off to university these young people are looking for places to live from age 18 instead.

As I understand it the proposal is ‘ where practical, cost-effective and affordable as defined under section 1(4)’

That is similar to the requirement to make businesses accessible.

you do realise you can be prosecuted for selling a property under market value ?

You really can’t.

I suspect that demand has gone up, but around here there are far fewer places to rent as well.

Anecdotal but when I started renting, I could at least get to view the property as long as I was quick with the request and could do two or three in one night with no-one else waiting. I now can't even get a look in for a tour of the properties as they are often gone the same day as they go up on the system.

Well actually you can if you fail to pay the tax due.

Yeah, because banks are going to be falling all over themselves to lend money to a couple in their '60's with a bad credit history and don't even want a mortgage, aren't they!

how about we add in just a little realism here??

Properties which have been rented out for longer than 18 months are subject to capital gains tax which means that the seller doesn't make a vast profit on them.

@Katypp if I was dictator tomorrow I would remove the RTB and build loads of social housing. I would also bring back protected tenancies. I bet that would be popular!

Building more social housing isnt the answer for a fix all.

I wouldnt qualify for social housing because DH and I work full time, but we cannot afford to pay a deposit.

Thats our issue.

A mortgage is cheaper than rent, even with all the added insurances etc.

So the bank say without a large deposit we cant afford a mortgage, therefore we should continue to pay for someone else's.

I wouldnt qualify for social housing because DH and I work full time,

You would if there was enough of it. Council housing was full of couples like you before RTB.

Absolutely. HMRC want their cut and will do what they can to prevent you selling below the stamp duty threshold.

People were doing this a while back by discounting the house price on paper but then taking cash from the buyer to make up the difference.

@Parsley, I am in a similar situation. I have 8 btl houses. Many tenants have been with me for over 10 years and when 2 tenants got Covid during early pandemic I let them miss rent for a month and dropped them around paracetamol and a few groceries including toilet rolls. I know all MN believe all btl LL are evil but not true. The new EPC are going to be tough for those of us with Victorian terrace houses. I have 2 of these. 1 is thankfully now a C rating as I had Individual radiator thermostats fitted, new windows and doors and upgraded loft lagging and LCD lights. It used to be a D rating. The other will need internal walls as cannot get external walls filled. It is a lowish D rating. I could improve loft lagging and have individual thermostats but it would still be 3 points off a C rating. It is a lovely large 3 old house with 3 large bedrooms. A family have lived there for 7 years and youngest dd was born there. Both dd have own room. They have begged me not to sell it as they know another similar house would be £240 pcm higher. I am hanging on in case government decide a D rating is good enough but if they insist on a C I can't afford £23k for upgrades to get it the extra 3 points to be a C, so will have to sell. At the moment EPC of F is acceptable. Government need to move in stages, so to an E or D as an interim step to take LL with them. If they don't so many families will lose their homes. Luckily my other houses are more modern and I have now upgraded all the others that were a D grade to a C grade. It does not make sense as privately owned houses van remain at an F grade so it does seem just LL singled out. I have decided to sell 2 of my houses at point of changes in EPC. The 1 needing upgrading and then the first one that current tenants leave.