To think renting shouldn't be this effing difficult?!

[mrsmmrsimrsssimrs]

Never known anything like it is right now (we're in London). Used to be, you'd register with a load of agents, properties came up, you'd get viewings then deliberate a bit over which was best until you found the place that best suited your needs. Obviously you wouldn't always get it, or at least first time, but you'd find something in a month or so after one or two unsuccessful offers.

Now - 40 people trying to view each property, offers have to be in within literally hours or you miss it, properties snapped up sometimes before you can even view them. Viewings seem to be like gold dust. Some properties the agents seem barely bothered about getting access to so they just sit there while you call them daily trying to get in. Agents are rude, dismissive (not all, but significantly more than I remember in the past). Hardly any properties becoming available in the first place then a mad rush to try and see anything that does come up. Passive aggressive comments about how flexible we can or can't be, despite basically no flexibility from the agents themselves.

How is anyone meant to find somewhere to live in these circumstances?! We've been looking for well over a month now and are no closer to finding somewhere than when we started. Eviction in 2 months and we can't just keep our whole lives on hold while we try to find places - it's taking up significant amounts of our working days and as we're both in retail we're not going to be able to do that much longer as it's obviously going to get somewhat busy between now and Christmas.

I've never felt more like cattle in my life.

Its not just London, this is the same experience everywhere. We moved July 2021 and we had to cast our search area to around 50 miles just to find somewhere in our budget with our needs. We applied for 45 houses, only got to view 6 properties and was accepted for 1. Luckily we were able to do that due to our jobs but throw in some extra complications like a pet or accessibilities and it gets 100 times harder to find somewhere to live.

Renting is truly grim at the minute.

Have you not heard about the thousands of students without accommodation in Scotland because of a crisis in the rented sector?

I haven't heard of this

Been so stuck in the stress of it all I hadn't really clocked there were wider issues!

Should have Googled before posting...

What's the underlying cause of all this? I have a friend in London who has just agreed to rent a terrible flat for about £1400 pcm, and she considers this a bargain. Its appalling.

It's the same everywhere.
My parents rent out some properties. One of the tenants fucked them right over, chose not to pay rent since before last xmas, they did it all properly and she was finally evicted in August. The whole process including applying to the courts, bailiffs, unpaid rent cost them in the region of £5k. They were left with a house that was trashed. The shed was full of rubbish so there was a rat infestation. They won't see a penny of that money (I'd have a bit of sympathy if she genuinely couldn't pay but her social media tells a completely different story). There have been endless letters from debt collection agencies since she left for unpaid parking finance, her car, catalogues. You name it. She also owes £1500 for her gas and electric despite it being on a prepayment metre.
The first few days of her being out they were having random people turn up saying the local council had told them to go round as they knew the property was going to be up for rent soon! The only reason the council knew was because they'd called before the eviction asking if they would let the tenant stay a bit longer whilst they tried to find her emergency housing!
Anyway they're selling up. People on here say tenants are treated poorly. Legally it's the tenants that have all the rights. From the moment a tenant chooses not to pay any rent it should not take 8 months for them to be legally evicted. And it's these sort of reasons as to why there is a rental crisis. I can't see it getting any better anytime soon.

From what I have heard in Scotland it's a combination of factors. Increased demand for student accommodation after 2 years of "online learning". The Scottish government have also put lots of legislation in place to increase tenants' rights, but what this means is that it is far harder to get dodgy tenants out and private landlords are selling. Or, they aren't selling, but want to rent to someone who is going to be there 9 years rather than 9 months.

This is a massive problem at the moment - Glasgow Uni students are being advised to take a year out if they can't find accommodation. A friend's daughter who has just started on a MSc at Glasgow is commuting each day from her aunt's in Edinburgh.

Other cities around the UK probably experiencing similar.

Estate agents here have told us landlords are selling (ours is) or moving back to their properties

We moved last summer for work, and like others had to put in a 30 mile radius. We ended up in a bidding war, and had to put down 12 months up front to secure this lease. We were literally going on waiting lists and submitting formal applications just to be allowed to view properties. It was horrendous! We rent from a rural estate now. They have put our rent up by £100 pm, but it’s secure and there’s just zero other properties on the market so we are stuck!

Yup, selling because renting isn't worth it for them any more. So shrinking supply and the same/increasing demand - recipe for disaster.

From my experience renting in Belfast, estate agents are horrible individuals - especially the kids they put in responsibility for rental properties.

So dismissive and rude! We tried to rent properties over a one month period and the amount of times we had to apply giving all but my pin number to them for them not to even bother answering as to whether we were accepted or not!

As buyers, more respect, but only because they see commission. I would never date an estate agent, that's for sure!

I know it is difficult around here - a lot of properties are owned by landlords who are gradually selling off their portfolios. They keep the ones with good long term tenants, and sell the ones with problematic tenants, so the number of properties for rent gradually declines.

On paper it is fine because lots of new blocks are going up, with a percentage specifically for rent, but these are hugely expensive and not really suitable for families.

@BamBamBilla and @Thefailinghousewife your experiences sound horrific!!

We can't realistically search beyond a mile or two radius due to work and school - plus how can you possibly view properties that far away?!

@AlongCameBetsy £1400 would indeed be a bargain, and we currently pay hundreds less than this

Being a landlord is far less attractive than it used to be, meaning there are fewer rental properties. Fewer properties mean more competition to get them and higher prices.

In an ideal world, the government would invest heavily in affordable housing but that's never going to happen.

Tell me about it! It’s hard enough getting agents to answer the bloody phone! I went to talk to them face to face and saw them ignore phone calls and they just shrugged and said you’ll get more response from us in person 🙄
we’ve currently paid a holding fee and are awaiting a contract/to pay deposit but the agency seem reluctant to give updates, it makes me so nervous! We have to move in a month and it took us ages to find this place 😭

How long were you looking? Hope it all goes through okay!

And yes, not having any joy in person or on phone at the mo

@mrsmmrsimrsssimrs We’ve been looking for around 2 months in greater Manchester, the market has just exploded here and properties will be snapped up just an hour after posting!
Thank you! Good luck in your search!

@Disapointednelly thanks! Fingers crossed for you

This happened to my parents last year - when they managed to view and get an application in (which was an achievement in itself!) They had to fill out pages and pages of very personal info and the "estate agents" never even responded to say yes or no. I remember mum chasing up one of them to be told very breezily that the place was 'gone now'. When she questioned why they weren't kept informed, the woman turned rude and said they can't keep on top of calling everybody...

The agent showing ds and his g/f round a flat, said that there was a lot of interest and it would probably go for over the rent asked. Ds about to start a new job in area, so fairly urgent for them to get somewhere, so they did offer over the odds and secured it. I knew that was happening in the house purchase market (another ds and partner finding properties going for 30, 40, 50K over asking price), but didn’t realise it was a thing for rentals too.

If it's bad now the proposed EPC changes are going to make it infinitely worse. My lovely flat missed out on band C by a few points. If that isn't good enough without thousands spent we just will sell it. Much of the housing stock round here is Victorian and will, I suspect, struggle to meet band C

Yes, landlords are selling because letting properties out is really not worth it these days and because of mortgages going up.

I looked into renting my flat as I wanted to relocate but I would have had to pay for a ''landlord licence'' to my local council of £1000 or so which is basically just the Council lining their pockets.

I understand the need to have a gas and electricity in place to make sure the accommodation is safe for the tenant but this additional cost is just ridiculous. Then I was worried that someone might not pay the rent and trash the flat so in the end I did not do it.

I think many people are just thinking that the whole thing is simply no worth it financially.

Blame Theresa May. The decision to tax landlords on their income without allowing them to deduct the cost of doing business (the mortgage cost) was economically illiterate. It’s shrunk the pool of rental properties, and is only going to get worse with interest rates skyrocketing.

This was always going to happen when the government announced they were ending S. 21 evictions. It was already pretty unappealing with EPC and tax legislation.

I've never used an estate agent, always used myspareroom.com and found places via that in London. Outside London far easier with private landlords advertising in papers.