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.

I sympathise completely. After months of searching, we found our rental in the summer and signed a two year contact.

It was a couple of hundred more than other properties but we are so glad we went for it .

Hope you find something op - it's a total housing nightmare right now. The tories have fucked us all over good and proper.

Thanks to everyone who's commented, obviously not nice hearing of others in the same situation but reassuring in a small way to know we're not alone. It's horrible being on a constant state of alert, trying to rearrange work/kid stuff for viewings, filling in all the paperwork only to be rejected again and again (and they don't even let you know when your offer isn't accepted so sometimes days of anticipation thinking you've found the perfect place only to be shattered by a 'oh, didn't I tell you that one's gone' comment from an agent). And we've only been doing it a month or so! Guess we'll not get our hopes up that this will be over any time soon and hopefully if we don't find somewhere our landlord is decent enough not to start court proceedings for a little while...

How did you get a gas combo boiler fitted for free? Please advise!

@JadeSeahorse they were going to relet but they basically said they can't put themselves through that again. 8 months of stress.The tenant was there for 5 years and there were no rent increases in that time. In fact when covid hit she asked for a short term rent reduction which was agreed on the condition it would be paid back at a later date. That wasn't ever paid back either.
It's a real shame. They have had endless people ask about the property, renting it out again for the full market rate would not have been a problem. It's turned out for the best for them though, they didn't even need to put it on the market to sell - one of the tradesmen that came to price some work up mentioned his daughter would love to purchase this property (FTB), she came round to view and the purchase is going through at the moment. Doesn't help those looking for rentals though - but when you try and explain on here that forcing landlords to sell up will only worsen the rental crisis people just don't get it.
I think 8 months for an eviction is fair enough if the tenants are being forced to leave. Not paying rent (yet still being able to have nice weekends away) should be an automatic eviction after 3 months without court orders etc.

@RIPWalter, my apology for misunderstanding.

What do you mean how? Obviously if landlords can't sell they're likely to carry on renting them out. Any house price drop will encourage cash buyers (i.e. landlords, particularly the large business variety)
indeed, but there is a crisis NOW. House drop will not encourage cash buyers if the still can't make a reasonable profit out if it.

The government has opted to get revenue via tax on rental properties. This has badly misfired!

mummyh2016. I am so pleased your parents have managed to sell so easily and really hope they have managed to recoup their losses via the sale.

I just don't understand why the law isn't tougher on these fraudulent tenants. They just move on and then do the same to another unsuspecting LL.🤬

Then you get the really good, honest tenants who are having horrific experiences trying to find somewhere, like OP.

www.arbedambyth.wales/eng/home.html

This was the scheme that the boiler/solar panels were fitted under. Village wasn't on mains gas, so house has an oil boiler, new had pipe line was installed, and free combi boiler.

Sometimes these schemes will be via the LL other times via tenants (with LL consent). Trawl Google and government websites, and get on mailing lists.

My cousin had the same experience in The NW- just couldn't find anything at all.

She is paying through the nose now but at least she was able to find somewhere to start her graduate job.

Interestingly, a house near me that was on the market for sale a couple of weeks ago, is now on the rental market. It doesn't look like a landlords house. Presumably the seller needs to move and has given up trying to sell for now. I think that we will see a lot more of this until the market picks backup.

In my area you have to basically bid asking rent + £50 a month etc. Estate agents start a bidding war. Utterly ridiculous.

Friends in South West looked for 6 months and were about to be evicted due to landlord selling. They had to move an hour away and children had to move schools. They found out previous tenants were paying £200 a month less.

I'm on a group called landlord and tenant advice on Facebook.

Have a look, you'll see where the problem lies. Greedy landlords

Looking at how many are selling, they will not be a problem much longer... Actually probably are not even now seeing the mayhem...

Good landlords are fed up of being villified and the potential risks are greater than potential benefits.

I'm sorry to hear your parents have had this to deal with, I have a very similar story myself this year. I moved in with my partner and rented my house out to cover the mortgage. I've lost thousands as a result of a terrible tenant, its taken me 9 months to get them evicted. My house is currently empty, I'm using it as a place to work from during the week. I would rather take the financial hit and have the place empty than the stress of renting it out again. I'll probably sell soon just to get rid. I know MN doesn't like landlords but I suspect there are others like me.

We had a tenant do this in covid. With eviction cost, turn around to relet and loss of rent, it cost us 14k.

Sorry to hear that @Mummyoflittledragon that's a lot of money!

I dont think I worded my post well but the type of experiences landlords like me are posting here is a good indication on why the rental market is a nightmare right now. I've been a renter not so long ago aswell and it's stressful. Nobody wins the way the market is right now.

@caringcarer that’s really lovely you chose the ones with the SN child & 2 dogs. They’ll be so grateful.

That's definitely part of the reason in Edinburgh. They're now bringing in rules about it.

OP what part of London are you looking in? I know it's tough everywhere but some areas seem to be tougher than others.

What is your budget and how many rooms do you need?

You don't have to share obviously but maybe people here will have some ideas.

Good luck, I know it's soul-destroying

When’s the EPC C level coming in? Is it definitely happening or still just proposed?

We're in SE, need 2 rooms, budget (grudgingly) up to £1600 but ideally £1400 as universal credit housing benefit is capped at £1349 so anything above that is just taking money from elsewhere eg food/clothes for the kids. Trying hard not to move schools as likelihood is we'd need to move again while DC still in primary, and one has additional needs so keen not to disrupt too much - but obviously accept that may be inevitable at this rate. The stupid thing is once childcare costs reduce we'll probably/hopefully be in a position to afford shared ownership but obviously we can't ask our landlord to hold off selling our flat until that point - at least a year away. (Also no idea if the same issues apply there too...)

Renting is a grim, shitty business. I blame the grim, shitty letting agents and the smug stone faced landlords.

Grim in Walsall
Grim in Worcester
Grim in Peterborough
Not much better in Stoke on Trent.

This has been coming for years. Being a landlord is not worth it. So landlords stop doing it. Why would anyone keep doing something that is stressful and unpleasant when they have other options. And lets be honest here, its the landlords who have other options, not the tenants.

We've just put our property up for rent yesterday. We've advertised it under market rate (because we are able to cover costs on that amount). In less than 24 hrs we have had over 30 people/families interested. The rental market is bouyant in the area, but we're very taken aback by people offering more than the advertised rent, to pay up to 6 months in advance. The demand concerns me, I do wonder if it will increase with the interest rate rises, landlords selling up etc.