To NOT leave rented house when I said I would?

[WaitingForLifeToGetEasier]

Been in current rented house for 9 years. Landlord is a company with 30+ properties.

Tenancy is generally renewed every year as LL puts rent up.

Last year, less than 6 months into our latest year long tenancy agreement, an estate agent contacted me out of the blue saying he'd been instructed to sell the property so I needed to agree to a time for them to value and take photos as well for viewings.

I was shocked as LL has not said anything and it transpired that the letting agent has added a 6 month break clause into the tenancy agreement. There had never been one In previous agreements and I wasn't made aware.

I made it clear i was not going to allow anyone in the property until the end of the agreement and if the landlord wanted to sell, I'd leave at that time.

Tenancy is up in early March. I had expected to get a Section 21 in early January but nothing.

We have been looking but properties are either not available anymore or agent doesn't get back to us so have not found a property yet. Rents seem to have gone up £3-400 a month which is going to be impossible.

Not sure if LL is just expecting us to leave or what but I am not intending to leave in early March and will stay as long as possible - await section 21 etc.

AIBU?

That would be the sensible option.

Good luck finding another rental, doubt many LL will want you as a tenant. Reap what you sow! Might seem a laugh now, but short lived

They won’t want a tenant who paid on time and cared for the house for 9 years??? Why exactly?

I don't get how you didn't see the break clause? Tamhats just silly to be honest and you clear didn't read the contract.

I get you have the right to wait for a section 21 and fair enough but at the same time your delaying the inevitable and it's pretty irresponsible to not have a plan for housing given how much warning you've had. I also think you're original stance of not allowing viewings was a dick move too.

Overall, you're within your rights of course, but you'll still end up in the same mess even with a slight delay due to the s21.

Why would they not?

I get you have the right to wait for a section 21

You do realise that she has to wait for it, or give notice herself, or she remains liable for the rent?

She can't actually just pack up and leave without formal notice, one way or the other, being in place.

I’m really confused do basically LL plans to sell but nothing else has been said

OP need to ask agent rather than randoms on MN what’s going on

If my landlord decided to sell I’d be beside myself. I have zero sympathy for landlords just trying to make a quick bit of cash on the back of a family’s security and sense of home. it’s essentially the rich profiting off of the working class not being able to afford mortgages

I was a private LL for several years and chose to sell because we needed the money ourselves, not because we were “trying to make a quick bit of cash” off our tenants. We also chose to sell because it was becoming increasingly expensive and complex to be a LL, with agents creaming more and more £££ off changes in the process. For example, my agent charges £60 “admin fee” to arrange an inventory inspection / GSC etc which I know involves one email and takes less than two minutes. I’d usually manage everything myself but even still, every year I found more and more “admin” charges being added to my fees.

More than anything however the increasing costs and regulations being imposed on LLs undermines the economic viability of providing rental homes and creates a great deal of uncertainty around where things go in the future… including what might happen when you do choose or need to sell as this thread proves. For many years the emphasis has been on reducing costs for tenants and increasing them for LL, also whilst increasing rights for tenants and decreasing them for LL.

I’m not saying that these measures were not necessary or important, but in any market, uncertainty is the greatest risk and will lead to people selling assets in order to mitigate against it. The rental market is no different and it’s why so many LLs are now selling up.

Unfortunately that means for tenants that there is less supply and prices will go up which essentially means that indirectly, the added security of being a tenant comes at a cost. Sadly no amount of moral arguments will change this.

Reading this thread reminds me why I’m glad we sold. We were excellent LLs with very happy tenants and we were proud of the service we provided them, but at the end of the day the constant demonisation of how people choose to invest their money becomes too much and they will go elsewhere.

I'm sorry but it's not a simple investment it's peoples lives. Anything that could leave people homeless is always going to be more of a responsibility than other kinds of investments. I'm terrified my landlord is going to sell the property because frankly its going to cost well into the thousands to fix it at the moment and so we are living in dire conditions and the landlord hasn't got the money to sort it out. We can't afford to rent anywhere else so if we are evicted we are going to be in a seriously desperate situation but there is rarely any sympathy for the tenants. As you can see on this thread, a lot of people think renters are less than because they can't afford to buy (usually because they are paying extortionate rents). Tenants are demonised as well.

The fact is that there are good and bad on both sides, and sometimes the landlords (and the tenants) deserve to be demonised, unfortunately the bad ones do ruin it for everyone else and leads to even more bad feeling between those who rent and those who were lucky to be able to buy.

I’m sorry to hear you’re in this position, as a “good” LL we always recognised first and foremost that our house was our tenants’ home.

However, if property were not an investment there would be no LLs, there is no obligation or moral duty for anyone to become or remain a LL which means there needs to be an incentive. As that incentive is eroded, so is the likelihood that people will want to become or remain LL which is why you’re seeing people selling off now.

What matters is that the processes involved in being a LL and a tenant are fair although of course “fair” means different things to different people.

First and foremost it’s important that tenants have certainty and a framework in which they have a specified set of rights and know what to expect from the system and from their LL. That’s what this thread is about - are those processes being enacted properly.

Secondly it’s important that LLs also have a framework that reflects their needs. If you tell someone to invest £££ in property but then tell them they’ll never be able to take the money out again, and that they’ll have to subsidise their mortgage if rates go up but rents don’t for example, then they simply won’t buy property because there is no obligation or moral duty to take on those costs on behalf of someone else (a tenant).

If they don’t buy then rental supply drops and your rent goes up. You can’t argue with market forces, no matter how much you dislike LLs.

The system is already (somewhat too) geared towards property being a long term investment through mechanisms such as stamp duty, and of course by interest rate cycles. What’s really needed is a system which incentivises long-term property ownership that means a LL can more confidently ride out the troughs and peaks that come with owning any LT asset. But to achieve that you also need certainty, and the current circumstance s are bringing that certainty into question. In doing so, that gives you a lot of uncertainty as you’ve talked about, but unfortunately you have to look at the system and the framework for solutions to that. There is only so much that a LL can economically do. Wishing you the best of luck and hope you’re able to ride this one out.

*Unfortunately that means for tenants that there is less supply and prices will go up which essentially means that indirectly, the added security of being a tenant comes at a cost. Sadly no amount of moral arguments will change this.

Reading this thread reminds me why I’m glad we sold. We were excellent LLs with very happy tenants and we were proud of the service we provided them, but at the end of the day the constant demonisation of how people choose to invest their money becomes too much and they will go elsewhere.*

Completely agree. While there are some awful landlords, my friends bend over backwards for their tenants, to the point of doing far more maintenance than they do on their own homes so that their tenants are happy.

Ultimately it's the landlord's property and they're free to do as they wish with it. Yes, it's nice if they're respectful of your needs and it's a positive relationship but you know that's the deal when you rent a property.

If your mortgage payments have gone up due to the hike in base rates, and rents have increased accordingly, I can't blame landlords for wanting to charge market rates. My friends made a loss on their rental properties on a yearly basis even before interest rates went up. The property market looks to be going into reverse so people won't be getting capital appreciation for the foreseeable future either.

The new legislation may be well-intended but, as you say, LLs are selling up as it's not worth the hassle. It's already pushing up rents. My son is having to pay £850 per month for one room in a really crappy house in the arse-end of nowhere for his next year at uni.

Interesting article in the Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/02/landlords-forced-quit-market-costs-soar-warns-bank-england/

May be behind a paywall so here's a few paragraphs.

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm over a worsening crisis in the rental market as high taxes and red tape forces landlords to sell up.
In its Monetary Policy Report published on Thursdayy_, the Bank said demand for rental properties has continued to outstrip supply as “the number of landlords choosing to exit the market increased”.
Landlords have blamed a combination of factors, according to conversations held by the Bank, including “tax and regulation, higher maintenance and borrowing costs, and an inability to recoup increased costs in rents”.
Landlords have been demanding record rents to meet soaring costs, but increases are now hitting a ceiling of affordability. Official data shows that rents across all private UK tenancies jumped by 4.2pc year-on-year in December – the highest rate recorded since data set began in 2016.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said tax changes had amplified the blow of higher mortgage costs for buy-to-let ownerss_.
He added: “Landlords have nowhere to go with higher rates. Renters face a supply crisis and the problem is taxation.”
Mr Beadle said that owning a buy-to-let portfolio will become “simply unviable” for many landlords.
He added: “One of my buy-to-let mortgages expires in November. Based on yesterday’s rates, my mortgage rate will increase from 3.86pc to 8.15pc.”
An estimated 365,000 buy-to-let properties will become loss-making by the end of 2023, as high mortgage rates hit landlords on variable rates and those coming to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals, according to Capital Economics.

My tuppenceworth. We are in this mess because people were attracted to btl through policy, tax and rate incentives.

If we don’t want them to exodus en masse (thf creating huge supply issues) then something has to be done to stop them. Specifically - I would suggest reinstating tax relief on mortgage interest payments.

Our property was not BTL, we owned it outright and it still became more hassle than it was worth.

Quite agree
Most People need to rent at some point in their lives, so we need the properties
Landlords are bailing out with good reason
Councils haven’t built council houses since Thatcher started selling them all off
So.
Drop the taxes on the interest on mortgages and stop the sell off.

@Everyonehasavoice good news is the council have started building a few here in Bath! It's start I guess

That is good news!!
Lets hope councils roll this out throughout the country and keep them all as rentals

More social housing is absolutely the answer.

There was a large building project round here over the last few year. Two big HAs built a lot of new properties. It changed the landscape quite a bit.

it combined with a pilot landlord registration project with the council. People signed up and the council checked the properties, agreed the rent was fair, all the certs were in order. They also could confirm to the tenants that the LLs were ones known to them for complaints. LLs could also pay a fee and use the council repairs service so you had 24 hour emergency cover for a really reasonable cost.

The combo made it a renters market and a fair few really shitty LLs sold up.

Have you checked if your home is on th the market? Its possible he changed his .one of even selling with a,sitting tenant

More mortgages should be given to FTB on monthly affordability rather than large deposit. They might have to be longer term but it would allow more people to buy their first property.

This would enable many of the ex-rentals that get sold to go to FTBs.