To evict my tenants

[Landlordbyaccident]

Name change due to personal info possibly given.

I brought my first home in my 20’s and quickly paid off the mortgage on a 2 up, 2 down terrace in Birmingham. Nothing special and it always needed a new kitchen. I invested very little money in this house as I was so unhappy there.

I brought my current home in 2018 and we are paying a manageable mortgage although other outgoings has become a strain in the current financial climate. We owe around £75k on a house worth around £250 (not sure if this is relevant). My previous house has been rented out to a friends friend for around 2 years before this it remained empty.

They are paying £475 per month, other rentals in the area go for around £800. Some months they pay late or come up short. I know they are struggling. They are from a Caribbean island so I am not sure what benefits they are entitled to to help them.

Anyway my husband would like to ‘evict’ them. Ideally I would like them to increase the rent and remain in the house as they are no trouble and really nice people. I am going to be transparent in saying the house could do with some work being carried out but they never complain as I assume it’s because I am in a position of power and they fear I would evict them if I do.

After writing this I am not sure what I am asking? Would I be heartless in evicting them (goes against my core values) or raising their rent ? Should I just continue with the current contract and seek to cut costs in other areas.

what would you do?

Why do private landlords do it then? Goodness of their cold little hearts? Why?

Yeah. Sure.

Err. So what would happen to the empty homes if buy to let want a thing? Would they be demolished? How would drug lords launder money? Would it be the end of the world as we know it? Would I feel fine?

It’s not that simple. There isn’t enough housing to go around as is. Property investors sold 35,000 more properties than they bought in 2022. Thirty five thousand fewer rental properties available. With on costs and interest rates going up, it is little wonder rents are spiralling. inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/property-and-mortgages/landlords-selling-rental-properties-forcing-rents-higher-2146062

The majority of those 35k properties have gone to owner occupiers, yes. Not all. Some will have gone to investors and are empty. Look at all the plush multimillion apartment complexes in London sitting empty bought within the last decade to know this is happening. Additionally a chunk of new buyers will be adult children leaving home and couples separating and so forth. So where do all the tenants live, who were kicked out of their homes and want a property? Where do the young adults, who want to leave home but can’t afford to buy live? And where do we house the people coming to settle in the country?

Whenever a tenant moves on, I suddenly have several people immediately vying for my property. This is pretty new. The demographic of my tenants has completely changed. I have 3 properties with long term tenants. Two arrived as young couples and stayed, raising children when 20 years ago, the average tenancy was 18 months. Rentals were only as a stop gap for work, to see if couples were compatible or friends renting together for a while before moving on and the market was really fluid. I considered what I was doing to be offering a stop gap service and 4 years to be exceptionally long. Now I find myself having to completely refurb with tenants in situ.

A stoic population is completely snarling up the market. The basics like moving areas in the search of better jobs for example is suddenly a daunting prospect.

It's quite astonishing how people can mistake market manipulation for economic dogma when they're beneficiaries of it's largesse.

Birmingham is a very affordable place to rent it seems. You Can get a 2 bed for less than £800 pcm. Let’s all move there!

Don’t make yourself sound even more idiotic.

Surely that depends where you're moving from and where you work.

😐

My tenant is unable to buy. They simply cannot get a mortgage at all.
They pay around 67% of the rent my agency wants me to charge. I have refused as my tenant works for the NHS and has 2 children, one with severe learning difficulties so they have enough to contend with let alone the increase in energy prices/food etc . I don’t need to increase the rent from the amount they were paying when I bought the property with tenant in situ so I won’t for a very long time.
I am currently replacing two doors and a kitchen appliance because my tenant said they were problem areas to my agency. My tenant is a lovely person and I want to continue this relationship so I will work hard to ensure their home remains their home.

It is not nice to do all this yet still some people want to call me scum.

people like the OP’s tenants will be evicted when she “goes and finds another job” only to find there’s absolutely nothing available they can afford. The house will be swallowed up by someone who can get a mortgage - taking yet another cheap rental off the market.

Can you elaborate further please?

This landlord bashing attitude is not helping anyone. Where are people going to live before they buy their own place? Social landlords are landlord too.

Don't be ridiculous. Lots of people want to rent.

people like the OP’s tenants will be evicted when she “goes and finds another job” only to find there’s absolutely nothing available they can afford. The house will be swallowed up by someone who can get a mortgage - taking yet another cheap rental off the market.

@Justforlaffs but that's going to happen anyway. The OP's financial situation has changed for the worse which happens to us all from time to time.

She has decided that she probably has no alternative but to increase the rent which the current tenants probably cannot afford so she will probably have to evict them and find someone who can.

There might be other options but she has decided they are not feasible and she is perfectly entitled to do that.

What she is not entitled to do is bleat about it as if no one else faces unpalatable economic choices and she is performing a humanitarian act by charging someone for a roof over their head which she admits needs doing up.

We've all had to tighten our belts. I used to buy fresh flowers every week and I don't any more. I dye my hair at home. These are small sacrifices compared to what others have to do and I feel sorry for my florist and hairdresser and slightly guilty when I meet them in the street. But I wouldn't go as far as claiming that I am performing a social service by supporting them and plead for special sympathy. But private landlords do this all the time and other people back them.

To me the answer is obvious - for me it's not to buy the flowers and embrace the greys until such time as I can afford to go back - crossed fingers that they are still there.

For landlords whose business plan is no longer working then just sell the place, pocket the money and let it be someone else's problem.

Exactly this. People seem to think landlord selling in this market would benefit them. High interest rate. Only the very wealthy and corporations can benefit. It is a lose lose situation for most people.

If someone struggled to afford a house in 2021, the same house is more out of reach for them in 2023.

I'm in a similar position with tenants, they've been there 10 years and I haven't increased the rent. The house is fine but if they moved out I'd probably end up spending about £10-12K on new kitchen, bathroom and a paint and new carpets. They are happy there and are good tenants. Also there's no dedicated parking which I think cuts down the interested market.

I think on balance I'll just leave things be till they move as good tenants are worth a lot. The differentials are different though. My tenants are probably paying about £150 a month less than is the morm for a property in a similar state. And if I pimped the place up a bit it would be on the market for about £300 a month more.

So in short, good tenants are worth a lot.

People seem to think landlord selling in this market would benefit them.

@UnicornRidge I don't think that. Sometimes people decide a business decision is not for them any more and withdraw. Sometimes they make a profit and sometimes they cut their losses.

That is capitalism and is reasonable to me. What is unreasonable and unrealistic is people claiming they are performing a public service that will be lost if they don't participate in capitalism. Capitalism is all about observing gaps in the market and capitalising on them.

In capitalism the decision to charge for a commodity or to hold on to it or dispose of it is nothing to do with anyone else but the owner.

I don't understand why more people don't understand this.

@QuitMoaning I would never call you scum but wonder why you persist in a business model that is not working for you.

Why are doing that and is anyone forcing you to?

Bleeding heart landlord threads are the Marie Antoinette of Mumsnet

@limitedperiodonly Why is this business model not working for me? Please explain?
And I don’t understand the comment about someone forcing me to?

Unless you have misunderstood my last sentence:
“It is not nice to do all this yet still some people want to call me scum.“
are you reading it as:
It is not nice to do all this, and on top of this people want to call me scum”
but actually it is
It is not nice that despite the fact I do all this, people want to call me scum.

I have been a tenant and desperate so I feel good about helping someone out who deserves it and I still get a healthy enough income for my pension. A good long term tenant is the best scenario so that is what I am working at. Everyone seems to be getting something out of this in my eyes.

@QuitMoaning you're right, I don't understand you.

All I'm saying is that if someone is running a business and it becomes unprofitable or they tire of it, they should look for other opportunities. Yet I keep reading posts, some on this thread, from private landlords fretting about what will happen if they pull out. I don't know, but they are not obliged to solve the housing crisis and if being a landlord is costing them financially or in terms of their mental health they should definitely get out.

But it isn’t unprofitable for me so I am it sure why you don’t understand me. Please clarify exactly what part of what I am doing that you don’t understand?

I am not solving the housing crisis, I have an investment that I am running ethically.

The old boiler probably means that their heating bills are unreasonably high - it's amazing the difference a modern boiler makes. Is the house proiperly insulated? The old front door suggests probably not. They might be able to pay a higher rent if their energy bills were lower.

@QuitMoaning Unless you’re charging too whack rent and making a fortune people on here don’t get it.

I was called “financially illiterate” on a thread a while back when I said my tenants rent actually fits inside LHA. That I make a profit on that is irrelevant apparently- that I’m not “maximising” means I don’t understand what I’m doing.