To think being a tenant is an absolute misery

[nellyelloe]

For reasons I won't go into, we have found ourselves having to rent for 18 months after selling our house. Luckily we are now buying again so this won't be forever.

It has been the most eye opening 18 months of my life, and I feel SO sorry for people that are stuck renting. It has a genuine negative impact on my mental health. The constant reminders that it's not your home, never feeling relaxed as you're terrified of damaging something, the constant rent increases, the inspections. It's a total misery.

Now I do understand there are some awful tenants about who destroy houses, but that's not us. We haven't even put a single picture on the wall, pay our rent early every month and keep the house beautifully.

We have to suffer inspections every 3 months as per the contract. Now I know the landlord has the right to see how the house is being kept but it feels like an absolute invasion of our privacy every time, to have some 19 year old from the estate agents come round and take photos of the house and how we live. Every inspection fills me with weeks of dread even though I know the house is spotless and exactly as we moved into it. I stupidly didn't even think about it but we got our daughter a hamster and during the last inspection were really told off for it and told they would need to seek the landlord's permission as we had broken the no pets rule. After being a home owner for 20 years, it stupidly didn't cross my mind. Luckily we got the landlord's permission and a clause in the contract to keep Nibbles 🙄 I was made to feel like an absolute criminal for it, like I was storing a body in the loft. It is awful that people are made to feel like this over a pet, something that brings families and children so much joy.

The hinge fell off the integral dishwasher as it was old and dodgy. The 19 year old estate agent came round again to see if it was our fault or if it was due to reasonable wear and tear.....it was reasonable wear and tear as the dishwasher is 10 years old but again, made to feel like some careless idiot for a faulty hinge.

We have an app where we go on and pay the (£1700😬) rent and it has a lovely countdown on it saying when our contract ends...it's really unnerving seeing it and knowing they could kick us out at this point and we would have no right to stay, even if our house purchase doesn't complete in time.
Every 6 months, the rent has gone up £100. We are totally overpaying compared to other properties but again, we can like it or lump it. We are paying £300 more a month than we did 18 months ago. Our salaries have not increased. The mortgage on our house we are buying will be half our rent.

Renting is a constant reminder that it's not your home, that you need permission to breathe and you have people round to check up on you like a child has their parent check their room is tidy.

I honestly find it hellish. The housing system in this country is fucked. The renters reform act is now abandoned. I'm so glad I will be out of this soon but genuinely so sad for others who are in it for the long haul.

I have rented for years and could not afford to buy the house I live in. Rent has increased by only just over 10% in over a decade and I have pets and redecorate regularly. And when something needs fixing, it's not my problem.

As for inspections, I don't understand what the issue is. No one is judging how clean or tidy your house is, just that there is no damage, and they take only a few minutes. Whether the agent lives with his parents or not he is capable of seeing if any damage has been caused.

I’ve been a landlord for 15 years and I never do inspections. I recently went into a property to fix something (tenant of 10 years - I’ve only put their rent up twice) and it was seriously untidy, but I figure that’s the tenants issue. My properties are better looked after than my home as I do repairs straight away though getting tradespeople can be a pain.

I’m quite happy for tenants to redecorate though I was less than thrilled by the one who painted around furniture and left it like that when they moved out.

surely you can only put up rent once a year??

in places like Spain tenants have to pay for a lot of their own repairs plus replace appliances themselves - my friend just had to pay for a new boiler. So, it’s not brilliant in a lot of places sadly, not just the UK.

In many parts of the country there are so many more renters than homes to rent that you take the shitty letting agent terms as written or you sleep in your car.

Yes, exactly this. We didn't have any choice.

Unless it's a mutant hamster it's hardly going to wreck the house? People should be able to make reasonable decisions about their life without rubbing it past a landlord.

I assume the 19 year old part comes from having a teenager (barely an adult) inspect how they are living their lives as adults.

I SO relate to this!

Yes it was awful. We escaped the rent trap now but over 12 years of hell. Our first attempt to buy a flat a landlord bought it instead of us (unbeknown to us estate agent was dishonest and at point of exchange told us it been sold the night before...we did report them but got no where). I hope to never rent again but it feels me with fear. The stories I could tell you. Saying that we had one amazing landlord and I will always be grateful to him. I wrote and thanked him. We were buying and it was taking longer and he agreed to go monthly until we exchanged. Such a nice man. We always paid on time and left our the places spotless and got full deposit back each time.

Me too! Hated that feeling. Also ea could come in any time. I know they meant to give 24 hours notice but we found one once in looking in my underwear drawer. Again reported...a well known London ea but nothing done.

Well that's a big difference isn't it, in England you are still responsible for council tax, you aren't responsible for maintenance but for many many people actually getting the LL to do anything is like pulling hen's teeth, and many will block you from pets, pictures, etc because there is an expectation that you don't treat it like your home. The OP's letting agent has a constant reminder of the countdown until the end of the tenancy for exactly this reason, and the same reason certain types of people like to talk about "rented accomodation" rather than "rented home". We've regressed to a form of feudalism.

To be honest OP it sounds like you signed up to a really crap contract OP. What you describe is not the norm.

Well peoples definition of 'reasonable decision' varies considerably. That small cute French bulldog is fine until the owner leaves it at home all day and it gets bored and distressed so starts barking and chewing on furniture. Those couple of gerbils are fine until the owners stop cleaning out the hutch and the place stinks of piss. Etc. Having worked in the property industry I can with confidence say that for every crap unscrupulous landlord there is a crap dishonet tennent. I tried to avoid both as they are both nightmares.

They are not inspecting how they are living their lives! I usually went out when I had flat inspections, but on the odd occasion I was there they were literally in and out in a few minutes. They walked to the doorway of each room, took a photo, had a look out the windows, and that was it.

Yeah - you got one of those hands-off awful landlords - I've not had one like that, but I've heard of them.

My old house that I rent out, I'm fine with pets, as long as inspections are satisfactory they space out further, I don't normally increase the rent on sitting tenants, although I have had to for this one as she wasn't keeping on top of the garden at all, and filling it with junk, and we'd had complaints, so I put it up 50 quid so I could get a gardening service in to keep it under control.

I have friends who've rented in various European countries - they've had tenancy agreements passed down from parents who rented, or have been able to do things like install fitted bookcases or remove internal walls(!!) Not exactly comparable!

Home ownership is only about 50% in Germany, and the rental laws reflect that many people will be lifelong renters but still want security. England's laws and standards have to shift to reflect falling home ownership.

It’s certainly opened your eyes to the reality of the situation a lot of families are in. We need more social housing

I get it OP. We rent, the house was like a squat when we moved in but we didn't have a choice but to accept it as it was. So many people are going after every single house it took us a really long time to get accepted for somewhere. The house is a state, we've cleaned it and done what we can but the bathroom needs replacing, as does the kitchen, we have mice in the attic, the roof has a leak, all of the doors and windows need replacing. It's dire. but with rent increases we can't afford to move, as expensive as ours is, it's below market value now so we're priced out. We don't have inspections but we also don't get things repaired etc but also if we did he'd only put the rent up more any way. I think the ll will weasel out of giving us our deposit back as we changed the carpet which was disgusting even after I hired a cleaner for it. We're nearly in a position to buy now and I can't wait. I'm sick of this and it's been the same everywhere I've ever lived. I really envy people with decent landlords that repair things, don't put the rent up etc.

Even if you do have a landlord that's ok it's still shit in my experience.

It's not secure, it's not necessarily long term. You often feel like you can't settle into a place and feel like it's not really your home.

After a lot of instability it took years to find a place that actually was a long term prospect where the rent stayed affordable.

My friend has had to move (with her kids) three times in three years because of landlords either needing the house back or claiming to be selling it (which was actually bullshit).

I rented from ages 18-37 when I bought my first house.

I think I must have been very lucky because I had a series of landlords that encouraged me to think of the properties as my home, were always reasonable in my interactions with them and none of which ended the tenancy - it was always me giving notice for life reasons. In the case of two landlords, I am friendly with them today - enough to keep sending Xmas cards and stop by for coffee if I am in the area.

Even the final landlord, who I never really knew (all via agency) and who tried to unfairly stiff me for some of my deposit when I left, wasn't such a big deal - but I was only there six months, so that might be why.

But I last rented 7 years ago and see the news now and am so grateful I was able to buy my home. It looks like a bloody nightmare these days. Even 7 years ago there were starting to be queues to view popular properties but nothing like it seems to be now.

In fact, my mum lives with me because she could never buy a house now and I really do not want her dealing with renting in this climate at her age. Better she has a safe home here with me.

I think it is a misery, with no/very limited security, but that everyone knows that, and goes into it with their eyes wide open. You are complaining about something we all knew.

My friend has had to move (with her kids) three times in three years because of landlords either needing the house back or claiming to be selling it (which was actually bullshit)

If the LL
said he was selling and then doesn’t, the tenant does have rights.

It is so easy to ‘blame’ LLs. Any anger should be directed at the Gov. who doesn’t have enough affordable housing or simply enough housing. It is not the responsibility of people to solve this issue.

There is c a huge difference between LLs - there are corporate ones and ones who have one property.
Soneone mentioned that tenants should have pets. When I lived in an apt (and owned it), the apt complex rules said no pets. It did not matter whether I was renting or owned it. I abided by the rules, why shouldn’t tenants?

Completely agree.
you can’t settle your children anywhere as you might be priced out. You worry everytime they play a vaguely messy game, no arts and crafts in the house.
you are never truly part of the community as, again, you’ll get priced out and have to move on.
i feel embarrassed about my house as you can’t make it your own so do live a little bit like a student, as curtains etc are so expensive, when in the cycle do you risk replacing?
Thats before we get onto pets and their value vs landlords dislike.
I could write a book on this.

this thread is timely as I've just had my rent go up £125 a month even though it’s mortgage free. We’ve spent nearly £300,000 in rent, it’s scary.

Just to clarify I don’t blame landlords there’s good and bad - like tenants.
however.

for landlords it’s a business. For tenants it’s home.
they are not compatible

I once had a landlord rummage through my underwear drawer and comment that it was messy! The same bastard insisted on a professional clean before an inspection every three months. Naturally the clean had to be done by his mate's company at an inflated price.
He also fixed a broken waste disposal unit...by taking the u bend out of the kitchen sink, so all washing up had to be done in the bath.

Landlords, generally speaking, are awful.

There are some good ones though. Unfortunately you don't seem to have one of them, which is shit.

I do agree with this though.

Do you ask how old your children's teachers are before you'll let them tell you about a problem with your child? Does anyone who is doing their job and is in any way shifting the hierarchical structure a bit have to be older than you for you to accept them?