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.

plenty of people have no choice
we cant all be home owners.

You should perhaps mention you're only talking about private tenancy. Secure council tenancy is none of the things you list. Secure, no inspections, always referred to as MY property by the landlord, repairs are not charged unless not covered and no ridiculous rent increases among many other positives. I feel sorry for private tenants.

Agreed. We've finally bought our first property after years of renting and even though it needs so much work and we're uncovering more problems everyday, at least it's bloody ours!

We got kicked out of one rental with a 1 month as the LL wanted to sell up. Very stressful!

Absolutely this. I would be happy to see all renting be under LA control and no private or corporate landlords.

They can find another way to build their pension pot.

Every 3 months is extreme- it used to be 6 monthly or annual where I rented! And if you’ve shown yourself to be a trustworthy tenant I believe they should reduce this to once every 2 years or something. It’s incredibly invasive I understand. Also the threat of them selling looms and the rent increases. I get the anxiety. Literally the only good things about renting are that you don’t have to deal with repairs yourself & that if you don’t like the area anymore it’s not permanent.

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

It’s not a business for all LLs. For some, renting out a property is nothing but a massive headache but due to a variety of reasons, they are not in a position to sell the property on.

This.

Having your lifestyle (potentially with big consequences) judged by someone with little life experience and likely little training.

Again blaming LLs is so simplistic. If all private all’s sold up, the availability of property dries up even more. What do you think would happen then? Or maybe you think the LA should buy all the properties for sale and rent out at lower rates? Why do you think they aren’t already on RightMove buying all the For Sale properties already?

But that's the problem. Some agents - especially inexperienced ones - make a huge fuss about tidiness and things that don't affect the condition of the property at all. They also go around photographing everything, which feels very intrusive.

And under this proposal where are all these properties that the local authority will manage come from?

3 months is awful, mine does it every 7 years!

That said I find it's the agency that's worse than the landlord.
My landlord gave my agency a very long list of repairs and they found the cheapest guy and bodged it all. There was holes in the outside wall letting water in so the guy used expanding foam to fill it rather than mortar that the landlord expected.
Two kitchen cabinets had gone mouldy from the water, so they replaced one and not the other...
the gutters needed clearing out, yet he didn't do it properly as it's still overflowing on the back etc
Despite the landlord paying for it.
Yet if I'm a day late replying to my agency (if I haven't seen the message) for say a boiler inspection he starts harassing me on WhatsApp and treating me like a child. 🤦🏻‍♀️
so it's not all landlords, it's the agencies too.

Of course it’s a business. Most of the houses I’ve rented have been inherited, it’s not a business the landlords actively sort out but it’s certainly one they entered when they drew up those contracts.

just reiterate I do not blame the landlords.

Im in the same position as you op. Renting in between buying. I feel exactly the same. Having ND kids in a rental too is like trying to contain a bull in a china shop when it all kicks off. Im constantly reminding them “its not our house, please dont throw that/slam that”. My EA do a six monthly check and will say - are you in or shall i bring a spare set of keys! I dont want some random walking round my rented house alone!

also, in an emergency your hands are tied. When i moved in the pipe under the sink burst, kitchen flooded. It was a friday night after theyd closed 🙄

recently the drains blocked (not my fault im very careful what goes down) and they pointed me to the water company in the first instance. Were talking no flushing toilet, washing machine or showers for over a week! The water company never showed despite me chasing them so i sorted it myself with some rods someone lent me! Absolute Joke

Of course it’s a business

If you mean it’s a transactional agreement, then yes. But a business implies they are running it for profit. I rented out a property for many years. The mortgage covered the rent. I never made a profit. I could not sell the property although I dearly wanted to. The initial tenants were lovely. By the end, the tenants were horrific. I sold at a big loss just to get rid of the property. It was bought by a foreign investor who tripled the rent. I was so negatively impacted by the awful tenant (who owned his own property elsewhere). It certainly was not a business. I was so burned by the experience that I regret trying to be a decent LL for all those years. If I had to do it all over again, I would ask for the ceiling rental amount in the area and all inspections so the tenants wouldn’t feel comfortable enough to take advantage. I expect many of us have had similar experiences.

I personally think the shared ownership idea for those looking to secure a better housing situation is the best idea. Its part bought (least is 25%) and rent the rest. I think the government should promote this more. Theres more stability there and no chance of being evicted, unless you dont keep up with payments

I’ve been renting the same place for years and it’s been fine. No inspections, a few rent increases though. I have a pretty good landlord though. I imagine it’s awful if you have a bad one. What’s worse though is if you aren’t dealing with a landlord direct but an agency, that’s when things become really dire.

They were in England for many years before they left . They still didn’t feel degraded or made to feel like shit.

I would rather that landlords run it as a business. It's the landlords that get attached to the property and get precious about things that are the issue

Trust me, my property was just a property. Not in the least precious. I dreaded any time I received an email or call about it.

Yep. I bought my first home at 21. Have moved regularly to maximise my house buying potential. I’m now in a large beautiful house and it’s nearly paid off. Looking back I have made hundreds of thousands of pounds profit from my homes. I’ve always worked it out that when I’ve sold the profit has meant that I not only lived there for no cost but actually still had a lump sum profit at the end. This doesn’t exist with rent. I rented my home out and I rented for a period in my twenties when I moved area. Hated renting. I had a decent enough experience in the LL didn’t do inspections. Things got fixed. But it was miserable. It’s a waste of money (for me), I got zero return on outgoing. And I felt like it wasn’t mine. All the renters on here saying “it’s their home”. It’s really not and could be removed from you pretty much at will after contracts. Not pleasant. And I appreciate not everyone can buy their own home but it would be a better position if renting was regulated better or home owning was made more accessible.

One thing to say with regard to rent increases is that I insist we do fixed term renewals (providing it's somewhere I want to stay) as they cannot increase the rent in that time as far as I'm aware as it's contracted- whereas if you allow it to go onto rolling agreement with 2 months notice either side, they can just put the rent up at any point , as far as I'm aware (correct me if I'm wrong) A lot of people just forget when their fixed term comes to an end. In the current climate I've been doing 2 year fixed and landlords like us as we are late 50s/early 60s- no kids, no pets, long term rental history of nice places- so always keen on the fact we will do 2 years.We had to actually get out of one for various reasons (our choice) at 7 months in- and the agent didn't make a fuss just said we were contractually obliged to pay till they relet it and we were charged £450 for marketing to relet (worth it to us) - especially as the house we were moving to in a different (and nicer) area was £700 a month less and a better house.

It's a real mish mash of good and not so good agents and landlords- even when paying top dollar. The best we have had in terms of sorting stuff was Savills ( but yes that was high end) - couldn't fault them- not intrusive, sorted stuff within days, fantastic folder of info and appliance instructions and list of numbers to call in emergency's etc. I guess they are used to the corporate and ex pat market- who make a fuss when stuff isn't right.

I don't think the problems the OP has are related to renting per se. It sounds like she is dealing with a hands off landlord and one of the many opportunistic management companies who make their money by charging for frequent inspections, providing excessive supervision of tenants, writing unnecessary warning letters, administering rent increases at the maximum level etc. The landlord doesn't particularly benefit from their zeal, it is just the management company making work for which they can pay themselves.

Is is absolutely shit. Owning a home or a safe place to call home is such a basic human right.

@Icehockeyflowers @TheCadoganArms
The properties are there, just in the wrong hands.

I'm not directly (just) blaming landlords, they're operating within an unethical and unfair system which disadvantages anyone who can't afford to own a property.

The system needs to be completely overhauled and the government and the LAs need to be building/buying housing stock.

Not ideal but probably the best we can hope for.

My dream scenario would be:

I would like an absolute stop to owning a second home at all and renting out property for profit. This includes airbnb and other holiday lets.

No-one, not you, the king, Liz Hurley or anyone else needs more than one home. No-one.

Let's get back to homes being homes and not sitting empty, being let for overinflated prices and blocking ordinary people from being able to live safely and securely in their community without threat of unfair treatment and eviction.

All into state ownership. Property owners can either arrange this voluntarily or their property would be seized. I don't care about landlords, I care about people just trying to get by and I care about fairness and social responsibility.

I know people will bite at this and start frothing but I absolutely don't care.

The problem though is that this overzealous approach happens all the time. And a lot of these things are either legal, poorly enforced, or difficult or stressful to get stopped.

It's the idea that you are at the mercy of agent / landlord that's the problem