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.

@TheCadoganArms I actually totally agree with you - it's a mixed solution that's needed- I very luckily rent a house that social housing wouldn't touch , as it would cost too much to buy . maybe hold off the calling each other clowns though - I save that for X ! I understand why people say such stuff but it really doesn't work - would work for water or electricity though when you don't have an actual choice!!

not being told you can't put a picture up, ability to plan for your children without thinking you might be out in 6 months etc

ok this is very first world problem, mine are teenagers now. We’ve rented their entire life. They’ve never had a bedroom that’s theirs, they’ve never been able to decorate it, put up pictures. Be normal teenagers with their own things.

We’ve just had a rent rise, can’t risk rocking the boat by trying to negotiate it down, one of them is mid exams they don’t need to have that disruption.

Our last landlord put our rent up 40% one year. It was a transition year for one of our children, we couldn’t risk being out of catchment, they’d done settling in days etc, had uniform were ready

I rent and I don’t like it but I don’t experience the problems you have. For starters the guy who does our inspections is retired! He is really nice. Our cat scratched a wall and I did used to be asked a lot if we would fix it but I’d say yes and that would be that. I have fixed it now. The inspections are fine. It’s a good way to remind them of stuff that needs doing and they don’t give me much stress. Sometimes I forget and there’ll be some pots out or something. Doesn’t bother me.

of course it’s a business regardless of profit.
in the 80’s and 90’s houses were rented without profit on monthly mortgage. The capital increase was the profit.

you didn’t have to rent the house, you could have sold it or left it empty. To rent it out was a business decision

i am not saying you were wrong, at all. I’d have done the same. But it was a financial decision.

But why should you have to put up with that? With better tennant protection, you wouldn't have to.

@rwalker really? An almost child age person taking photos of your home and telling you whether they think you’ve destroyed a handle on a dishwasher? You do know 19 is still a teenager with little to no life experience?

We shouldn’t. But in the scheme of things these are first world problems which I think is how they’ve been allowed to fester. The mental health impact on me and my children is huge.

I once had it described as living like your waiting for the earthquake. You know it’s coming, you don’t know when someone else is going to set it off.

I actually did say that a more realistic plan was an overhaul of the rental market and legislation.

I added my fantasy solution making it clear that's exactly what it was.

Yet said19 year old can be trusted to vote, take out financial products, join the army, purchase alcohol and drive car. What is the solution, only people over 50 with sufficient gravitas be allowed to inspect rental properties.

@heretodestroyyou I agree- one big problem is some right scumbags have ruined the trust factor for the rest of us that keep a place decent and don't need constantly checking up on.

It's the same with landlords- there are clearly some very good ones- but overshadowed by those who are happy to let out complete crap puts at inflated prices given the shortage out there-

The tenant signed the contract of her own free will knowing the clauses in the contract said no pets and no painting. Same as if you sign an employment contract you only sign if you agree terms.

You have little choice in accepting the terms when there’s a shortage within budget that’s suitable for your family, within the catchment of the school your kids go to.

again. I’m not saying the landlord is wrong for adding those terms. It’s their prerogative as the owner of the business

@heretodestroyyou, if you want communism why not go to live in a communist country?

We rented a 1950's house in a lovely street, a street I'd always dreamed of living in, we were really happy there for the few months, looking back I was really naive and when we moved in I spotted a few mouse traps in dark corners and silly old me assumed it was a precaution, no the house had a family of mice living beneath the suspended floors.

I started noticing clothes were getting random holes in them, woke up one day to a hole in the basket under my pram, still didn't click. It wasn't untill we were sat watching tv one night and a mouse ran past our feet that we called the letting agency.

over heard her telling the neighbours we had mice as if it was our fault, I was so angry it was clearly an on going issue as id seen the traps when we moved in, she was trying to insinuate it was cleanliness issue, even though she always commended us on how clean the house was. So glad we don't rent anymore!

and when the pest control guy came to fix it he told us it was because the house wasn't being maintained externally e.g vents didn't have the proper mesh coverings, and someone has literally knocked a brick out to fit the tv wire, giving mice an easy access route. Pricks

I know what you mean, OP. We rented a flat for a year while between houses and the whole experience was shit. It feels especially shit when you were previously living in your own home.

We used a big national letting agent chain and the processes were horrendous. It felt like we were having to justify our mere existence to the letting agents! I know you've copped some flack for mentioning the agents age, but to be honest I get what you mean. When you are a 40+ year old hard working professional who is used to living in their own home, probably have management responsibilities at work, responsible for multiple million pound projects, etc, etc, and you are then having someone who has just left school and has no life experience judge whether you are fit to rent a crappy flat or not! It takes the piss. The flat we ended up in was grimy, and we ended up leaving it in a better state than we found it. But they still make you feel like every tiny thing that's wrong with it is your fault, because you are a tenant and therefore you must be an idiot!

For balance, I've been a landlord for a brief spell and we just left our tenants to live in peace in a house that we handed over to them absolutely spotless.

over heard her telling the neighbours we had mice as if it was our fault, I was so angry

you are so looked down on and judged for being “just the renters”.

The other thing with the pets situation is
this landlord may be fine with it, but the next may not.

so now you get 2 months notice to find a home, that’s suitable, within budget, within catchment AND let’s you have your beloved pet.

I rented long term in a shit hole of a tiny flat. I couldn’t afford to move and rent nicer or buy.

It was only when I met my now spouse that I got on the housing ladder.

Renting was awful, I was made to feel like a second class citizen. Throwaway comments like ‘oh are you still renting’. Filling forms in, having to tick ‘rented’. I recall once at The Good Food shown in London filling in a survey, the person asked in a certain type of manner ‘are you a homeowner or just renting’. She lost me at just.

A shite landlord whose sole amount of repair work over 14 years was to stick some drawing pins (yep) in wallpaper that came away from the ceiling (yep) due to a flood in the bathroom above (another grotty flat he let out). Gas fires that were condemned and not replaced for weeks. The electric was on a meter, 50ps originally and then overnight he changed it to pound coins. Nightmare if you ran out and didn’t have any. No shower, so expensive baths. He came round whenever he wanted, rent was paid in cash, so every Saturday he’d knock the door and within 5 seconds let himself in to get his money.

It truly was a very low point, I was trapped there, hated it but couldn’t escape. ,

I've rented my whole adult life from 18-46, never experience anything mentioned so I feel perhaps I've been very lucky or you've been really unlucky.

These agent's charge a fortune to "manage" properties and landlords want to know they're actually getting some value for money for said management. I'd be inclined to demonise the agents rather than landlords per se. Absolute parasites and cretins, constantly taking from all involved.

I think you have hit the crux of the issue. As alluded to above I used to work (many moons ago) in the property market and have witnessed first hand the scumbag behaviour of both landlords and tenants.

I have seen landlords try and micro manage tenants and make ludicrous deposit deductions for blown lightbulbs and for insignificant reasonable wear and tear. I have also seen tenants leave properties in a state that can be only described as outright vandalism (plasterboard walls that have been kicked through, porcelain sinks broken, furniture destroyed) or skip town not paying the last months rent knowing full well the deposit will not cover the missing rent and the damage they have caused.

The frequency of the latter issue is why deposits went from one months rent to two or more. Decent landlords want peace and quiet and the only way they achieve that is if they rent out a property that is legally compliant and in a good well maintained condition so that the tenant does not need to contact them every other week to complain that something is not working.

Absolutely! She had to tell the neighbours incase they went under their floors too I get that, but she obviously didnt want to admit that her negligence keeping up the outside was the cause so she thought she'd just paint us as bograts and throw us under the bus. 🙄

From experience, I'm guessing the 19 year old estate agent may be a smarmy little tick who lords it over the OP and thinks they know everything. Just a guess.

Or just some young lad in his first job?

Also from experience, this sounds spot on.