To think it’s inexcusable that the Tories haven’t held landlords to account more

[P3trolBlu3]

Just picked up my son from uni. The house he is living in and paid £££££ is awful. It’s all we could afford.

Its cold in the winter, damp and riddled with black mold. The agency and landlord refused to do anything. The boiler kept breaking so they had no hot water, heating and they’ve been without a working washing machine for week.

All together the 3 of them will have paid £17k for the year. It’s such an absolute rip off and in 2024 ludicrous that as a country we can’t protect renters from this.

Why has nothing been done about it?I’m very aware my son is privileged and going home to a mold free, warm house with hot water and a washing machine but families are being left to live permanently in housing like this.

They’ve had 14 years!

Maybe because landlords don’t deal with the issues and because the housing is poorly maintained generally.

I think this is rubbish. IME renters have HIGHER expectations. Not lower. I had a property with a brand new boiler that rattled when it came on. It wasn’t offensive and I lived in the property myself. Found out it was a common issue with that particular boiler. I warned prospective tenants and was asked if I would replace it. Replace it, because of a rattle? 7k to reduce a rattle.

All our properties were newly renovated and we were still asked if we could replace furnishings etc.

i have met several renters who expect perfection yet moan about the rent!

I suspect the issue lies partly with a group of students who aren’t confident in advocating for themselves and who aren’t also doing the things they ought to to reduce the damp and mould. It can’t be that bad in a 9 month academic year.

Student lets are often a bit manky, call it character building.

This. My son had mould all over his bedroom and a dehumidifier helped a bit. Students are not the most careful tenants and the condition of the property is reflected in the rent.

This have you reported the accommodation sounds awful, but he's been living there all term without you doing anything.

You are genius. That will help to increase housing stock and resolve the housing crisis. When properties have mould it's invariably caused by feckless tenants.

That is utterly unfair. They are really good, quiet tenants.

There is clearly a long standing problem with this property that was already there before they moved in.

The broken boiler and washing machine weren’t down to being feckless tenants either but down to a lazy money grabbing landlord.

Didn’t expect a new boiler but one that worked and provided heating and hot water .

A lot of tory MPs are landlords. They were never going to introduce anything to reduce their potential income.

It really isn't.

Why would you expect the tories to hold landlords to account? They are the landlords

Us too.
Cost over £25k because kitchen cabinet doors were smashed, no rent for 5 months, all carpets black and we’re still being harassed by bailiffs 18 months later for their energy bills, council tax, parking penalties etc.
If the government want more houses to be let they need to guarantee LL’s costs when a tenant wrecks a house.

I was briefly a landlord when I moved abroad for a few years and needed to rent out my flat. It was near a university but there was no way I would rent to students as I didn’t want it to be trashed. That is why student accommodation tends to be a bit grim.

When I was a student our washing machine broke and our landlord didn’t replace it so we bought one, split the cost, and took the money off the last month’s rent. I have no idea if this was legal but he didn’t object.

Some of the very worst properties are council and housing association owned not private individuals.
Who cannot forget the awful ITV expose of some of these high rise slums with water pouring through the ceilings . The walls literally black with mould and carpets squelching .
All government are focused on are new housing targets , never hear of a plan to address these slums .

It's a pity there are bad landlords out there, but Councils are so short of money they can't seem to afford to enforce anything.

I have been a landlord and have always responded straight away to any problems, but I do think that for student accommodation it's a vicious cycle. Landlords don't bother so students don't bother either and so on, many must feel its just not worth their while.

DS had a very odd landlord, the oven kept breaking down and he did send someone round to fix it, but frankly it would have cost him less just to replace it. They were the only student tenants who got their deposit back at the end of the year, but this might have been because it was Covid lockdown year so DS was there on his own most of the time.

@hattie43 Yes badly maintained social housing also isn't acceptable.

Although, the crucial difference is the secure tenure (and more affordable rent). Tenants can complain or take legal action without fear of eviction (I understand there's a temporary protection for private renters who report to environmental health but it's just that, temporary).

This report is interesting. About the health impacts of private renting.

the impact of renting in the private sector, as opposed to outright ownership (with no mortgage), was almost double that of being out of work rather than being employed. It was also 50% greater than having been a former smoker as opposed to never having smoked.

Living in social housing, however, with its lower cost and greater security of tenure, was no different than outright ownership

https://bmjgroup.com/renting-rather-than-owning-a-private-sector-home-linked-to-faster-biological-ageing/

But you're absolutely right that social housing should be decent standard and well maintained. Just like private renting, it's not only about moral decency, It's also good economics. Substandard housing effects health and so costs the NHS and welfare benefits bill a lot.

The Tories are the party of landlords. Jeremy Hunt has so many rental properties he forgot to declare a large number of them. They just lied about helping renters and then ignored the issue

I own a flat, one of several in a Victorian terrace that was converted into flats. All the flats are damp!

We take care of the block, but it's in the Thames Valley and it's just damp. It was damp when I lived there, and I had to manage it. When I rented it out my tenants had to manage it. One of them who complained the most, I later discovered was using an exercise bike, with the heating on and the windows closed, and couldn't figure out why the damp got so bad!

Now DS lives there and it's still damp!

Problem is when the Tories came into power they didn't want regulations and thought it was better for things to be self regulated, so got rid of all the quangos.

Then, Grenfell happened, then Awaab Ishak, and the government decided that actually a regulator probably isn't such a bad idea

We had tenants who kept complaining about damp but then refused to ventilate the property. No more problems after they moved. We used to live in that apartment ourselves and never had a damp problem because we opened the ventilation grills.

I would still report it though incase the landlord is taking the piss. Everyone should have decent housing.

@FuckTheClubUp wales has Rent Smart to enforce legislation but it should be all over the UK.

The more the sector is regulation section 24 section 21 abolished no one will rent property this is where we’re heading. We had 5 rentals now all air band b

Bollocks.

My home is rented and old (late 18th century). It has an awful damp issue if and if I left it to my landlord, it would be mould filled.

I pay to have the gutters cleaned, I ventilate and heat, don’t dry clothes inside and run a dehumidifier.

Do one with your horrible assumptions.

Why has nothing been done about it?

Because at least half of tory MPs have rental properties. They're hardly going to do something that that negatively impacts their own pockets are they?

That's not what being a tory MP is all about for goodness sake.

No investment is risk-free.