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!

And as a result there isn’t a property to let at the moment within 20 miles of my village.

Blaming holiday lets is the easy way but we couldn’t rent out ours as it doesn’t meet the EPC requirements and it’s not possible to bring it up to scratch either. Tenants would have it black with mould within a week. Attempts by the previous owner mean it is over insulated and under ventilated which for a 250 year old property is a bad combination.. As a FHL, I pay the considerable oil bill needed to keep it damp and mould free. The property is not unusual for the area either.

Have you seen his accounts?

I live in a leasehold flat so only the top half of this building is mine. The freeholder told me for years to open the window. I paid myself to get it fixed and the builder found around 60 cracks in the render letting water in. Rented houses are shocking.

Yes I do know that - you’ve just reworded what I said.

it’s not actually all that cheap to get a new tenant, you need to meet them, do referencing (which the LL now has to meet the cost of), have a void period between tenants and clean up after the previous one. So if you’re willing to do that my bet is there is more to the story.

Lol, the agents charge them and then don't do the clean, don't do it properly, or say it's the LLs responsibility and then the LL point blank refuses without explanation because he knows you are desperate due to the housing shortage. All 3 situations have happened to me in the past decade.

Some of the views on this thread are like something out of Charles Dickens.

So rents have risen because house prices have gone up/shortage of supply? not because of costs, so greed plus many LLs do not have a mortgage but why should a tenant have to pick up the bill because the LL didn't account for rates rising to long term uk averages?

Flip this the other way. Why should landlords have to hold onto their properties because interest rates have risen and they're making large losses? Is that fair? You're happy to lose thousands of pounds a year because you're not allowed to sell the house at the end of the tenancy period?

I work in an area which is strongly linked to the economy so yes, ultra low interest rates weren't sustainable although I suspect many people didn't necessary realise this. But Russia invading Ukraine and the pandemic weren't foreseeable which pushed up inflation and required the base rate hikes.

This article refers to the link between legislation and the mass exodus of landlords.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/15/landlords-selling-up-england-homelessness-renting

Agreed that some of it is uncertainty over reform rather than current legislation but this final paragraphs sums it up pretty well: “You can’t just do away with section 21 evictions without another way to repossess your property and the courts are just not geared up for it,” he said. “Why take the risk of [being a landlord] when you could put the capital in the bank for 5%?”

Wait until labour get in you think it’s bad now just wait turkeys voting for Christmas there will be nothing to rent nothing

I don’t think this is the problem Tories created - as pp have said there is ways to deal .

the problem is that there is so little affordable ha or council housing people are desperate to be housed anywhere.

Also don’t kid yourself that Local Authorities are doing a better job. Many have housing stock sat empty because they can’t do the repairs to make them habitable and relet. Many tenants have waited over the statutory timeframe for repairs and so bring disrepair claims against the Local Authority as Landlords. Then money is spent on settlements for disrepair claims that’s taken from the housing budget.

You could just as easily blame Tony Blair for cynically upping student numbers in the hope of creating more Labour voters, and as well as promoting Mickey Mouse degrees meaning there are far more students than universities can accommodate.

Because if you are an owner occupier who can afford to, you will spend money fixing the issues that cause you inconvenience and impact your health and that of your children.
If you are a landlord your health is not impacted, so if you choose, can spend your money adding another property to your portfolio rather than addressing disrepair, knowing that in many areas supply and demand will make your tenants put up and shut up.

My brother lives in council accommodation and is really pleased with his flat. I hadn't appreciated that you can get a council flat for life (and he can pass it into his son), I assumed it was reviewed every ten years or so to see if you still met the eligibility criteria.

I'm not suggesting the alternative is to evict people and presumably people in the less nice properties would look to move if their finances allowed it. But it made me realise that existing council properties aren't freed up that often, hence the social housing shortage.

Quite right, but what if it is not historic? Like it or not, often there is no damp or mould at the start of a tenancy anyway but the way tenants live becomes a part of the problem. For example boiling huge pans of water for cooking every day in a small flat will generate vast quantities of steam and condensation that collects faster than it can escape from even a ventilated property and it will reach a point where damp is inevitable. It is not victim blaming to point out simple physics. You might want to look into how much condensation a tumble dryer generates by the way, even with a condenser.

Not all councils by any means have compulsory registration, and if there’s no mortgage on the property, in many cases there is literally nobody the LL needs to tell that they are renting the property out. Inc. HMRC. The self assessment form asks only how many properties and the rent, no addresses.

I’m 100% sure that a good many LLs are either not declaring their rental income at all, or under-declaring it. And it’s bound to happen more with bad, neglectful LLs, especially those who pack tenants in and demand rent in cash.

From the OP

The boiler kept breaking so they had no hot water, heating

Quite difficult to heat a property effectively when the source of the heating is unreliable and keeps breaking and not actually providing that heat.

Cleaning and ventilation are also important but if the LL wants the place heated to keep damp under control, ensuring the tenants can actually turn the heating on would be a reasonable place to start.

I’m a landlord none of my properties are let to students. I like to think we are good landlords our tenants are able to contact us personally with any issues, we aim to resolve issues as soon as is humanly possible. Our properties are well maintained with double glazing and good insulation, always freshly decorated with new bathrooms, kitchens and appliances on a regular basis.
My sons rented student houses(with others) and they were minging by the time they left them. Students are notorious for living in squalor. Mould is an issue if you don’t properly ventilate a property or heat it adequately as is often the case with students.
I do think there are some awful landlords and I wish they would up their game because they give the rest of us a bad name. Landlords should fulfil their responsibilities but tenants have their part to play. There is a market for rented properties what would happen if there were none to rent?

Damp is so hard to control no matter what you do. Those posters that seem to think it’s so basic, “just do x,y, z” are so mistaken. If you like to smell of damp even when you’re not at home because your clothes reek, good for you. Sadly you get slightly used to it, like a smoker and don’t realise everyone else can smell it. Everything you own smells. Everything. And you can’t get rid of it. Electrical equipment is very quickly ruined (eg a stereo).

Black and green mould appearing from nowhere in less than 24 hours is very depressing and is a constant battle. There’s some mould that you can’t even see (behind things) that is impossible to control. Whilst you’re fighting this constant battle you might use a dehumidifier but this only touches the tip of the iceberg and also dehumidifies your own body! If the mould is already affecting your health (which it will be) you’re breathing in “mould and mildew remover” or other chemicals because you have to use strong stuff. You’re walking around coughing due to the existing mould spores and then you’ve got a permanent sore throat from being dehydrated.

As the OP said already, a mould free home should be a basic human right, especially if you are paying to live somewhere!

As an aside, and as students rent in order to attend university, why can’t the university have a department that can provide inspectors for all residences of university students. I know universities have a list of landlords but they need to be vetted. If this is possible it could help students significantly but there is still a terrible problem for many that are not students that have to live like this.

Quite honestly, unless you’ve lived in these conditions, you don’t know how destructive and debilitating mould can be to all lives. Add to that a lack of heating and you’re left in a situation that NOONE on Mumsnet would choose and there really is no excuse for it to exist in a property that is being rented out.

The place I'm at now is notorious for damp. I use a dehumidifier over winter but it's expensive to run. Next door to here had damp and mould for years and the new tenant now has the same problem, carpet has already been ruined and you can smell it when you stand at the door talking. The windows are all on one side of the flat and there are no air bricks so we don't get a through flow of air which creates perfect conditions for mould. Some properties are a problem in general and it took expensive measures for me, not everyone can be running a dehumidifier all winter but there's no question people can sometimes exacerbate the problem without realising.

I agree that a boiler breaking down is not good and of course should be fixed asap. However, what is stopping your son and his flatmates from getting a cheap electric heater in the meantime? They have a shit landlord, yes, but there are things they could do to help the situation.

'@ForGreyKoala · Yesterday 23:12

I agree that a boiler breaking down is not good and of course should be fixed asap. However, what is stopping your son and his flatmates from getting a cheap electric heater in the meantime? They have a shit landlord, yes, but there are things they could do to help the situation.'

Why should they spend more money? they are already paying rent and the property should be habitable which includes having heating and hot water...

The landlord should be the one providing electric heaters while he sorts out the boiler.

Some people really don't seem to want to accept that it is the landlord responsibility to maintain the property and make sure repairs are done in a timely fashion.

Also I doubt they need heating in this weather but they do need hot water.

This is the result of them having tried to control landlords.

Don’t know where you get a 3 bed house for £17k per year. That is cheap.

All rental properties should surely be compulsorily registered with the local council, who should make regular inspections. Registration is compulsory in some areas, but how rigorously it’s enforced I don’t know. Regular inspections would need more funding for extra staff.

Judging by the odd TV prog. I’ve seen, landlords of poor, overcrowded, unsafe/damp properties are too often given an easy ride by council officials - allowed a very reasonable timescale in which to put things right, and then another, when they still haven’t done it properly…

It was years ago now, but a dd was in a shocking student house, with various frankly dangerous aspects*, including the electrics - the landlady would merely scream at them over the phone if they dared to complain.

Eventually they got some official housing officer in, who after inspection, promptly gave the landlady a long list of what needed doing, and gave her 6 weeks to do it, or they’d arrange it all and give her the bill.

That’s the sort of action needed.

*one of which was foam stuffing coming out of a manky old sofa, which they suspected didn’t comply with regs. They got a fire officer in, who put a bit of it in a frying pan and lit it - it was instantly ablaze!

This is in part because council budgets have been slashed to the bones though. I guess to resource it landlord could be charged more to have a licence, or we increase council tax or central govt would need to fund it

It takes a decent number of properly trained council officers plus funding for legal advisors to support something like this

Agree it is what should happen though

Sorry I just saw the bit you said about needing extra funding!