Page 5 | To hate homes under the hammer

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 2024-09-04T07:35:30+00:00

I know most young families can't afford to buy houses outright, but I see all these more affordable homes go to greedy landlords just in it for the profit. Eugh it makes me sick! Would be so refreshing to see some of these homes go to people who won't just tosh them up cheaply to sell again or rent them out

housethatbuiltme · 05/09/2024 14:32

Xyz1234567 · 05/09/2024 13:29

But where would you have been living if this house was not available for you to rent?

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My issue isn't against rentals, its against what its become. A mom and Pop rental of someone who looks after the house is more than fine.

Instead a select few buy to let landlords buying up all the cheap/affordable properties (hundreds even thousands of them) and bodging them then doing no maintenance.

My other issue is people doing the same and 'flipping' them (which frankly I hate even more).

If my landlord fixed the damp and other issues. I would have no issues at all about the fact the house is 30-50 years out of date. I dont care about wear and tear or any of that.

It just warms my cockles to know this house is now so bad (you can't just paint over these 'cracks' anymore) and so well documented that he will either have to spend a FORTUNE to bring it up to standard to be re-rented, abandon it or sell it at a huge loss and its all his own fault for letting it get so bad. I KNOW he will try and blame me though as he already does.

The private landlord has very little regulation which is the issue. The HAVE to comply with gas safety annually, check smoke/CO2 alarms annually and do electric every 10 years or so if the house is lived in but other than that they can do whatever the fuck they like seemingly.

I live in the north, have you ever watched the documentaries on Hordon and similar places like Hart-le-pool, Middlesborough etc... most the houses are abandoned and in uninhabitable condition (beyond any logical repair, well past 'doer ups').

They are all mostly owned by private landlords from the south who swooped in and bough up all the 'cheap' houses but rent/house prices didn't rise inline with the big cities so they let them fall into disrepair with damp, mold, leaking roof etc... (from their comfort a world away) and then where left empty when the tenants where removed due to unsafe living condition. Once abandoned they have attracted squatters (from the now huge homeless population) and vandals.

They just don't care, thousands of houses completely ruined to the point of requiring demolition.

I think if a house becomes unlivable and no effort is being made to fix it it should be ceased and forfeited or they should have to pay growing fines depending on how long its abandoned. Maybe people in big cities don't know what life is like in the ruined ghost town but the landlords really weren't helping.

Then again I have seen people charge eye watering prices for 1 bed filthy hovels in dangerously cladded skyscrapers built out of dangerous concrete methods in London so maybe its no better there either.

Proparty · 05/09/2024 15:09

My parents were on Homes Under The Hammer.

They paid £250k cash at auction for the property. You could not have got a mortgage on it as it was uninhabitable, it had no functional kitchen or bathroom, the previous owner had been a recluse. It cost them £75k to make it to a good standard. They didn’t do anything extraordinary for that price, it cost them that just to make it habitable. They then sold it for £450k.

There’s no way this property could have been bought by a first time buyer, unless they had £325k cash lying around…

Original poster

Cappuccinowithonesugarplease · 05/09/2024 15:10

housethatbuiltme · 05/09/2024 12:18

But we get that anyway even if painted white with the landlord special.

If it was OUR unsafe shithole we could make it safe and nice.

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This!

OP posts:

ElaineMBenes · 05/09/2024 15:40

Proparty · 05/09/2024 15:09

My parents were on Homes Under The Hammer.

They paid £250k cash at auction for the property. You could not have got a mortgage on it as it was uninhabitable, it had no functional kitchen or bathroom, the previous owner had been a recluse. It cost them £75k to make it to a good standard. They didn’t do anything extraordinary for that price, it cost them that just to make it habitable. They then sold it for £450k.

There’s no way this property could have been bought by a first time buyer, unless they had £325k cash lying around…

It was similar for my family member.

They bought a property that wasn't a house at auction for £120k cash. They subsequently spent £400k + to turn it into a beautiful home which was valued at a million. They still live there.

Occasionally the programme does show some gems!

Suzuki70 · 05/09/2024 17:06

theworldie · 05/09/2024 14:25

What's to stop young people buying a dilapidated property and refurbishing it?

Mainly that they can’t be arsed or would rather spend their money on nights out/having the latest iPhone/travelling etc. My ds is 25 and not one of his large group of friends has bought a house, they’re all either renting or at home. They want to be close to the city or live in trendy areas and won’t consider moving to less fashionable places, buying a do-er upper and putting the time/money in. That’s fine and dandy and today’s culture is more about living in the moment and having fun whilst you’re young, but you can’t have it both ways.

My dh is a LL and has now sold several of his properties due to ever increasing loopholes and the threat of rent controls etc. It’s already a longwinded and expensive process trying to get nuisance tenants who don’t pay their rent out of a property so why carry on if things are set to get worse? So those properties have now been taken away from the rental market. That’s been happening for quite a while now and is set to become the better option for many, especially now Labour are in power.

Less houses for rent/rising population/the government not building anywhere near enough social housing = well it’s a recipe for disaster and homelessness which is already happening.

Yes in an ideal world people would be handed a perfectly renovated and very cheap house because they feel they deserve it but life doesn’t work like that does it? My dh worked really hard and came from nothing to build his property business. He took risks when he was young to buy houses and worked 16 hour days 7 days a week to do them up ready for the rental market. The property market is very up and down and it certainly hasn’t been a bed of roses, he was rarely home when the dcs were young.

It makes me laugh when I read some of the ignorant comments on threads like these about greedy landlords “getting their comeuppance” and the jealousy-fuelled bile spilled from people who don’t even understand the first thing about the property market. If it’s such an easy buck to make why the hell haven’t you done it yourself?

Do you think supermarkets are evil for making a profit on the food they sell? A cup of coffee in my local cafe costs £4 and around 10p to make - a much bigger markup than the profit gained by LL’s nowadays - but coffee shops aren’t the subject of vitriolic rage. Most LL’s own a couple of properties and barely break even with all the rules and reg’s nowadays - my db rented out a property for a year and went through hell trying to get his house back when the tenants wouldn’t leave. They wrecked the house causing thousands of pounds worth of damage and he ended up out of pocket. And you can say “he deserved it” but how would you feel if that was your house? Again, he has sold it now - another houses taken out of the rental market which won’t be replaced by SA housing. For those of you who still havent grasped it: “THE GOVERNMENT/COUNCIL’S ARE NOT BUYING HOUSES, HOWEVER CHEAP, TO BUILD SOCIAL HOUSING”. They are not even making it easier for other people to use their own money to build houses, in fact they’re making it more difficult. But bringing in rent controls and rules that seemingly protect the renter are an instant vote-winner - even though those in power know themselves it is exacerbating the problem. They don’t care so long as they get your vote, and most people are too ignorant to know what’s actually going on.

Blaming Homes Under the Hammer on people not being able to buy homes, honestly 🤣 Do do some actual research instead of parroting the “evil landlord’s to blame” rhetoric you’ve been sold.

And to the posters saying completely thick things such as “homes should be auctioned off cheaply to the most deserving/bought cheaply as social housing” etc.
So if that were your DM’s house who’d died and been inherited by you and it was valued at £300k, you’d sell it for £100k to the young couple with a baby desperate to get on the housing ladder would you? Or to the council for a steal so they could rent it to a family on benefits?

Course you would!

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You win "the latest iPhone" bingo, congrats!

As for the coffee analogy - don't be ridiculous. The beans might be 10p. How much is -

The rent for the café
The VAT
The barista's hourly wage
The accountant the owner uses
The delivery charge to get the coffee (and milk) from the supplier to the café
The power/heating
The standing charge for the water
The café insurance
The business rates

Proparty · 05/09/2024 17:40

Many of the types of homes features on Homes Under The Hammer (and similar programmes) are in such a state of disrepair that it’s often a gamble in terms of cost for whoever buys the property.

Unless you are an experienced builder or developer who can properly assess a house, these properties often have issues that are not detectable to the naked eye, and even if you are experienced you cannot know the full extent of cost and damage until you start repair work. These houses often cost thousands in renovations, need rewiring, new plumbing, often structural repairs are needed.

I’m not sure it’s in the best interests of the council to buy these properties to renovate and then rent or sell cheaply, given the renovation costs and times are often ‘how long is a piece of string?’

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 17:43

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 04/09/2024 09:20

Most galling I ever saw, was one where a LL bought a cheap 4 bed house in a relatively cheap area up north, did a cheap renovation and turned the 2nd reception into a 5th bedroom. Then, as he very gleefully told the presenter, he could rent it out to someone with a lot of children, on benefits. He already had someone lined up.
At the time you could still claim HB for a 5 bed house, but AFAIK no longer.

I used to watch it now and then while attacking the dreaded ironing!

If he hadn't bought it to rent to the family with lots of children, where do you think they would have lived?

theworldie · 05/09/2024 17:45

Suzuki70 · 05/09/2024 17:06

You win "the latest iPhone" bingo, congrats!

As for the coffee analogy - don't be ridiculous. The beans might be 10p. How much is -

The rent for the café
The VAT
The barista's hourly wage
The accountant the owner uses
The delivery charge to get the coffee (and milk) from the supplier to the café
The power/heating
The standing charge for the water
The café insurance
The business rates

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Yes, I have 5 teenagers/20-somethings and they and they mates pretty much all have the latest phones/go out a lot/take ubers/order just eat etc. I tend to make observations based on what I see. What’s your point?

And yes, exactly - you helped me make MY point.

Do you think LL’s don’t have other costs? Do you think they take home everything above the mortgage payments in profit? Maybe look at some of the costs involved in the buy to let business and the hoops that must be jumped through. That’s before you even take into consideration tenants who decide not to pay their rent, whom you then have to take through a costly court process to get out and who then leave the property in a state owing thousands of pounds.

It’s an extremely stressful profession (I don’t know how my dh deals with some of the shit he does) and he has all the responsibility on his own shoulders, he’s not working for a firm.

People on here seem to think it’s easy, Chuck a bit of white paint around and Bob’s your uncle, you’re in the money. But if so why aren’t they doing it themselves?

Because it’s hard work, costly and risky and most people couldn’t be bothered with it or don’t have the know-how to make it work.

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 17:51

Icecreamandcoffee · 04/09/2024 09:36

It's when they buy a 4 or 5 bed family home up north, then turn it into loads of flats, or a HMO. There are plenty of flats and HMOs about, people want family homes. I really wish councils wouldn't allow the conversion of houses into flats and HMOs. Fine for big old buildings like old schools/ office blocks/ converted churches where the space is vast but normal homes should stop normal homes not be allowed to be flats and HMOs.

On the point at PP sais about them been out of reach for FTB or people who need mortgages. I do believe if landlords with huge portfolios were not around, those houses on Homes under the hammer would be bought cheaply by councils/ housing associations who have maintenance teams who fit kitchens/ bathrooms ect as a job. It would vastly increase social rental supply if they could get their oars in. Instead they are bought by "Mark with his 87th portfolio house who is going to gut the place and paint it landlord magnolia or white, pop a cheap kitchen in, a cheap bathroom and some £1 a metre carpet all on a budget of £10k and turned round in 8 weeks. Then the estate agent mooches round and exclaims it is done to a high quality and now can attract rents of £900pcm when every other property on the rental market in the area goes for £600. Ugh the show gives me the ick.

The council/HA are just as able to buy as part of their portfolio as the private investor. Rents would be cheaper if there were fewer people needing to be housed.

Crojo · 05/09/2024 17:54

Anyone can go to a property auction. It's a level playing ground.

Not if you've just scraped enough money together to try and buy a property and you're bidding against landlords with plenty of cash wanting to add to their property portfolios.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/09/2024 17:56

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 17:43

If he hadn't bought it to rent to the family with lots of children, where do you think they would have lived?

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You evidently didn’t understand my point. It was his glee at the money he was going to make that galled me (IIRC he was boasting of a 14% yield on his investment) and (obviously) the fact that so much government/taxpayer money goes into the pockets of so many landlords like him - money which by rights should be going towards the provision of social housing.

And please don’t anybody start on about Thatcher and Right to Buy - Labour had 13 years in which to do away with that, but they didn’t. Why not? Could it possibly be because they thought it’d lose them votes? Plus, Gordon Brown positively encouraged private landlords, by allowing them to retain mortgage interest tax relief, while removing it for owner occupiers. Buy to let absolutely mushroomed under Labour.

And no, in case anybody’s wondering, I’m not a Tory voter!

Proparty · 05/09/2024 17:57

@theworldie

Couldn't agree more.

People love to hate landlords but then don’t offer any tangible solutions. A lot of landlords are providing social housing that the council simply doesn’t have, or doesn’t want to take responsibility for.

My aunt became an accidental landlord to her parents home in one of the most deprived areas of the north. She spent thousands modernising it after her parents died, and then rented it exclusively to people on housing benefit, as she didn’t feel it right to privately let it. She couldn’t sell it as it wasn’t in a desirable area, and the house also held sentimental value to her. She decided to rent it to families so they could enjoy the house as she had growing up.

The first tenants she had let their dog shit everywhere and stamped it into the new carpets. Then, she had a family who the neighbours reported for running a brothel in the property and allowing their children to climb all over the roof. The final tenants acted like squatters and refused to leave, she then had to spend thousands in court costs getting them evicted, all the while they were destroying and damaging the house.

Being a landlord isn’t just sitting back and creaming the profits from rental income. It’s often costly, hard work and utterly thankless as everyone despises you!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/09/2024 18:00

@Proparty, sorry, but there’s no such thing as an ‘accidental’ landlord. Nobody wakes up one morning to find that their property is suddenly tenanted!

It’s a conscious decision, almost invariably made because it makes financial sense.

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:03

flyinghen · 04/09/2024 10:28

I'm not sure why people are saying you couldn't get a mortgage on the properties? Am I missing something, they are just regular houses? We got a mortgage on a do-er upper, we did it up with a baby in tow. I mean I was bat shit crazy to do it but it worked out in the end!

A lot of the properties on there have issues which are deeper than just cosmetic, and many lenders won't offer mortgages on them. It's also difficult to get a mortgage secured for an auction property.

Proparty · 05/09/2024 18:05

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER If it wasn’t my aunt taking the financial hit for her former tenants, it would have been the council. She was providing a service that the council wasn’t, and if not for her, it would have been the taxpayer paying for these expensive repairs and evictions, as well as paying for the housing benefit!

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:06

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 04/09/2024 10:49

It was his very obvious glee at the amount of money he was going to be making via HB from the taxpayer.

If even half that money (billions) that went (and probably still goes) to landlords, had gone into maintaining/building social housing instead, maybe the country’s finances wouldn’t be in quite such a mess now.

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But that money can't be spent on building council houses as it's needed to house people NOW. You can't just tell someone on the waiting list, "oh, just live on the street for a year while we use your HB to build a bit of a house for you" 🙄

housethatbuiltme · 05/09/2024 18:06

Crojo · 05/09/2024 17:54

Anyone can go to a property auction. It's a level playing ground.

Not if you've just scraped enough money together to try and buy a property and you're bidding against landlords with plenty of cash wanting to add to their property portfolios.

Also going back to the great house give away, one thing that drives me insane is when they say 'This house needs little doing to it so its worth a punt but has a guide of £60k and done up its worth £110k so we can't afford to go much higher than the guide'. Then it sells for like £97k and they say 'taking into account fees and loans to flip it theres just no profit in it. I wonder if these people have even done their research?'.

Or and here is a novel idea for you Mr. TV presenter... they are a local who liked the house and bought it to actually live in not to make a 'profit'. Wild I know but stranger things in this world have happened.

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:14

longtompot · 05/09/2024 08:48

I used to watch it all the time but stopped when it started to be just landlords in Liverpool or Nottingham buying all the properties in every street to rent.
I have started to watch it again but the format is tired.
It makes me sad when perfectly good houses are torn down to build two or more new builds in its place. There was one yesterday which was lovely with a huge garden and the couple replaced it with two new builds.
I like it when they go back to properties shown years ago and see their transformation.
I love it when it's someone buying to do up to live in, especially when it's a first home or a forever home.
I especially like it when the homes are brought back to life from, well, basically a ruined shell.

Surely that's exactly how we address the shortage of housing without building all over the greenbelt? If larger run down houses with big gardens are replaced with two or three homes, then two or three families get a home...

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:17

AlecTrevelyan006 · 05/09/2024 10:02

Except they don’t have money

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Well, they wouldn't magically have the money if landlords just stopped buying the houses either, would they? So we'd have more rotting houses, fewer places for people to live, but everyone would be happy because "landlords"?

MMUmum · 05/09/2024 18:20

Some of the work is so basic and shoddy too, I love the way the cameraman will sometimes focus on tatty paintwork or tiling. Some others are lovely though and I love the before and after

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:24

TitusMoan · 05/09/2024 14:30

Ah I see. Thanks. Totally agree with you.

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Housing benefit it capped. Nobody is gleefully making their fortune by renting to people on benefits.

PracticalLady · 05/09/2024 18:30

I understand what you mean. The programme "The Worst House In The Street" is so much more watchable and morally sound.

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:31

Suzuki70 · 05/09/2024 17:06

You win "the latest iPhone" bingo, congrats!

As for the coffee analogy - don't be ridiculous. The beans might be 10p. How much is -

The rent for the café
The VAT
The barista's hourly wage
The accountant the owner uses
The delivery charge to get the coffee (and milk) from the supplier to the café
The power/heating
The standing charge for the water
The café insurance
The business rates

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Bingo, you just negated your own argument. The person buying the property at auction has to

have the money to buy it
pay the auction fees
pay land reg fees
pay stamp duty
pay council tax and utilities from the day of purchase
pay for materials for refurb
pay the delivery charge for materials for the refurb
have the knowledge/skills to do the refurb
have the ability to spend the time either doing the refurb or employing someone else who can (or having someone able to donate their time for "free")
pay their accountant
pay their business insurance
pay tax/NI/pension if they have employees
pay tax on their profits

Expo23 · 05/09/2024 18:33

Tel12 · 04/09/2024 08:45

Always amazes me how they can get a complete refurb and change from 10K.

Same. I watched too much homes under the hammer before I bought. I was shocked when I came to getting quotes for the kitchen and bathroom.

usernamealreadytaken · 05/09/2024 18:36

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/09/2024 17:56

You evidently didn’t understand my point. It was his glee at the money he was going to make that galled me (IIRC he was boasting of a 14% yield on his investment) and (obviously) the fact that so much government/taxpayer money goes into the pockets of so many landlords like him - money which by rights should be going towards the provision of social housing.

And please don’t anybody start on about Thatcher and Right to Buy - Labour had 13 years in which to do away with that, but they didn’t. Why not? Could it possibly be because they thought it’d lose them votes? Plus, Gordon Brown positively encouraged private landlords, by allowing them to retain mortgage interest tax relief, while removing it for owner occupiers. Buy to let absolutely mushroomed under Labour.

And no, in case anybody’s wondering, I’m not a Tory voter!

Edited

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Just because somebody boasts about a 14% yield, that doesn't mean they will achieve that - average yield is about 5%, so pretty much a high paying savings account, but with more risk. And you know yield is not profit, right? Any yield will be taxable too.