To think landlords who own multiple properties are part of the housing crisis?

[ByArtfulOliveDuck]

Is it unreasonable to say that having a portfolio of rental homes is unethical in a housing shortage?

Yep, I have seen some decent solutions where a parking space is put under part of each terraced house, rather like a door-less garage, and the terrace is made taller to compensate for this, like three storeys tall. It is one way of making terraces work in areas where car-free living is unlikely to be practical, but it would probably need to be paired with strict rules banning on street parking overnight and banning garage conversions. Otherwise, people will convert the door-less garage into an extra room OR fill it full of clutter and crap and then park their car all over the street anyway.

It would probably also require some sort of rollback of the laws on making ground floors wheelchair accessible. Tall skinny townhouses with a parking space/open-air garage thing underneath the building are common where I live (Tokyo), but there is no way it would be wheelchair accessible, because once you have taken out a chunk of space for the parking area, the ground floor feels very small and you are not going to be able to fit in one of those large ground floor toilets with a wheelchair turning space.

We made disabled units double fronted. So you park on one side and live on the other with a further flat or maisonette above. The problem in terms of use however was requiring neighbours to tandem park and always caused problems. So the flat above never had parking unless it was provided elsewhere.

I do not agree with making new houses non disabled friendly. There are major issues with elderly people in many houses living in the living room and using a commode because older houses are not disabled friendly. There is already a lack of suitable housing for older people. It is why we have all those developments of flats with expensive service charges aimed at older people.

All new homes have to confirm to a certain level for the disabled.
Its in the building regs.

@StandingSideBySide I know. Someone said these should be put aside to create parking solutions. I was saying I disagree.

Yes I am sure. I am commenting on tax payers lining the pockets of private landlords and the tenants are still living in poor conditions.

Is the suggestion therefore that no public money should go into private hands? What about the vast sums being paid to agencies for nurses? Or where local authorities employ private taxis or coaches to convey school children or disabled around? Or local authorities pay care homes to look after the elderly. I could post endless examples where tax payer money is paid into private hands - why is 'lining the pockets of private landlords' different?

Our town centre high street limited parking to 45 minutes. Fine for the bank, post office, for shopping it's limiting. For dining forget it. There's a small car park behind the town hall, but it's always full. The other council car park they've sold to McCarthy Stone for flats.

We go out of town to eat.

We have council carers in our cul de sac. Four times a day for the lady at no 10. Three times a day for the lady at no 7. Twice a day for the man at no 6. Once a day for the lady at no 3.

We're drowning in our retirement and unemployment area. Our council tax has gone up 40% in five years. We're paying £3400 for our bungalow this year. The council have made huge cuts to roads, public toilets, libraries, bin collection. It's never enough.

Lots of those examples are costing taxpayers an absolute fortune and also need reforming.

@justasking111 You must be in a high council tax band i.e. a very expensive bungalow.

Part of the reason your council tax has gone up is because many people on UC have theirs subsidised.
So overall we are getting less money whilst some are paying over the odds for less services and on and on it goes.
My cousin now has a huge tax bill but only fortnightly bin collections.
The build up of rubbish in the area has led to a huge rat infestation. Not just in numbers but in size, ( as big a cats ).

What’s your point?

Wandsworth band D council tax £969
Rutland band D council tax £2,543

huge differences

Deport all failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and EU migrants on benefits. We would then be ok for houses.

Titus this isn’t Ghormanghast and yet services are going backwards.

Save your hatred for second homes that are empty most of the year

No it really isn't. It's a retirement bungalow. We're all being hammered. Our social services care is 35% of the council budget. Education 30%. Then homelessness, then the police. It really doesn't leave much after council employee wages and pensions, road gritting, bin collections.

Our council were absolutely open about the budget this year. We're in an awful pickle.

@justasking111 your council tax is way higher than the highest council tax of Band D, which is in Rutland at £2543. So yes it must be an expensive bungalow. Certainly above average price. What council tax band is your house in?

Of note
I don’t know what band @justasking111 is at
I was just showing the differences in regions

Weve moved a few miles over from neighbouring councils and our council tax has gone up £2k ( our house is just the next band up ) because we are now in an area having to pay for huge social housing and social care bills.

@StandingSideBySide I have quoted the highest council tax in the country at Band D. Band D is usually seen as an average house. I know you are not in the area for the highest council tax band as your figure does not match up to any of their figures, although the nearest is a high band indicative of a more expensive property.
You may think of your bungalow as average, but it does not appear to be the case.
I am simply saying this as council tax is expensive, I know this. But the more expensive your house, the more you pay.

I think you’ve tagged the wrong person
I haven’t told you how much my council tax is and I don’t live in a bungalow
Think you should tag justasking maybe

Apologies

Fucked up comment a lot of people rely on benefits to at least partially pay their rent. Kinda fucked you'd see kids be homeless just because you don't like landlords. It's also kinda discrimination to make the landlords not rent to people claiming any benefits, if a landlord wants to do so they can rent their home to whoever they want. I had hard times a few years ago where I was homeless with young kids and luckily found a landlord to rent a place from (I have a job before someone calls me a lazy bum)

In fact your comment is insanely mental sorry but you moan about your tax money on benefit claimants rent but then propose building /buying council homes as if that's free?

My friends partner buzzed off when her baby was 8 months old. She needed help with her rent from the government despite working as a carer. Her landlord would have evicted her if she couldn't use this safety net.

You do realise that landlords with a mortgage are taxed on fake profits don’t you?

Let’s take the example of a property rented out at £2k per month.

letting agent takes ca. 13% plus VAT = £262.40

buildings, contents, legal insurance ca. £100 pcm

service charge £300 pcm if it’s a flat

annual boiler service, GSC, EICR annualised excluding any works = £30 pcm

appliance insurance for 6 kitchen large goods £50 pcm

allow £200 pcm for repairs and renewals of carpets, furniture, redecorating etc

net profit before mortgage interest and tax of £1,087.60

tax is levied on this amount - it ignores the true profit of £87.60 pcm if landlord is paying £1k of mortgage interest only (any repayments of capital are not tax deductible), so £435 tax pcm for a higher rate tax payer or £489 for an additional rate tax payer.

landlord is permitted a 20% tax credit on the mortgage interest, so both tax payers’ bills are reduced by £200 pcm.

so we have a net loss after tax each month of £147 and £201 thanks to George Osborne and his Sch 24 FA 2015.

Introduced so that only the rich without the need for borrowing can offer accommodation to people who currently prefer/need to rent.

many landlords would be happy for their property to ‘wipe its feet’ and just break even on income tax in order to benefit long term from capital gain (excluding inflation), but the last shower of muppets ruined that so rents have gone up to try and offset the tax impact.