Lots of Landlords are selling up!!

[PassingStranger]

Where is everyone going to live who can't afford to buy?

Alot of landlords are selling. Can't be bothered with all the hassle now.
People aren't paying rent and also trashing houses when they do and costing the owners lots of money to put things right.
On TikTok people are being told to trash houses. [Society gone downhill]

I know there are good tenants, but there are alot of bad ones. Family member works for estate agent and says there are more bad tenants than landlords.

You can trash a house and walk away. Nobody ever gets done for criminal damage on private rents.
There is no register of bad tenants legally allowed either. It's all left to the landlord to sort out at their expense.

Where is all the housing going to come from?
The government donthave enough.
People who are trashing houses and not paying rent are actually spoiling it for everyone..
Alot of lls are selling up now.

Feel free to educate yourself https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Article 25.

That it is not viewed as a human right in the UK is telling in itself.

I fail to see why this is a bad thing.

Instead of people who just want to make a buck, people who actually want to live in an area will be able to buy.

Housing isn't like a bunch of flowers that will last a fortnight if you're lucky. If people have a settled decent home it frees up space to look after children properly and earn more money. Also allows them to build community ties and friendship if settled. people living in poor conditions are more likely to be depressed and have asthma. So everyone has to pay more taxes for healthcare and benefit bill.

This. Tenants that trash the place are far fewer than landlords who can't take proper care of their properties.

It's nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with cost of living and lack of investment in building + public services. But sure, blame immigrants.

Landlords have been forced out of the rental business by mortgage interest rates, stamp duty (if you go that far back), and red tape.

But if they were building that many more houses you'd be complaining that rent was going down due to lack of demand/increased housing availability. It doesn't magically make bad tenants good tenants.

Do they protect a landlord though if a tenant doesn’t pay? I am absolutely all for tenant’s rights in this country but I didn’t understand why they can’t be evicted quickly if they don’t pay their rent.

The banks and big equity firms will be the main owners of rental properties where the tenants will have very few basic rights. The requirements placed on private landlords are already more stringent than on housing associations and more enforced. I see us ultimately heading back to a quasi feudal society.

You might make more with shrewd investments, but from a rental you have an asset that will likely increase in value and an income from rent.

There's a reason Lloyd's and Graingers are increasing their property portfolios and it's not because they have a social conscience.

In fact 36% of landlords plan to expand their portfolios in 2025, compared to just 9% who plan to reduce the number of BTL properties they own according to the most recent survey by MFS.

The company I work did do some rentals. We don’t anymore. They were luxury flats. Trashed, people lived like pigs, we tended to appeal to rich overseas students who were doing Masters and their parents paid the rents up front and quite honestly left a trail of chaos behind them.

Never again. The protection is all with the tenant now. They can trash the place not pay any rent and then default. You need to serve them notice but cannot just chuck them out or change the locks. You need to wait for the court case to come up and one delightful fellow left the place in such a state the cleaners needed to go in with protection suits (think deposits left in the toilet for weeks on end), poo smeared on the wall. Disgusting and quite honestly there really wasn’t much in it profit wise.

This is the classic stupid and ignorant response to anything about landlords. For plenty of reasons, many people don't WANT to own a house. They are students, temporary residents of a place, they don't want the commitment or hassle, or yes, the cannot afford to. When people feel delighted that landlords are selling up, they fail to consider who will provide and manage these rental properties. It will not be that suddenly that everyone can buy a home and sit pretty. Property still costs what it costs, the average salary is still the average salary. None of that changes. It will be the case, as was the case post lockdown, that you will have hundreds of frantic renters competing of the same property due to a chronic shortage. It's such a stupid narrative and really winds me up.

I confess I'm playing devil's advocate here a bit, as I do understand the point that you're making.

But - if the house isn't bought by another landlord, but bought by someone that's going to live in it, where did that person live before?

Obviously if it's a young couple buying their first home, they've likely lived at home, but some people may be able to buy, if as a PP said, the increased housing stock reduced prices, whereas they might have been renting previously.

The property that they were previously renting now becomes available.

As I say, I'm playing devil's advocate because I also understand that unfortunately that reduced housing stock for rental properties will ultimately put the rents up even further.

There is an overall reduction in the quality of "society" though I think. So many more people just don't give a shit any more about anyone other than themselves. And even then, they don't even seem to give a shit about themselves, given the state that some people are happy to live in.

My DPs have always rented and have looked after their property like it was their own. The properties have always looked better when they move out than when they move in.

My DH has a rental property and the state that the house has been left in on check out can be awful.

The worst was a single guy that lived there that never reported any issues to the property manager but when we go in there realised that the bath seal had gone and the shower had been leaking everywhere. It had ruined the bathroom floor, the kitchen ceiling and, talking with the neighbour, had even seeped into their house and made their house smell damp too. He left a load of crap behind that he didn't want to bother clearing and he obviously had never cleaned the place since the day he moved in.

As a PP also said, when you run a normal business, if you have to borrow money to grow or support the business, you can get tax deductions on your costs, including the loan interest. When you're a landlord you only get very limited reductions in your tax. I know it's supposed to put off landlords to give more people the opportunity to own their own home, but it all fails miserably when the house prices remain too high for people to buy them. So you end up with fed up landlords that are being over-taxed and fed up tenants that are paying too much for rent.

No idea what the solution is though...

There's a big propaganda movement to get you to hate private landlords so that big corporations can buy them. It's genius really but be careful what you wish for.

Yes, you get an income but at the moment it’s less than you would if you just put it in a building society no hassle no work no problems no bureaucracy.

@Bigbrommieowner totally agree with you. resigistered landlords have a bloody hard time getting rid of tenants who do not pay rent. They used to have the documents in the sheriff court and returned in 4 weeks, now we have the first tier tribunal, who I am sure have been created with the intention of keeping tenants in the flats without paying their rent! it can take up to a year now, because before, all sheriff courts were on top, and now we have to send to first tier which only has about a 1% of the staff that the sheriff courts had. no wonder they are slow.

Once the tenant is two months in arrears the landlord can apply to court for an eviction notice.

Council housing used to fill this market. They were the Tesco of the housing market. But the Conservatives destroyed that with Right to Buy and no successive government has ever reversed this.

No one bothered to provide incentives to create a professional private rented market. As rents here soared due to lack of supply, people stopped selling their houses when they wanted to move/ got a new partner to move in with, and instead rented the old property out. Others saw being a landlord as an alternative investment to stocks and shares for spare cash they had built up.

So the individuals with one or a handful of properties to rent are very vulnerable to any changes governments make to the private rented sector as they don't have the funds or economies of scale to cope with changes. So they sell up. Which decreases supply and increases rents.

Its an absolute mess which has been created by poor strategic planning and bad decision making.

Its not use blaming landlords. The government is responsible for making sure there is an adequate housing market for its citizens and its failed on that - both Conservative and Labour.

so it sounds like there is a much fairer balance between landlord and tenant

It's becoming virtually impossible to financially break even being a landlord now. There are so many hoops to jump through and fees to pay, that it is almost not worth it. And before everyone jumps on me, I AGREE that there are some awful, greedy and exploitative landlords out there and that standards need addressing, but there are some decent ones too, and by making it impossible to let, you are just making it harder for people who can't afford to buy.

I honestly believe that if they changed the law so that that you were allowed to rent out ONE property - ideally one that you had previously lived in - under different rules and restrictions to 'career landlords' with multiple properties, things would be better. DH and I are in our early 50s. We both bought flats in our very early 20s when times were different and you could actually get on the property ladder on a salary of £30K (which is what we did). I didn't go travelling or clubbing or whatever when my mates did - I bought a flat. When we married, we rented out one property and we have managed to hold onto it BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH. We are good landlords. The property is regularly decorated, refreshed and conforms to all safety standards. We let through an agent and consequently adhere to all the checks and certification you need. We price fairly and have rented below market rate in the past in order to accomodate a family who were stretched at market rate. We are not greedy arseholes and we are not making a fortune - the rent covers the mortgage which is not paid off as we had to release equity during covid - and not much else. But we both work freelance, with no pension or savings - so that flat IS our future security.

I'm pretty sure that there are lots of people like us, but we are 'charged' for being landlords in the same way as career landlords who 'buy to let' and have multiple properties. I also think that people who rent out just one property which is their previous home, are more invested in ensuring that the property is well kept and cared for.

It wouldn't fix everything but it means people like me and DH who are now debating selling up, would continue to rent a well kept property out at a fair price and be good landlords.

I was a good landlord, but sold up last year because the incoming Labour govt threatened to make it even more difficult for landlords. I sold to a guy who works abroad but will use it for the weeks he is in the UK. So one good family property is lost to the rental market because of the obtuse politics of envy of the Labour government.

I think the comment about entitled people is true, I have some tenants who have caused mould issues as they have the heating on high, never ventilate, dry clothes indoors etc. I have spent close to £3k on damp specialists, various repairs & redecoration but the conclusion of specialists is that it is their lifestyle that causes the mould issue, I have now spent £1k on a ventilation system to mitigate their lifestyle. However they refuse to clean the remaining mould in their bedroom claiming it’s not their responsibility & are happy to sleep in it. So tomorrow I’m off to go clean it myself. They cause damage & expect me to pick up the tab. They said they don’t use the Downstairs toilet because the seat is ‘uncomfortable’. They took my kitchen cupboard doors & a plinth off (no idea why) & asked me to put them back on. The plinth was left in the garden & warped in the rain so I couldn’t put it back on. They now complain because it’s drafty where there is no plinth but won’t pay to replace it! I despair.

They aren't in it because there's no money to be made

Jealous that someone can afford to own a house and they can't. Wanting to cause extra costs for the landlord.

Or sometimes just neglect, no cleaning for months or years, damage not fixed or reported, etc.

Well this one isn't.

I've become a LOT more stringent in my checks following a tenant, as the OP says, absolutely TOTALLING my house-over £10,000 worth of damage. Against my better judgment I had taken on someone I wouldn't necessarily usually. I ignored my spidey senses.

Sad, because I'll never do that again and probably turn down perfectly good people.

As others have said, this situation is not good. I didn't know about the 'tiktok advisors'-what would I need to search to find one of those please?

If all landlords sell up we will have a much worse situation to deal with.

Shelter do not help-telling people to stop paying their rent over the slightest issue.

It is taking up to a year to evict via the courts right now, even if no rent is being paid.
So up to a year of someone living in your property not paying rent and with no motivation to look after it.
As for this utopia of house ownership people think will be created when there are fewer Landlords thats bollocks
Fewer Rental proerties just mean that Landlords can be even more choosy about Tenants - kids, pets, benefits, low salary, self employed, new job???????
Back of the queue for getting a rental property.
IF there are fewer Private landlords then the Govt will need to provide more social housing or pay/guarantee rent direct to the LL

its getting worse-my sister who was looking to rent as ad aot of obstacles trying to be accepted as a tenant

she just sold her house as part of a divorce but even though she has cash in te bank all agents were saying she dosnt earn enough to rent-ok so how is anyone wit a low wage meant to rent somewhere even thhough they have the cash-she was told new law coming in whhere ll cant accept money upfront for rent-so theyre selling as people just dont earn enough and ll are stuck