Why are people so against private landlords?

[StopRainingNow]

I don't get it (and I'm not a landlord), no one shouts at Tesco that it is disgusting that they make money off selling something (food) to people on UC, when people need food TO literallysurvive/ live. But if someone has a business renting houses to people who need them, they are the devil. It makes no sense to me.

To make it worse, Tesco are also making profits by not paying a living wage to employees who then have to claim UC to top up their salaries and so benefit from profit from employees and customers.

Why do private landlords get such a hard time? They are providing a service to people that need it - AIBU?

Because private rent is almost always at a much higher price than social rent or a mortgage payment, as well as the added costs such as fees, several months rent required as a deposit, etc. (I know there are added costs with mortgages as well…)

on a more philosophical level, if housing is a human right then profiting from it seems a bit off. Someone else famously said it more succinctly 😆

The government sold off a lot of social housing

There is no rent cap unlike some other European countries for private letyings

This allows some nasty greedy bastards to take the absolute piss with vulnerable people

Thatchers Britain and capitalist society at its worst

It’s really sad that’s it been allowed unchecked for decades

in a nutshell

When I was at school loads of my friends lived in normal lovely council houses. A few years later Thatcher decided it was a marvellous idea to allow these people across the country to buy the houses they’d been renting off them for an amount far less than their market value. A few years later when they were allowed to these houses were sold at a profit at their market value.

Property prices eventually started going insane and people were priced out of the market and no longer had the safety of living in a nice affordable council home with their family. Decent hardworking people who no matter what their job had somewhere to live

that all went and never returned

living in a council house was seen as a negative thing for some unfathomable reason and buying was meant to encourage people to aim higher and work harder. Stupid fucking idiotic government had no idea.

People have suffered ever since especially the vulnerable and those from deprived backgrounds who are often stuck in shoddy accommodation or looked down upon if they do manage to secure council housing

No government thus far has bothered to properly rectify this so it’s a shameful mess.

Because I’m sitting with no bathroom light, cockroaches and mice whilst he is getting full rent and my complaints ain’t doing a thing.

If a lot of people own their homes at least they will be able to fund their care home fees. If they rent the public will have to fund them.

@MyIvyGrows FYI legally only 5 weeks rent can be taken as a deposit now. A couple of tenancies ago, I was given money back when this law came in.

@StopRainingNow I think part of it is the utter imbalance of power. The tenant is at the mercy of the landlord to actually do repairs (see @Earrump 's post above) and if you complain you risk being evicted/having the rent put up. My last landlord ignored me when I brought issues to her attention that she didn't want to deal with. I just put up with it and couldn't afford to go anywhere else. But it's not a nice situation to be in. OTOH I know that landlords can be screwed over by tenants who don't pay their rent and/or damage the property, but I think more often it's the case that the tenant is just a normal, rent paying tenant who is basically trapped and has to keep the landlord sweet.

I agree with the OP - of course bad landlords exist, but there are plenty of posts on here from people in social housing struggling to get basic maintenance and essential repairs done - all landlords should be held to the same standards. Social housing is massively discounted so comparing the rent levels really doesn't work. Personally I think social housing rents should function on a sliding scale according to the tenant's income, so if you earn more you pay more rent - which then funds more social housing schemes.

No one talks about the impact of population increases on the housing market, and the gov seem incapable of regulating Air BNB or enforcing housing standards.

The landlords are a symptom of a dysfunctional housing market not the cause. So one oriole need to rent and if you put your seats into a home you rent out ours not unreasonable you get a fair reward. But their are some who over charge and don’t look after the property and they deserve vilification, but many do not.

I think it’s because it’s seen as a way of earning money for doing very little. Personally I think our housing model in the uk is pretty rubbish. I’d like to see no private landlords maybe, and instead move to always renting from the council? I’m sure someone will tell me what a terrible idea that is but I don’t think our current renting schemes are working for either tenants or landlords.

No objections to private landlords in principle but too many mistakes have been made. Too many private landlords don’t fulfil their legal obligations. Mainly the hate comes from the anger at the profits that were made while prices were rising.
The housing situation is awful now so people have to be angry at someone and landlords are seen as having all the power. People don’t understand how much has to be charged for a landlord to make a letting viable. I do know that in reality they often take on all the risk and do a lot of work.

Someone at work was saying they had ‘paid for half their flat’ having been there for 10 years. It’s not that simple at all! They didn’t factor in deposit, additional interest for a BTL mortgage, insurance, maintenance. I pointed out that if they bought their flat now it would cost them more than they were paying in rent.

Then again I know a private landlord who thinks he’s a financial genius because he bought two flats ten years ago and considers the estimated equity as money in the bank. He’d probably struggle to sell them for what he thinks and would have to pay for voids and CGT and costs.

Sensible people don’t hate landlords. We’re just sick of the housing crisis.

When I private rented my landlord did absolutely shit all maintenance. I had to beg them to come out as the shower was leaking through the kitchen ceiling so we couldn’t wash, ask them to replace decking as it had rotted and couldn’t walk on it without potentially putting your foot through it. The window leaked and it made the wall bow out it had absorbed that much water, but you know that was our fault as condensation 🤷‍♀️ the dehumidifier was on all the time. There was no thermostat so heating was in full blast or cold but they said we didn’t need that. Couldn’t open the front door as a gutter they refused to fix leaked so much that the door had swollen up. This was fine until we needed to leave and they wouldn’t come out until we threatened to just kick it in and threw fire safety at them. All the while he happily took our money. That is why people hate landlords because they don’t care about the living conditions of people.

i haven’t got an issue with landlords as such if I could buy a let I probably would, but I would ensure my tenants pay fair rent not over inflated because you know they can (my house was owned outright by him) and I would ensure to the best of my ability they didn’t have to fight for issues to be fixed

Which then gives them a better choice of where they will be placed over someone who doesn't own - lucky them.

Of corse that's if they haven't changed ownership on their property so the state does have to pick up the bill.

Because many don't maintain the houses they own, don't repair things when they go wrong, and have so much power they can kick you out with two months' notice for absolutely no reason. You can never feel settled because you never know when you'll be issued a section 21, and despite paying vast amounts of money in rent you never know if the landlord will deign to fix the oven/leak/fence.

I am so grateful I can afford to own my own house now. I lived in six rented places as a student and young person, and only two had landlords (actually both women) who sorted out problems efficiently.

Because out of the families I knew when my kid started reception,, not a single one who was in private rented housing was at the same school by the time those children were in Y6 - they had all been evicted so that the landlord could either sell the house or rent it for more profit (usually turning the house into student accommodation), and there were no suitable homes available near the school. And in most cases those kids couldn't have a pet, or even decorate their bedroom how they would like.

I can see how renting could work with more protections for tenants - if you could move into a home with your kids and pets, have the right to stay there as long as you liked so long as you paid the rent, obeyed the law etc, could decorate to a reasonable extent and got maintenance issues sorted out swiftly, then renting would probably be more popular and being a landlord would be more like a job and less like an investment.

TBH thats not down to the LL... hear me out!! its down to the terrible lack of enforcement on shit LLs.

People generally speaking, aren't nice people when it comes to money, regulation is vital as is enforcement.

ATM all we have is regulation and no enforcement.

Labours new renters rights bill wont change a thing for you either, there will still be no enforcement.

Councils either have no money to do so or, more likely, aren't interested.

It’s a symptom of a screwed up system, as PP wrote.

Poor maintenance due to lack of accountability and enforcement
High costs (with related evictions, rent rises, insecurity) because the housing market is the UK’s “product”

I’m a landlord (kept my old flat and rented it out when I moved on). I’ve had two tenants over eight years, because amazingly when you don’t put the rent up willy-nilly and actually do repairs when they are needed people stay put and live very happily.

They’re hateful because the bar is so low. There is no obligation for basic standards, think insulation, double glazing and decent heating. My daughter is looking for accommodation again 14 months on from her last eviction, that time and this time because the landlords are selling.
The flats she has been looking at are often damp, none have double glazing and a couple have still got ancient storage heaters in place. The average rent for these pitiable offerings is £1600 a month. She has been on the council list for ever and because she s not willing to put herself and her small daughter in a homeless hostel to rub shoulders with newly discharged convicts and drug dealers carries o spending most of her PIP money on making up the shortfall for the extortionate rent.
The Tories voted down that accommodation had to be fit for human habitation as a basic minimum so that should tell you how our country sees renters. As of April last year 93 MPs are landlords ( 38 degrees) , make of that what you will.

In the distant past there used to be housing officers at the Council who you could complain to if landlord not doing his job.

Is food not a human right then?

Private tenants have -

No security of tenancy, meaning lots of school moves and stress finding new accommodation

No protection against huge rent increases, unethical and often unaffordable

No enforcement of maintenance standards, poor quality and often dangerous accommodation

Bunch of Marxists on here. A human right to housing? Jesus, what about working for what you get? Too many people doing too little in this country - I don't care what you think because one day when taxpayers have nothing left to give you, you will either be dirt poor or you will work.

I'm a landlord, I developed a few new homes. I've stopped developing them and won't touch it until the rules are friendlier to landlords.

Human right to housing? No wonder we have millions of immigrants moving here.

@AuntyDepressant Yea. What do you think?

It is, and if you do not earn sufficient money you are given some via the benefits system to buy it.

Because often the places are shitholes.
I don’t get it; if I were a landlord, I’d want my tenants to live somewhere nice.

Jealousy.

We rent out my husband's Batchelor pad which he kept when he met me and we bought a house together. By God it's kept our heads above water and off benefits when we were both out of work with a young family to support .

Now the rent supplements his meagre piss take just above min wage ( for a skilled role) salary and I'm back in work at mid level so we are hardly rolling in it.