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?

It’s always the fault of others with this lot.

Speaking of ownership, they never take it.

And again, speaking of ownership…. Can’t afford to securely house your kids? Don’t have them :)

With such a lovely compassionate attitude to mankind, it's baffling that anyone could possibly think there's anything morally wrong with landlords, isn't it?

Tough shit for women escaping DV.

My mum thought she was in a secure relationship, 3 kids, he beat her black and blue, left him, no where to live, luckily we had council housing back then.

People like you would have us all in the Work House.

I’m not a landlord. Have never owned a home.

don’t like the way the modern world works? Move to a commune.

So your mum got you all sorted in a council house. Excellent.
what’s your point?

So you are now comparing those that put time, labour and skill in to a job that they should get paid for against someone that bought a house, rents it out and does comparatively nothing?

Many people on low incomes need a top-up to be able to afford their private rent. This is paid by the Government out of taxes. The Government is paying directly towards the income of some private landlords.

Wouldn't it just be better if those on low incomes had affordable decent housing, such as council housing? I mean wouldn't it?

It's so obvious, I'm surprised it needs explaining.

Can I just say too even if you are paying at the high end ( and we rent a very nice 4 bedder in Bath) there are plenty of landlords who are utterly shit at sorting maintenance of any kind - we love our house and pay very big money but the landlords appear to be happy to do totally jack shit, particularly external stuff - even if it devalues their house. The Agents are just as bad too . If it wasn’t the fact it would cost us around £3k to move we would do so based on a total lack of giving a shit at their end - we are model tenants too and have been here almost 3 years , have a Gardner in etc , rent always on time,

Well I can only comment on myself obviously but I certainly don't think it's low effort being a landlord and I just have one property. I know people hate on landlords and I know they aren't all good but equally tenants can be a nightmare as well. My last tenant pretty much destroyed the property. Every bit of furniture had to go to the tip and the whole place painted with new carpets. Their deposit covered a fraction of that. It's certainly not just a case of sitting back and a whole whack of money arriving in your bank account each month.

@Crikeyalmighty I’m not actually private renting as there are plenty of people like ourselves who can’t buy for whatever reason but earn pretty well ( we are too old now to get mortgages) and aren’t looking for 1 and 2 bed flats or small 2 bedder houses , at that level though the sooner the supply increases of nice new social housing , the sooner we get a load of real chancers out the market . I appreciate some aren’t like this but far too many are - and yes some HAs and councils with older housing stock aren’t great at keeping it in order either

Three kids before one discovers their partner is violent - that is terrible luck.
One would imagine the violence would show itself with the first child, or prior to….

That should say I’m not actually ‘against’ private renting

Common sense, no?

Why would people have dependents if they are unable to provide for them?
Call me old-fashioned.

@Purpleturtle45 and as a tenant myself I genuinely think there should be a black list of tenants like this .

I have had good landlords and bad ones, the worse ones have not been landlords with minimal portfolios but those with larger portfolios.

I don't hate people for being a landlord.I dislike those that don't do it properly.

I also believe that in the same way that there should be a black list for bad tenants there should be a list preventing/blocking poor landlords.

I am also aware that for smaller landlords there is little profit and that many banks only supply interest only BTL mortgages.

But does the landlord do a lot? most pay agencies to the work, carpets should be replaced periodically and the rooms painted.
Most places are rented unfurnished, even some without white goods.
And if you are visiting on a regular basis then you would be in breach of contract.

Yes that would be good.

Because housing is an expensive resource and people naturally find others making passive income off people paying them rent distasteful.

Especially as high rents (set by profit seeking landlords) make it more and more difficult for people to save for deposits. And that is without accounting for the fact that many landlords keep their properties in disgusting states so as to make even more money.

I completely acknowledge the necessity of landlords but will always look down on multi-property landlords.

Especially the ones who cry about how much harder it is now to make money from landlording.

Because too many are greedy - they a) whack the rent up just because they can, b) fail to carry out maintenance/repairs, and don’t respect tenants’ privacy, barging in whenever they feel like it, d) insist on viewings when they’ve decided to sell, before the tenants they’re evicting have left.

I say all this as a LL myself.

Where would those people live then?

If they can't respect other people's property then they need to somehow find a way to afford their own home. If they can't and want to rent someone else's property then they need to respect it, that's a decision they need to make for themselves. We are all adults and responsible for ourselves, you can't expect to be able to act however you like towards other people with no consequences.

@KungFuFiatPanda they are the people I would make stay in the grotty B&Bs - maybe a spell in a less than ideal situation may focus them a bit onto not trashing places- and leave the private keys for those who at least keep somewhere ‘ok’ and don’t trash it .

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER interesting you say that as the law is changing - our LL has put the rent up every year ( please bear in mind it’s multi thousands) it’s now to be honest well overpriced. I’ve started taking rightmove snapshots of similar if not better things on market for a fair bit less. Under the new ruling the rent can’t just be increased unless rentals have generally ‘gone up’ in that area. Clearly in our case they haven’t - they’ve gone down slightly

Some people! You can lead a horse to water....

Council housing isn't available now, she'd be at the mercy of temporary accommodation, stuck in a B&B - costing the tax payer a small fortune, eventually moved into a damp cold flat.

Brilliant.

In the area where we have our sole property, rents have soared during the past few years. It can’t be solely down to interest rate rises (the usual excuse) - I know from the odd good old nose on the Land Reg what was originally paid for the properties - often relative peanuts ten or so years ago, compared to current prices. But demand is so high, that the properties will find tenants anyway.