Page 11 | Why are people so against private landlords?

StopRainingNow · 2025-07-27T03:29:00+00:00

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?

hattie43 · 28/07/2025 12:01

KungFuFiatPanda · 28/07/2025 09:25

Maybe your reality as a landlord is different from mine as a tenant?

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Well then do better and you won’t have to rely on the landlords you despise .

BeRedRobin · 28/07/2025 12:02

Jealousy mostly. If they have an opportunity to be one they'd grab it with both hands.
We are good landlord, our tenant pays the same rent as 15 years ago and we fix issues right away.

Original poster

StopRainingNow · 28/07/2025 12:12

Purpleturtle45 · 27/07/2025 22:12

I'm so baffled by the people saying it's not ethical to make money from housing. What about house builders? Should you not make money when you buy/sell property? Should plumbers not make money as water is a basic human right? Where do you draw the line?

This is my point exactly. It seems weird that people are so odd about landlords but have no issue with other basic essentials being commodities. Maybe it is because rent is such a high proportion of people's income that they can't/wont understand that it is exactly the same thing as people profiting from selling food or doing plumbing.

Those who say about the capital gain that landlords make when selling after renting also don't understand mortgages very well either. A repayment mortgage with a loan of £250k at 4% will cost approx £402k to pay back over 25 years. So if you bought the average priced house for £250k you'd have paid £152k in interest by the time it was sold, which would probably wipe out any profit people are assuming you'd have made, and that's before any of the costs of owning and maintaining a house.

OP posts:

pokewoman · 28/07/2025 12:14

I rent.

I've had no carpet for almost a year on the stairs and landing because it was that threadbare it was slippery and fraying around the doors, so the kids kept getting trapped in their room.

My bathroom is the original bathroom from when rhe house was built in the 60s...its falling apart.

We aren't allowed to use rhe main plug socket in the lounge because of a problem with it - but they're in no rush to sort it.

I've waited in and used annual leave for contractors they've organised who didn't bother turning up. They didn't care.

I've been charged £50 when contractors have then turned up at a time which we haven't agreed to and I've been about to go and pick kids up from school (but it was fine when they were supposed to come a week earlier and just didn't bother!)

We went 4 days without hot water snd heating in the winter cause rhe letting agent couldn't get in touch with the landlord.

But if Im more than five minutes late paying my extortionate rent -- they expect it by 8am on the day - they're quick enough to call me.

hattie43 · 28/07/2025 12:27

pokewoman · 28/07/2025 12:14

I rent.

I've had no carpet for almost a year on the stairs and landing because it was that threadbare it was slippery and fraying around the doors, so the kids kept getting trapped in their room.

My bathroom is the original bathroom from when rhe house was built in the 60s...its falling apart.

We aren't allowed to use rhe main plug socket in the lounge because of a problem with it - but they're in no rush to sort it.

I've waited in and used annual leave for contractors they've organised who didn't bother turning up. They didn't care.

I've been charged £50 when contractors have then turned up at a time which we haven't agreed to and I've been about to go and pick kids up from school (but it was fine when they were supposed to come a week earlier and just didn't bother!)

We went 4 days without hot water snd heating in the winter cause rhe letting agent couldn't get in touch with the landlord.

But if Im more than five minutes late paying my extortionate rent -- they expect it by 8am on the day - they're quick enough to call me.

Where I am the landlord wouldn’t be able to get away with that . The local council would be on at him like a ton of bricks .

pokewoman · 28/07/2025 12:30

hattie43 · 28/07/2025 12:27

Where I am the landlord wouldn’t be able to get away with that . The local council would be on at him like a ton of bricks .

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Sadly, they have us over a barrel to a degree because they own a huge amount of the houses to rent for here...not that there's any available anyway so we have to suck it up, roll our eyes and do half of the smaller jobs ourselves because while retaliation eviction is illegal, they would just not renew our lease if we kicked up a fuss and we would end up in homeless accommodation for years.

Mischance · 28/07/2025 12:36

My DD and her OH own 3 properties which they let. It is how they make their living - amongst other things.

They are good landlords - they respond instantly to any problems, set a fair rent and behave decently.

KungFuFiatPanda · 28/07/2025 12:40

Everyone stressing that landlords don't actually making any money, while also saying they shouldn't be expected to let people live in their asset without making a profit - is the point that they're just really fucking stupid then?

Why else would you hold on to an asset that you're not making profit from while insisting that the point of housing is that it should allow you to make a profit from it?

Crikeyalmighty · 28/07/2025 13:33

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER yep indeed - luckily for us we rent relatively high end and whilst their is demand it’s not as huge as at a lesser level rent wise - and there are less rogue landlords around in that market - tends to be more inherited places that a family decide to keep or families with nice homes away with work for a few years - even then as I posted below I have a landlord who seems happy to do sod all maintainance wise, and they aren’t short of money - on a 900k value house to me it beggars belief

Badbadbunny · 28/07/2025 14:05

KungFuFiatPanda · 28/07/2025 12:40

Everyone stressing that landlords don't actually making any money, while also saying they shouldn't be expected to let people live in their asset without making a profit - is the point that they're just really fucking stupid then?

Why else would you hold on to an asset that you're not making profit from while insisting that the point of housing is that it should allow you to make a profit from it?

It's the double-dipping that is the problem. Landlords expect to make profit on a yearly basis i.e. rents received being more than the costs, AND expect to make a capital profit/gain in the long term due to house price inflation.

You don't get that kind of double dipping with other investments. With, say, shares, you get a relative small dividend each year (akin to bank interest) of a few percent, but you hope for long term capital gain when you come to sell the shares. Sometimes there are no dividends each year at all, but still hope for long term capital gain.

Landlords expect a profit each year AND a big lump sum profit when they come to sell. Double dipping!

jasflowers · 28/07/2025 14:35

hattie43 · 28/07/2025 12:27

Where I am the landlord wouldn’t be able to get away with that . The local council would be on at him like a ton of bricks .

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In England, many tenants who have involved the council and/or complained end up being evicted at a later date.
Also known as Revenge Evictions.

Their only protection is for 6months and that is if the council takes enforcement notice, very rare.

hattie43 · 28/07/2025 15:11

KungFuFiatPanda · 28/07/2025 12:40

Everyone stressing that landlords don't actually making any money, while also saying they shouldn't be expected to let people live in their asset without making a profit - is the point that they're just really fucking stupid then?

Why else would you hold on to an asset that you're not making profit from while insisting that the point of housing is that it should allow you to make a profit from it?

Could be a number of reasons , eg a lot of landlords have shitty leases and cannot afford to extend , or no-one will buy the property because of service charges . It could be in negative equity .

Original poster

StopRainingNow · 28/07/2025 18:44

Badbadbunny · 28/07/2025 14:05

It's the double-dipping that is the problem. Landlords expect to make profit on a yearly basis i.e. rents received being more than the costs, AND expect to make a capital profit/gain in the long term due to house price inflation.

You don't get that kind of double dipping with other investments. With, say, shares, you get a relative small dividend each year (akin to bank interest) of a few percent, but you hope for long term capital gain when you come to sell the shares. Sometimes there are no dividends each year at all, but still hope for long term capital gain.

Landlords expect a profit each year AND a big lump sum profit when they come to sell. Double dipping!

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Sorry, how on earth can you say that receiving dividends and also capital when they are sold is not getting a double dip!! 🤣

OP posts:

Crikeyalmighty · 28/07/2025 18:50

@Badbadbunny I do agree with you on that - I do hear landlords saying I’m just about breaking even with all the costs - not factoring in on some good years houses were also going up 10% a year .

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 18:54

Because people are jealous, it's like a lot of people won't support family and friends businesses but happily pay to companies that profiteer. People are very detached too of the costs of buying, maintaining a house, and the concept of interest paid in mortgages, they think landlords make massive profits, that was maybe a thing of the past but generally not so much now. In some areas is actually cheaper to rent than to buy.

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 18:58

Indicateyourintentions · 27/07/2025 06:36

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.

If the landlords would be making lots of profit they would not be selling...yes house might be crap but they might be paying a hefty mortgage for all you know....

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 19:02

PeonyBulb · 27/07/2025 05:27

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.

Everyone blames high house prices on Thatcher selling council homes , that is not the problem. In any case these people were afforded the opportunity to own a home, then THEY profiteer for something they bought at very low prices...the issue here is not that, they sold and. Ought another home, the problem here is that the government has not continued to build affordable homes at the pace that is needed to house the ever growing population.

Tedsnan1 · 28/07/2025 19:19

AhBiscuits · 27/07/2025 07:15

Then report him to the council. They will inspect and if there's an issue he'll be forced to rectify it.

Edited

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😂😂😂

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 19:41

Marshmallow4545 · 27/07/2025 07:07

People hate private landlords because they don't understand basic economic principles and the true cost of property ownership for themselves, the Council or the landlord. We are now in a position where lots of landlords are losing money on the property they own and still some will insist that they are ripping tenants off.

Basically it comes down to this. Houses (and the land they are built on) are expensive and you need a lot of money to be able to either build one or buy one off someone else. Nobody, including the Government, is sat there with enough money to buy or build everyone in the UK a house so they have to look for outside parties to lend us money. The population generally understands this at an individual level as we pay interest on mortgages and nobody is in uproar about this even though this can actually increase the amount we actually end up paying for the house by an awful lot of money. For example few people would guess that someone who bought a house for £200k with a 25 year mortgage with a 5% interest rate would pay over £150k in interest so pay £350k plus for the house. Why aren't people angry with the bank for profiteering off people buying houses? Aren't they ripping homebuyers off?

The banks make some profit, but even if they didn't, homebuyers would still have to pay a similar amount of interest and this is due to the cost of capital. If you won the lottery and had £10 million, you would have options about what what you did with the money. You could buy stocks and shares, commodities, property or simply put it in the bank and let it earn interest. Currently you can get around 5% interest on that money by literally leaving it in the bank. The bank is paying to hold on to your money. The cost of capital is currently therefore really high for banks, individuals and for the State.

From a landlord's perspective it's a bit of a double whammy. Many are on interest only mortgages and rely on house prices appreciating to make money. They now have increased mortgage payments as the cost of capital is so high and all the expenses and hassle associated with owning property and dealing with difficult tenants. They also know that they could often get a much better and easier return on any capital they do have tied up in the property by simply selling up and putting the money in the bank. Houses prices are down though so many have negative equity or stand to make a loss which makes them reluctant to sell. Those that do carry on are vilified and unfairly compared to Social Housing landlords that don't have to contend with the cost of capital in the same way. Because of this SH is hugely subsidised by the tax payer but people naively assume that because the day to day cost of ownership is covered by the discounted rents that SH rents are a sustainable or sensible rent when it simply isn't the case. We live in a Capitalist world and we can't just ignore inconvenient truths around interest payments and difficulties in raising capital because we all want cheap housing. No country on the world can do that.

You worded it so well. People are so financially illiterate, this is one of the main reasons why these exact people that hate on landlords, will never be able to own a house. It's not just about being born disadvantaged but sadly also unwilling to educate themselves to understand the basic concepts of economics, so trying to explain this is pointless. I have colleagues complaining that their rent is expensive, so I say, how much will it cost you to buy that place? Literally explained the numbers to them including the thousands their landlords would have to put down as a deposit, and how much a mortgage payment would be, surprise surprise the landlord is probably losing money because the mortgage payment and tax was more than the rent and they would still have to pay maintenance and landlord insurance and of course take that risk of a tenant not paying...

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 19:54

Purpleturtle45 · 27/07/2025 07:51

Scotland is the only country in the UK that has rent controls and their rents have increased more than any other part of the UK. Landlords are hiking up rents in between tenants as they know that once they have a tenant in they can barely increase the rent for the duration of, what could be, a long tenancy.

The only answer is more social housing.

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Yes that's the only solution. Of course landlords will increase the rent between tenants (as that's the only chance they have) and of course rent has gone up more than in other areas, as prices have gone up more than in other areas too... obviously rents won't go down...

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 19:57

Anything that someone else has to fight for or work to produce is not a right. It's a privilege.

bigbreakfastclub · 28/07/2025 19:58

Our rents are still under the standard rent in Scotland. Also we wouldn’t consider moving our tenants out to change tenancy in order to increase rents.
There are good landlords to you can’t judge all the same.

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 21:03

KungFuFiatPanda · 27/07/2025 19:02

@Chiseltip

"people already can't afford to rent " - yeah, because of the prices landlords are charging. How can the prices of rental properties be a problem without the people charging those prices be to blame? Landlords set those unaffordable rents.

If a rental provides a home for 4 families over a decade, then that's four lots of kids forced to move school and parents forced to fork out for the cost of moving. Can you enlighten me as to where the positive in that is?

As for more landlords meaning more homes, landlords don't actually build houses, which seems to be conveniently overlooked by everyone defending them.

Landlords don't set the rent. The market does. So you think if the landlord is paying £1500 mortgage a month ,having already paid 25% of the property value up front then they should rent for less than the mortgage price? House prices go up and interest rates go up equals rent going up, it's common sense... everything is incredibly expensive.

Lifeofthepartay · 28/07/2025 21:07

Purpleturtle45 · 27/07/2025 22:49

Your views are just so far removed from reality though!

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@KungFuFiatPanda must work for free 😂

Mischance · 28/07/2025 21:23

Badbadbunny · 28/07/2025 14:05

It's the double-dipping that is the problem. Landlords expect to make profit on a yearly basis i.e. rents received being more than the costs, AND expect to make a capital profit/gain in the long term due to house price inflation.

You don't get that kind of double dipping with other investments. With, say, shares, you get a relative small dividend each year (akin to bank interest) of a few percent, but you hope for long term capital gain when you come to sell the shares. Sometimes there are no dividends each year at all, but still hope for long term capital gain.

Landlords expect a profit each year AND a big lump sum profit when they come to sell. Double dipping!

Show quote history

So do you think their sole profit should be in the growth of their asset which will only provide them with cash when they sell? - which would involve making the tenants homeless.

I think it is entirely reasonable that they should make a regular profit each month - they are not running a charity! They have taken the financial risks, they have maintenance and other outgoings associated with the property. It is their business and they have a right to an income, same as all of us.

As long as the rent they charge is fair - and in the case of my family the agent sets the rent - then I see no problem. And as long as they treat their tenants fairly and make sure problems are dealt with speedily. People want rented housing and they are supplying it for them, just as people want T-shirts and the manufacturers provide them for them to buy.