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?

The funny thing is I was at a hippie, love peace and rainbows type festival last year and one of the tents had a lefty, right on slightly political type group who were doing a number of talks one of them titled 'all landlords are bastards'
Not so loving and peaceful then, were they...

@Indicateyourintentions

When I was a teen your DD and her DD would have been given somewhere nice to live very quickly no questions asked

The media hounded young single mothers constantly. It was horrific.

It breaks my heart that your DD can’t just move into a council property that’s maintained so she and her DD can just get on and live their lives.

In many European countries most people don’t own their own properties and don’t feel like they are expected to. Private rental properties are capped and loads of social housing is provided.

I don't object to all landlords, they are necessary. I object to how grasping some are.DD recently moved out of a student house. Charged for the fridge freezer being dirty. I know that's a lie because I cleaned it - very well - myself and everyone left that day and it was empty until the door was locked behind them all.
Just one example of their false claims on the deposit. She is disputing claims. When asked for proof that the fridge was dirty they sent a picture of the clean fridge freezer....

They hate private landlords on here, if anyone dares mention a positive experience they get ripped to shreds.

Yeah I don't ever get the argument about it being wrong making a profit off housing. It's a lot of hassle being a landlord and you are totally shafted by the government at every turn. Do people just expect you to be a landlord for free?

As other have said the problem is the lack of social housing and people being allowed to buy council houses which creates a huge need for private landlords who are filling the gap.

I am an accidental landlord (bought a flat in 2007, paid a huge amount for it and straight after the market crashed). I make no monthly profit after tax/bills. I am always quick to deal with any issues. It's a hassle but sticking it out as the mortgage is paid off soon and I might finally start making a small profit each month (after 20 years 🤦🏼‍♀️).

Exactly the same as housing then!

I totally agree. Over 40% of former council houses are now owned by private landlords.

The privatisation of British Gas and the water companies have been similarly disastrous and have just made a load of wealthy shareholders and energy and water company bosses massively rich while people can't afford their energy and water bills and our seas and rivers are full of shit.

What a great post to highlight just how completely and utterly out of touch some people are

the mind boggles

Look at the name - it's just a goady/joke post. Ignore.

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.

Because these people are thick and economically illiterate. They don’t understand the simplest ever concept of supply and demand.

We have a shortage of housing not because people buy them to rent out. We have a shortage of housing because the population of this country is growing at the rate of adding the city the size of Leeds each year, thanks to mass uncontrolled immigration. And we are not building enough houses to house the incomers.

These same economically and fiscally illiterate people want cheaper free housing, nothing to ever be built near them and open borders at the same time.

Go figure.

If your mind boggles at that, your mind is the problem.

Housing is not free, it doesn’t just appear out of thin air. You can ask for all the freebies you want, but eventually other people’s money runs out.

Doing a service 😂😂😂 please, they're making a profit and have decided this is the way to make it.

For problems with the private landlord model take a look at Australia. Since the last 1990s, favourable tax systems have been set up for "mum and dad investors" as they were described. The result is that an enormous proportion of boomers own more than one property- many own multiple- and Millennials in their late thirties are struggling to buy even their first home because their isn't enough stock to go around.

It also led to a steep increase in property prices because home-owners can leverage their equity over and over again to pay the deposit on other houses, which then simply gain value from existing, while those trying to save a deposit for their first home find the deposit required grows quicker than their income could ever account for.

It's described here as a housing crisis, for this and many other issues. And it's contributed to deep generational bitterness.

Some of it is because it's so much harder to find affordable housing now for the younger generation simply because they were born more recently. It's not the same with food.

@LavenderBlue19sadly joke or not people do think that way

I’m ok I bought my first property when I was young with my own money when property was cheap and affordable.

I have no idea what my DC will be able to afford or not and I don’t really want them living with me when and if they finish uni.

It’s a housing mess that’s for sure

Landlords should be forced to improve their rental properties if they fall short within a short timeframe and if not be forced to sell that property at auction. The law should be brutal on them not the renters paying for overpriced substandard properties

Plus plenty of landlords aren't interested in actually being landlords and just want the money.

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

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.

We managed to have more social housing for previous generations...

I'm a landlord,

Who'd have guessed!

Personally I object to so much tax getting funnelled into private landlords hands via housing benefit.

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.

You can still be ripping tenants off if you leveraged yourself too high & are losing money.

I own not but rented privately for 15 years - at a whole variety of levels of income and and in different parts of the UK.

My objection to private landlords was that in 95% of cases they were hopeless, while charging a small fortune in rent. All seemed to have no interest in being a landlord and saw any participation in this at all as a huge imposition.

• Refusal to do maintenance, even when the council was involved and including hazards to health
• Refusing to commmunicate with me - or even answer the phone or emails
• Failing to clean houses between tenancies or remove previous tenants belongings
• Demanding rent increases of 5-25% at various times
• Trying to get deposits reduced for normal wear and tear

Every tenancy bar one was a battle at some point, it was exhausting.

There are far too many landlords using the rent to pay the mortgage, meaning they don’t have the funds to actually maintain the property they own.

Of all the landlords I've ever rented from, the only decent ones were the ones who were 'full-time' landlords - family-owned property company with multiple properties. Something broke, you called up, they sorted it. The worst ones by far were the ones who wanted you to grovel and act like they were doing you a favour renting you their ex-council house they'd bought for a pittance in 1980 and were now charging you up to the eyeballs for, despite having done barely any work to it in the years since bar adding the cheapest of everything and then trying to guilt trip you by going 'but I raised my children here' when you asked where you were supposed to dry clothes given there was no garden, no tumble dryer, and a clause in the contract saying washing couldn't be dried indoors.

I agree we need landlords but the amount of amateurish operations by people who haven't got a clue what is required of them and at the same time think they're Jeff Bezos because they can burble 'returns' and 'portfolio' at you needs to be dramatically cut down.

There are far too many landlords using the rent to pay the mortgage, meaning they don’t have the funds to actually maintain the property they own.

Yes and so many don't seem to understand that investments can go up & down if you are borrowing money for a BTL.

You're comparing them to Tescos, but landlords dont offer a product to buy, they offer a service.

And in any other industry, if a business consistently offered shit service at a massive premium, it would go under.

Many BTL landlords actually do a good job, especially the ones with multiple properties. The shit landlords are the ones with the "woe is me, i just happened to inherit this house" landlords who dont want to put in the effort but are also too greedy to sell, so they just rent their crap property out, collect their income and treat you like they're doing you a favour.

Renters rights kn this country are so bad. One of the weirdest things I find about the UK, is that you walk around and see people fawning over their pets - Ive never lived anywhere so cat and dog obsessed - but then looking at places to rent, the vast majority state no pets.

I don't care what you think.

I made homes for people, nice homes for families. I let them at fair prices and paid a lot of tax. I didn't do lots of them but I created jobs and provided homes. Then I got shafted. I won't do it anymore.

The Marxist anti capitalist policies you advocate will simply result in fewer homes being built and let. Its already happening as landlords leave the market.

If you keep screwing the investors and developers and calling them evil, guess what? At some point they simply won't invest or develop anymore.

Even in Communist Russia you didnt have a human right to a house, most people's homes were linked to the company they worked for and even there people tried to work for the companies that provided the nicest housing.