Page 12 | Small landlords selling off isn't a great news after all

Orangesandlemons77 · 16/10/2025 18:28

PrincessofWells · 16/10/2025 17:22

It's usually a condition in the lease that the property is not rented other than as a tenancy. It would be worthwhile checking your lease to see if the leaseholders are breaching the terms.

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Yes, we are checking that. the lease is very old, from when holiday lets were not a thing (house is Georgian)

It says the flats are to be for 'one family only' also must not cause an increase to the insurance or noise or nuisance to other flats. So it may breach all of these, but not sure.

SpigTheFish · 16/10/2025 18:34

ToilingAway · 15/10/2025 18:24

Everything has been bought up by Private Equity - from football clubs to housing to Water Companies to Train Operators etc - they have access to cheap cash so can buy at inflated prices then squeeze profits out of the customers - its renty economics - nothing new is created.

But its the free market and the market is never wrong.

Not just water and train companies, they've bought up vet practices, solicitors, accountants and IT companies too.

Umbrellasinthesunshine · 16/10/2025 18:42

Ah the simplistic notion that a mortgage would be so much cheaper than the rent charged. Not unless you have about 50% deposit! The mortgage on our house for an FTB with 10% deposit would be £1k per month more than the rent we charged. And that doesn’t account for any of the additional annual upkeep/ repair/replacement costs - roughly £3kpa (averaged over 10 years as a LL). Also doesn’t include insurance costs.
We always saw it as a win-win that our house was looked after and our tenants (by their own admission) could live in a much nicer place than they could afford to buy.
We, as so many others on this thread, have had enough of all the hassle and future uncertainty and are selling. In the end our tenants overstayed their tenancy by 4 months searching for a new place because, surprise surprise, there are now fewer rentals and all in poorer condition and more expensive. It was shocking that they have ended up paying more now for a rundown place with one less bedroom and I really feel for them. I don’t think decent private landlords are the problem in this picture, but us leaving the market is creating one. There are now only 170 properties to rent in that town and over 1400 for sale. That’s not a “hoarding” of housing issue. That’s a lack of decent and affordable rental housing, in large part a dysfunction of this broken system.

Laralou991 · 16/10/2025 18:44

Hellohelga · 16/10/2025 16:23

Is the huge CGT bill because you made a huge profit? Poor you, my heart bleeds.

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Why are people on here so resentful about others making money. She’s done well to save the money and probably help secure her future and retirement. Just because your own financial situation may not be as solid, doesn’t mean you should look badly or be rude to those in a better situation

MrsMarni · 16/10/2025 18:44

Could someone tell us what the new rules asume?

AutumnCosy2025 · 16/10/2025 18:56

JHound · 15/10/2025 18:52

I will never cry a single tear for somebody with 6 BTLs

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No one's asking you to cry & you can hate all landlords if you are so narrow minded.

People WANT to rent, people WERE prepared to enable this, but good landlords are being crushed & pushed out.

fine.

But the crying about that jack if rental properties is something that was warned about when people like you were moaning about all landlords being shit. They're not. But as always people who struggle can't differentiate.

& thise who could are nis paying the price.

GinPin2 · 16/10/2025 18:58

We were landlords of a 2 bedroom flat. We were absolutely lovely landlords
We had bought that flat from my husband's inheritance when his mum died.
We did not enjoy being landlords at all and when our last tenant disappeared without paying the last month's rent we thought enough is enough.
We had had three sets of tenants,

the first ( a pair of single girls ) complained about silly little things like a funny smell, the grass being too long to reach the washing line, they should have been tending the shared garden anyway ,.etc etc They went from one little complaint to another, but eventually went their separate ways.
The second set, a father and young son, basically never let us know about problems such as with water and heating etc, until there was a lot of damage. We were so relieved when he decided to live with his girlfriend and her daughter, because the flat was too small for the blended family. We had so much expense to repair the flat.
The third tenant and her dog , well we bent over backwards for her, getting her into the flat in 2020 just before lockdown. She seemed so nice, well she wasn't and we had complaints from her neighbours
She disappeared November 2021.
All we would ever hear about on the news were the terrible landlords!!!
We sold in June 2022 and were SO happy and actually, a year later we were able to help one of our daughters out of a situation we couldn't have foreseen, the amount she needed was exactly what we sold for minus the capital gains tax!
I would now always advise, never become a small landlord.

carchi · 16/10/2025 19:02

It's because the government are too lazy and shortsighted to put in place proper systems whereby rouge landlords are made to become responsible for their actions and decent landlords are left alone to do a good job. This new legislation does not take into account that there are many different situations for both landlords and tenants.

PrincessofWells · 16/10/2025 19:23

Orangesandlemons77 · 16/10/2025 18:28

Yes, we are checking that. the lease is very old, from when holiday lets were not a thing (house is Georgian)

It says the flats are to be for 'one family only' also must not cause an increase to the insurance or noise or nuisance to other flats. So it may breach all of these, but not sure.

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A clear breach then.

Lincslady53 · 16/10/2025 19:25

My DD is in the process of moving house in South Manchester. Every house she has viewed has been a rental that the landlord is selling to get out of renting. It is going be tough for tenants over the next few years.

axolotlfloof · 16/10/2025 19:36

Goingindrain · 15/10/2025 16:45

My landlord is a small landlord, just owns his house and the one where we live. He is a nice man and charges us below the market rate rent.
He is fed up of all the anti landlord rules and has decided to sell. It seems he had an offer from FTB and then a big corporation put in an offer 10k over and he's selling it off to them via the agents.
I am worried about the rent going up and it's not a great news for tenants.

The government's anti landlord viewpoint will en up.costimg tenants more.

AlpineMuesli · 16/10/2025 19:41

Needlenardlenoo · 16/10/2025 17:39

There is an industry body. The National Residential Landlords' Association.

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Is that the one that will be mandatory to join?

thecatneuterer · 16/10/2025 19:46

AlpineMuesli · 16/10/2025 19:41

Is that the one that will be mandatory to join?

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No

sassyclassyandsmartassy · 16/10/2025 19:50

ELO10538 · 15/10/2025 18:25

It's the Rent Act 1965 all over again. That was another attempt by a Labour Govt. to protect tenants. It killed the rental market stone dead.

This, with bells on!!!!!! I really struggle to understand why in the world there is clear evidence that certain things do not work yet they keep going back to them… like trying to tax people to get out of a deficit, all the evidence shows you should stimulate the economy, but, no… Let’s completely ignore the evidence.

Winter2020 · 16/10/2025 19:56

Ginmonkeyagain · 16/10/2025 09:07

I rented privately in London for 14 years, mainly from small landlrods. Some were fine, some were bumbling amateurs, some were greedy, incompetant twats. Some friends had the misfortune to rent from outright criminals.

The problem is you are never sure which type you are going to get. Leaving supply of an essential services to a small time investors who may be ignorant of their legal duties and woefully undercapitalised feels a sub optimal way to supply a life esssential service to millions of people.

I mean you wouldn't want your energy supplied by Mr Jones who has a side hustle in in energy retail to supplement his pension.

I support a well regulated private rentsl sector alongside socially rented housing. Renting a property out is a service business and should be regulated as such. It is not some sort of favour you are doing for people unfortuanate enough not to own a house and landlords need to understand that. So I am not going to cry for incompetant "accidental" landlords or people who see tenants as interchangable mortage paying units if they have to leave.he market.

Is there sufficient social or corporate owned housing available? Or are you "not going to cry" for tenants that can't find a home either?

caringcarer · 16/10/2025 19:56

MJxJones · 15/10/2025 18:41

What are the rules and regulations small landlords are finding too onerous?

The EPC is by far the most onerous and I know many LL's with medium portfolios of between 5-9 and are going to sell them all off as all EPC D and cost to make them a C is about £13.5k each.

PetuniaT · 16/10/2025 19:59

TheNoonBell · 15/10/2025 16:53

Sadly this transfer from small landlords to mega corporations is what the government is trying to do.

Socialists always hate the kulaks.

,,,and Rache Reeves rakes in £70,000 a year from her portfolio of rented out properties. I'd like to see the tax raised on income from property rentals to make it unprofitable for landlords. Maybe that would increase the stock of properties for sale and reduce the price of them to boot.

Winter2020 · 16/10/2025 20:01

mindutopia · 16/10/2025 10:02

Our neighbours were landlords. House was a family home, I think their parents or grandparents. Recently sold for £650k not to local people, but to second home owners. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Not that most local people could have afforded it anyway. I’m very grateful to the landlords who allowed Dh and I to rent privately at a reasonable rate for the 10+ years it took us to save to buy a house.

Owning a house is expensive though. I don’t blame anyone for not putting themselves into debt to keep rents low. And I live in a place where locals are often priced out of the market by second home owners. Everyone likes to whinge about non-locals pricing locals out of the market. But no one likes to sell at prices locals want to pay. If I had to sell up my family home to afford retirement, I certainly would sell to the highest offer too, so can’t say I blame them. It’s not greedy. It’s a sensible financial decision, no matter how angry it might make Bob down at the pub.

Yes people will sell to the highest bidder but I'm hoping the doubling/ tripling of Council tax will put off a lot of second home owners. Rather like anti landlord legislation it also shows them the direction of travel of government legislation for second home owners and it's negative.

Lyraloo · 16/10/2025 20:02

flopsyuk · 15/10/2025 17:57

He doesn't sound like a nice man at all. Getting upset and selling up because of new rules isn't the action of one. Being greedy and not selling to a FTB.

There are a few landlords i can see on Rightmove around me trying to sell with tenants but there is so much else for sale these aren't going anywhere. Especially flats. No sign of any big corporations buying around me. People don't tend to buy a property with a sitting tenant.

I wonder if he is telling you the truth? Or is it any isolated local thing maybe.

My God, people like you are totally out of order. Saying he doesn’t sound nice because of rule changes!

So if you had money in the bank and your bank suddenly said, you’re getting no interest and you can’t have your money back until we want to give you it! You’d be happy with that would you?

That’s basically what these new rules are doing. If a tenant stops paying rent and refuses to move out, you have to pay a fortune to go to court, then bailiff fees and repair costs, add all that to months of no rent and the stress and financial hardship for the landlord and you have a disaster. But don’t worry, the tenants alright!

sassyclassyandsmartassy · 16/10/2025 20:06

Shelter and Generation Rent lobbied for this and are still lobbying for this HARD and government are delivering genuinely believing this is what everyone wants….

The title and body of the initial thread has nailed it. Be careful what you wish for. No corporate I have ever come across have a people centric view, it is all about profit and milking to most profit out of anything they possibly can. They aren’t going to care a stitch about anyone complaining or any fines, because they will be rich enough and untouchable enough to just ignore it or pay it and move on to the next desperate soul.

sassyclassyandsmartassy · 16/10/2025 20:09

Lyraloo · 16/10/2025 20:02

My God, people like you are totally out of order. Saying he doesn’t sound nice because of rule changes!

So if you had money in the bank and your bank suddenly said, you’re getting no interest and you can’t have your money back until we want to give you it! You’d be happy with that would you?

That’s basically what these new rules are doing. If a tenant stops paying rent and refuses to move out, you have to pay a fortune to go to court, then bailiff fees and repair costs, add all that to months of no rent and the stress and financial hardship for the landlord and you have a disaster. But don’t worry, the tenants alright!

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That it though, the tenant isn’t alright. This is the stupid thing about all of this….

The council won’t house anyone who stops paying, the tenant ends up with a CCJ as it’s been to court so can’t get further credit for a number of years and won’t be touched by another LL. On top of that the debt will remain as owed against the tenants name in the CCJ until it’s paid off and this will include a reclaim by the landlord for the majority of their legal costs as the court has to award them (or at least the prescribed allowable costs of them) if they find in the LL favour for breach of tenancy.

Therefore they will end up in a hostel, homeless, more debt than they thought they had to pay off. It’s all so bloody short sighted isn’t it? They make out this will help tenants, but I genuinely don’t see how 🤷🏻‍♀️

caringcarer · 16/10/2025 20:10

saraclara · 16/10/2025 15:30

Is that not at least in part, down to the tenants? The rental property (only 15 years old) that I've become responsible for, was in a shocking state, due to the tenants blocking all ventilation (so black mould all over the place) and their general lack of any care or respect for the property. They'd had a new bathroom, new carpets and various other work done promptly, not to mention no rent rise for 14 years. I've had to spend £2000 just to get it clean, mould-free, functional and the scrapyard that they'd turned the garden into, cleared. But the buyer will still have to completely redecorate, replace rusted radiators and put a new kitchen in.

None of that is down to me or a landlord that didn't do all that was asked of them

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I think tenants not being able to afford heating so blocking up all ventilation and refusing to use the extractor fan on or even open the window a crack when using the shower is becoming more common as gas and electric goes up in price. Also the use of indoor washing lines instead of hanging laundry outside, using a tumble dryer or launderette.

roseclouds · 16/10/2025 20:12

Chiseltip · 15/10/2025 18:02

They vilified your small local LL, you know, that guy who had six BTL's and drove a new Audi. They said he was scum, a parasite, they said he was the reason you couldn't buy a house.

So they tricked you into believing that the reason you can't get on the ladder is because he was stopping you.

But Lloyd's bank, buying up 50 THOUSAND private houses to rent back to you is fine!

You're all idiots for supporting the demise of small landlords.

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Totally agree 100%.

In my opinion, this kind of stupid generalising about "evil landlords" is no different to suggesting that everyone on benefits is just "lazy". Its an ignorant generalisation and now tenants are reaping the costly consequences

YachtMistress · 16/10/2025 20:23

The NRLA is a professional body advocating for and supporting landlords with resources and information, membership is by subscription.

For those on this thread suggesting a PRS quango, look no further than Wales. RentSmartWales (RSW), an ironically named, expensive, political, JobsForTheBoys beast.
Dealing with RSW is a Kafkaesque experience and not too be recommended.

RSW would benefit from a thorough audit and ongoing evaluation, neither of which has been built in by the politicians or beaurocrats.
Sooooo 20+ years a LL, now ex LL
ps, had some lovely tenants and some not so lovely over the years

Blablibladirladada · 16/10/2025 20:56

Dacatspjs · 15/10/2025 17:14

Look at the situation with vet practices in the UK, they used to be independent, they've been bought up one by one, it's reduced competition and prices have gone through the roof.

Consolidation never works in the customers favour.

Nothing never work in the customers’ favor..