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

[Goingindrain]

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.

My friend owns a buy-to-let property in Scotland, and it’s become an absolute nightmare with increasing costs. The government think everyone who has more than one home is a millionaire and the fees are unbelievable. She’s now selling it because she’s taxed on the full rental income - not just the profit. For example, her mortgage is £550 a month, she charges her tenant £850, and she’s taxed on the entire £850 rather than the £300 she actually makes. I realise some people might think ‘boo hoo’ but she actually worked incredibly hard to keep this property, hoping it would one day be her pension, but it won’t work out like that.

I belong to NRLA. They're helpful and advocate for tenants as well as landlords. Once you've joined (it's not expensive) you can get advice on e.g. getting contracts right, refurbishment of properties, changes to the law, etc etc.

I only joined to purchase their insurance, and o get tenancy templates, but they've been good.

Something I like about their magazine is that they regularly feature landlords doing specialist stuff like renting to the disabled, refugees, tenants without deposits, students and so on and explain what needs taking into account to let to those types of tenants successfully.

What to do about it though. I have contacted the CAB who told me to ask the Leasehold Advisory Service, who I messaged but have heard nothing back from.

Tried the local councillor, said they have been lobbying against holiday lets but couldn't help. said to look at the lease...

Labour are definitely not socialist. Only a dumb right winger would think so.

Sadly, most landlords are money grabbers. I'd ban them all.

It depends upon who the freeholder is. A complaint to the freeholder with evidence the lease is being breached is your starting point. Once the freeholder is aware of the breach they are under an obligation to enforce the terms of the lease.

@Snakebite61 Do you think the old council house system is the best approach or large-scale corporate landlords?

I don’t know where many renters are going to live in a few months if their landlords are selling up. Unless a corporate landlord buys the property.

Well this is the short term issue. I would imagine a number will end up having to be assisted in some way by the local authority either with assistance in finding accommodation or for those to whom a housing duty is owed, they will be in temporary accommodation. If in the south east that could be for a number of years.

As I said earlier, successive governments have created the issue, and it will take a number of parliaments to deal with it. But unless tax is increased it's going to be very much more difficult than it currently is.

Unfortunately what will happen is what has happened with water, energy, vets and other professions where large companies buy them up, create monopolies, and price fix. Ultimately this results in less choice, less competition, and a poor deal for consumers.

Right to rent paperwork when renting to people from the EU (very common in London)
long and tedious tax return to declare a measly £1-2k annual profit (which will need to be done quarterly rather than annually soon)
energy performance certificate and rectifying if not deemed efficient enough
Contract negotiations, references, inventory, annual contracts renewals
gas safety certificate
boiler service and repairs
fire safety regulations (in high rise flats)
liaising between tenants and housing association
chasing late rent payments

it is honestly the most boring fruitless thing I have ever done with my life and I will also be selling asap (accidental landlord)

Jeez. You missed the point. I’m not jealous. I’m a landlord too and I’ve paid CGT myself. I don’t moan about it because for every 18% of CGT paid there’s 82% in your bank - for basic rate tax payers. Stop moaning and be grateful you are fortunate enough to have a second property to pay CGT on.

Inflation has nothing to do with anything. PP is confused.

@PrincessofWells I agree that’s probably what’s going to happen, it’ll follow the corporate model. I was just curious to hear what @Snakebite61‘s preferred approach is, because some viable alternatives would be great.

We rented for several years in a Scandinavian country. It was a great experience on both sides because it was so heavily regulated and everyone knew where they were.

The local authority set rules for how much a landlord could charge per square metre, and that was set centrally at a reasonable rate. The price varied slightly according to the other facilities available in the house or apartment, but was generally a good rule of thumb.

The landlord could be reported and fined or have their ability to rent taken away from them if they were charging more and taking advantage of people who might not know the rules, such as foreign nationals. And there were heavy penalties for raising the rent during the term of the generally long-term contract.

Plus there were a lot of extra protections if the landlord wanted to move back into the property at any point. They had to prove this was genuine, and checks would be done on a regular basis. So, they couldn't just throw someone out because they had found higher paying tenants.

It meant rents stayed relatively affordable, repairs were done quickly and by licenced professionals, and the tenants were not subject to sudden rent increases when mortgage rates went up. Only those people who could afford to play by the rules became landlords. It wasn't a get-rich-quick thing.

@WaryHiker Sounds like a good experience. Did you get a sense of who owned most rental properties- did it tend to be large corporations/wealthy individuals with several properties, or small-time landlords?

That’s rubbish! Of course people buy with good sitting tenants. Good sitting tenants and a well maintained property will always sell. To top up our poor pensions (self employed all our lives) we sold 5 of our properties to individual landlords and the last flat to ftb’s all within the last 5 years.

Got out of the business before this useless government started taxing people to buggery.

Exactly. DD was transferred with work to a location she had no intention of settling down in long term, so she rented.

12 weeks later the company underwent major restructuring and she was relocated back to head office again.

I don’t understand why it cannot be acknowledged that rental housing is required in all its various forms and tenants, for all sorts of reasons don’t have to buy.

Of course inflation is relevant. You have to pay CGT on the difference between the purchase and sale price, without taking inflation into account.

I understand it used to be taken into account (taper relief or something?), but that was changed years ago. If that's not the case please explain how I'm wrong and I'll be thrilled (and will consider selling something!)

Wow so many 'good' landlords on this thread even if you do say so yourselves. So who are all the money grubbing shit heads I've been renting off for the last twenty years? If you want to make money off peoples need for housing, you are not a good person. You wouldn't do it with water or medicine. So why housing?

Typical uninformed post.

Your wish was already granted to you in 2015 by George Osborne. It’s called Section 24 and removed the ability to deduct mortgage interest from profits which means in some cases people are paying 100%+ in tax.

It’s one of the reasons, along with mortgage interest rates rising, that so many landlords have already sold and are planning to sell.

Maybe you have a more intelligent suggestion for what happens next since tenants are now struggling to find homes and we have a ‘housing crisis’.

Errr, have you heard of Thames Water?

You don’t say where you rented, but in many European countries where the rentals are more controlled, the tenants also have more responsibility.

In Germany, for example, tenants must provide their own kitchens and bathrooms and take care of their own maintenance.

Landlords are free of CGT after 10 years and can still claim mortgage interest relief, unlike the UK.

I own 8 properties. What rules and regulations do these hard done by Landlords struggle with?
This is just another stealth anti labour thread.
OP said her LL is selling to a 'corporation' for 10k over the asking price. No where in this country is that likely. Also that will all go in property gf sins tax so it seems unlikely.

@Hedgehogbrown So you don't like paying for housing? Bizarre. Where are the free magical house?!

Of course Water companies make money! Have you never heard of Shareholders?

As for Medicine.........you have GOT to be kidding! Pharmaceutical Industries are among the richest globally!

Sheesh.

Don’t worry - the planned Renters Reform Bill is great news for tenants.

Rents will fall, and there will be more stock available for tenants, and those properties that are sold will be bought by renters who could not previously afford to buy.

Oh wait…

I'm certainly not making money from being a landlord. I do it at a loss.

The house is an asset, however.