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.

The consultation on those proposals closed in May and the results haven’t yet been published. The proposal was for new minimum standards to come in by 2030. Anything could happen in the next five years to overturn that.

It will be a nightmare to enforce with most Victorian properties not able to be uprated.

Im not unduly worried.

We have two rental properties, one accidental and one inherited, and are planning to sell at least one, and probably both, when the tenants decide to move on. Already regretting not doing it earlier as I’m worried about CGT/tax changes in the budget, but we couldn’t give the tenants notice as they are great (our area is quite mobile so I’d guess they will be moving on in the next couple of years).
I think one of the problems is as a PP said, it’s the good landlords who get clobbered with the regulations and the crappy ones just keep ignoring them. Councils have no money to enforce existing legislation so the government just makes more that the bad landlords still won’t comply with. I would incentivise good landlords with for eg being able to set their mortgage against tax, and properly pursue the bad ones. I wouldn’t mind paying a licence (not in our area yet) for the privilege of setting the mortgage off, and that money could go into proper enforcement.
The forthcoming EPC regs are also a nightmare, particularly for period properties, and another reason for us to get rid. I worry about people like our lovely tenants and what they are going to do in the future.

What is being attempted?

Where are the rent restrictions and long term contracts?

This is nothing to do with that. Thats what the European systems tend to be more like, although when you dig down its not really like that abroad either.

Where are the rent restrictions and long term contracts?

Scotland. It's created a huge rental shortage and put costs through the roof.

This whole thread is full of people saying they are excellent landlords and/or excellent tenants.

nobody is going to admit to being a greedy bastard doing the bare minimum or a shitty tenant treating the place like crap.

im guessing the truth is somewhere in the middle 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve selected a couple of London boroughs near me and the social housing allocation situation is horrific. Some councils are saying that if you are low priority or need a 4 bed or above the likelihood is that you will never be offered anything. All the councils had thousands on their waiting list and some had over 10,000.

There is no alternative for renters except the private market so if you undermine that what are people going to do?

It’s not shite though. Councils are also approaching private landlords and offering them above market rents because they are struggling to meet their obligations to house asylum seekers.

You may not want to believe it but that doesn’t make it ‘shite’.

Slightly different and if it was combined with social housing building it would mean the people who can’t buy would still have the safety net of social housing where the money is cyclical going and coming back to the tax payer if the person is on UC.

I do think that in general, eradicating (punishing?) landlords is popular in the UK. And it seems to tie in with other Labour themes like school VAT. So it was to be expected.
But I don’t think most people who hate landlords want tenants to suffer.

Green Party wants to take it further.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy9zqzp44vo.amp

It was shit though. People were moved elsewhere as the buildings needed extensive work. It was not to move "boat people in".

I own one flat in addition to our family home. It's bringing in very little money and is such a hassle, coupled with constant anti landlord rhetoric and ever rising govt expectations and taxes... I'm close to selling and I'll take the best offer.

I don’t think those type of landlords would be on MN tbh . I’m a good landlord always have been .

Same with tenants. No one will admit to being shite on here.

We are selling our BTL property as well and having to evict a tenant on housing benefit.

We were good landlords too. Only the bad landlords who spend nothing on their properties will be left.

Ftb are benefiting where I am and I don't think it's a bad thing.

Most asylum seekers (I work with asylum seekers) are housed in properties that cant really make the grade to be rented out. So buildings, whole blocks needing work are ideal.

Two things can be true in your example

However overall, yes landlords are being approached, housing is needed for people newly arrived while claims are assessed. Once they have been assessed, they have to move, they're given a few hours notice, a day or so and have to move out. Then they are homeless.

@xenobitch
The earlier post which your post was responding to was about landlords being given financial incentives to house asylum seekers. That’s true. Your dad’s anecdote may not have been one of these examples but to claim its ‘shite’ is wrong.

In this case, it was council housing and not private landlords.

My lovely tenant leaves end of November, house will then be sold. I’m specifically doing it now because of my divorce but it’s not part of the settlement so I don’t have to. But I can see the direction of travel and hell will freeze over before I pay NI on the income as well as the 40% tax and massive interest. Fuck that. I also don’t need the additional responsibility with my own life in the toilet. So after 13 years of renting it, I’m out. It was my former home, I’m a fabulous landlord and the tenants have had everything they need, issues resolved immediately etc.

So I will sit on the cash and the tenant and her nice cat will have to hope for the best. And the irony is I will also likely be looking for something to rent myself!! (can’t move back in to my rental as it is nowhere near where I live/work/DD school).

There’s information online about the renters right act.

it says landlords will have to accept pets but can require pet insurance for damage to property (frankly sounds like a good idea to me)

also says that they want to end discrimination against children but accept that renting eg a one bed flat to a family of two adults and three kids is overcrowding. So not sure how they’ll actually make that one happen.

the EPC rating thing is not actually part of the renters rights act. The renters rights act says houses need to meet the Decent Homes Standard which was originally written for social housing. They estimate about 20% of private rental properties will not meet it and while some can be upgraded they note some may not be able to.

when it was brought in for social housing some blocks were demolished as they could not be upgraded to meet the standard abs it was cheaper to demolish and rebuild.

think grade 2 listed old house where for planning reasons you can’t do the upgrades.

those houses will have to move to the owner-occupied sector so can’t be rented out (and you can’t demolish something that’s listed).

the EPC thing is that is must be C for new build rentals by 2028 and there’s an aspiration for all rentals by 2030. The U.K. has a LOT of thermally inefficient housing stock (think of all those Victorian terraces) so I suspect the 2030 date will slip. It already has apparently.

Yes I've heard this too.
The bad tenants are spoiling it for the good tenants.
There's more and more people with no respect today for other people's properties and people who think they can live rent free.

Don't blame the landlords. Sell up and bank the money.

Who is FTB?

First time buyer

Most of our village is conservation (listed chocolate box thatches from the 1600’s) and owned by the estate. They are not required to have an EPC and although the 2017 MEES is a bit vague and open to interpretation there isn’t any realistic way these houses will be subject to EPC in the future and will still be rentable. Most have had the same tenants in for generations and are in very good condition. A few were sold off now and again (like mine). Being owned by the estate is what has kept the village so beautiful and desirable as the standards are maintained and rents reasonable.

When we put air source heating in ours it caused all sorts of headaches with the grant as no-one was sure if we could have it or not because the house didn’t need an EPC. In the end we had one done although the EPC itself made no sense as it talked about all sorts of improvements needed that just aren’t physically possible with a straw roof and no wall cavity. All absolutely bonkers.

Still we have a very warm cottage now and it’s off the oil! But I do find it hilarious when the solar panel people keep knocking…..no you cannot put them on our roof!

I’m all for improving energy efficiency in homes and transparency so people know what they are renting. People shouldn’t be made to rent homes that can be improved and efficient. But there has to be common sense in conservation areas etc otherwise once again Labour will be fucking over the rural communities, farmers and farm workers because they try to apply city policies to the countryside.

Yes disgusting isn't it, but some landlords have said no thankfully.