To think landlords and letting agents often don’t see tenants as people?

[HumanNotAnAsset]

I’m not saying all landlords or agents are terrible. But having rented for years, I’ve lost count of how often tenants are treated as problems to manage rather than people with lives, stress and basic dignity. Delayed repairs, poor communication, dismissive language and an attitude of “that’s just how it is” - all while someone is paying a significant chunk of their income for a safe home.

AIBU to think there’s a real empathy gap in the way renting is handled and that tenants are too often seen as numbers rather than humans?

Not all tenants are nice people either btw.

I inherited my beloved nans house and rented it out and the tenant left hundreds of mouldy cigarette butts in the garden and all over the house. He also let his kids draw all over the walls and their cat pissed on the stairs so badly I had to replace the carpet. He didn’t give a toss about the fact that house had memories of my nan and it really upset me

I think it works both ways. Landlords are often seen as rich overlords raking it in. Not always the case esp if you have someone renting out a property which barely covers the mortgage while tenants are paying late or not at all.

I am neither a landlord or a renter fwiw but I think there are good and bad landlords and tenants. I did rent for years and never really had an issue.

I think this is probably true. But tenants can also be really difficult as well.

I have had tenants call in with all sorts of things - the low light was probably the tenant who insisted on an emergency plumber on a bank holiday when it turned out they just had turned off the washing machine at the wall.

And really unrealistic expectations on how quickly things can be fixed. I do my best but you just sometimes have to wait a day for parts or similar

A lot of landlords are selling up now to cash in, probably the same ones protesting what a great and lovely landlord they were. No thought to the tenants who are suffering the stress of it, just thought of their own bank balance.

totally agree. I hadn’t rented in decades, then I took on a six month tenancy whilst my house sale went through. What a nightmare.

The house had been rented before on a long let. The carpets were filthy when we moved in despite a promise that they would be cleaned before we moved in. From the landlord’s response I figured he would be a bad landlord, so we photographed every scuff and scrape before we moved in to ensure we got our deposit back.

He was slow responding to repairs and he would bodge things himself rather than getting a professional in. When he tried to mess with the electrics, I’d had enough and luckily the sale completed so I could move out.

I feel very sorry for his next tenants and I wish there were airbnb style ratings for landlords and tenants so people knew on both sides what they were letting themselves in for.

It’s a business. All it requires is for tenant to look after the property, and pay the rent on time.

In return, it requires landlords to be reasonable, and keep the property in good order.

Well, yes if a landlord wants to sell their asst I wouldn't expect the potential stress it causes the tenant to stop this.

I started renting out a flat 10 years ago after getting married and waiting for a good time to sell (happy with breaking even on rent as long as I had no hassle), I had the same tenants for 5 years, never put the rent up and we had a great relationship…until the war on Landlords stated with the tax, compliance and weird council Landlord schemes. I had to get a letting agent to manage the compliance, couldn’t fully write interest off as a cost was just loosing too much money so had to put the rent up, they ended up moving back to Italy as couldn’t afford the rent in London anymore. I now charge more than double the rent I did 4 years ago and by that I mean the rent I charge is absolutely extortionate for a London 2 bed, have had two different sets of tenants whom I never met in person and I make a small loss after tax each year. I don’t know if this is a common scenario, but definitely all the tax and legislation has done is make things worse for both tenants and landlords in my experience. I will sell as soon as possible.

Works both ways. I inherited a house with two tenants already living in it, and I was very mindful of their situation. The rent they were paying was extremely low, to the point where it was actually costing me money, but I didn’t want to start making demands so I made no increases. From the outset, I was honest with them and explained that I might need to sell the house, but that I would give them plenty of notice.
Over a year later, I decided that selling was my only viable option, so I gave them six months’ notice, which I later extended. That’s when the problems began. One tenant stopped paying rent and made physical threats towards me. On the day they finally left, they deliberately left all the taps running, every light switched on,the heating left on high; every window left open and they left rubbish dumped outside. Thankfully I went straight to the house after they’d gone that day.
Situations like this highlight how few rights landlords now have over their own properties, and it’s one of the main reasons I ultimately chose to sell.

I'm glad that finally they are putting more laws in place for tenants. We rented for 10 years and the landlord accused us of not cleaning the house before we left. We did clean it to the best of our ability and yet he still kept our deposit. He would bodge things so they kept breaking and we had mould in the bedrooms from a leaky roof. We had a baby there and his moses basket had green mould on the bottom of it. He said it was our fault for not ventilating the house but we had the windows open every day. There was no bathroom window and the fan was crap so the damp would fill the house. It was shit but seeing the reports on the news it wasn't nearly as bad as how those poor tenants had it. Finally we got out and bought a new shared ownership house and it's like paradise in comparison.

It’s their actual business FFS. You think they shouldn’t run it at a profit?

You can’t really have it both ways, tax and legislate them out of business but still expect them to be around. If you’re a renter, likely to need to rent in the future or ever likely to need to rent your own property out (work in a different city for example) and you voted for Labour, it’s a massive own goal.

Dunno. But an increasing number of tenants see landlords as sub-human and treat them accordingly.

YABU like anything, there are good and bad.

My first flat was let by a lady who had just that one property, and she made sure we were happy and any repairs etc carried out were prompt. No letting agent as she dealt directly with us.

My next flat was via a letting agent. The landlord had a portfolio of properties and did not even live in the UK. I had so many things go wrong. The radiator in the lounge had a hole in so didn't work, and had a knock on effect on the rest of the heating and hot water. I was constantly topping up the boiler. There was a leak in the bathroom ceiling. I had to throw away lots of my own items as they got mouldy due to damp coming in through the walls. I was running de-humidifiers constantly.
I would report all this the the letting agent. Someone came out to measure up a new radiator. and nothing happened after. Apparently the landlord was just ignoring the letting agent when they were pressing him about it.

Being a landlord is a business. As such, no I'm not interested in the minutae of my tenants lives - that's literally not my business. I do like to keep my properties in good nick because they are my assets, so I'm quick with repairs and I want my tenants to be happy because I'd rather keep tenants than have constant turnover. But the relationship only works for me if the property is being treated well and the rent is being paid on time. And if there were to be a problem with the rent I would expect to hear about it from the tenant before the rent is due. Someone who's always paid on time previously and is proactively communicating with me would get more slack than someone I have to chase. Honestly though, I've only had 1 bad tenant in over 20 years.

I’m a LL (10 years) and I think the problem is…. Tenants want to treat the property as their own home/personal property and when they cause damage they lie (100% of the time without fail), they don’t respect property agreements they have signed up to (ie maintain the garden, ventilate property, report maintenance in a timely manner), whereas the LL is looking to protect their asset from damage. I agree rents are paid but when a tenant leaves there are £xxx of damage and unreasonable heavy handed wear and tear, this means if a property is rented for 5 years the landlord after tax paid has to pay the equivalent on average 2 years rent to put it right. I hate to say tenants are creating their own rent inflation as LL have to cover the costs for the repair, damage and maintenance issues they cause…. Above and beyond what is typical for a privately owned house.

I’m a landlord , a good one , but in all honesty I don’t know my tenant , the agents find them and paperwork is sent through . I obviously know basic information about her but I don’t know what’s going on in her life . I’ve put YABU because tenancy is a business not a personal relationship. Having said that I am always accommodating if something goes wrong eg her wages are late or wants to change payment date . I also do repairs immediately.

They've been forced out by the Starmer regime. He thought all the madcap assaults on LL's would help the tenants. In the end they won't help either the tenants nor the LL's imo.

I think that there needs to be more regulation for both tenants and landlords.

Tenants need protection for their home but equally so do landlords for bad tenants who can leave properties destroyed.

I’m a landlord and it is a business as I have no personal information about my tenant, I do know via the letting agency that they treat the property well and in the 7 years they have been in the property, have always paid on time.

In return, I always ensure repairs are done as soon as possible and refrain from rent increases as I want to keep them.

i have experienced the opposite and was happy to increase the rent as they were awful and quite frankly happy to get rid.

So in my opinion, it’s a two way transaction and if both parties are reasonable individuals then it’s great but if one party isn’t, then it all goes horribly wrong.

Rented a house and realised from 1st day was gonna be trouble as bins filled with unbagged rubbish including glass and dirty underwear. Garden overgrown, kitchen cupboards with dirty items in them. Painter was painting dining room wall when we entered the property!

Had huge amount of major damp and mould letting agents kept sending someone round to paint over and we kept saying that is not the solution! In end after they refused to do adequate work and my youngest daughter kept vomiting regularly made complaint with MO involved. Letting agents issued section 21 saying landlord could not afford repairs (despite owning portfolio of properties). They then had cheek to refuse to return deposit saying we’d caused damage by not ventilating property and cobwebs were left which caused cleaning charges. If any they were very high up i thoroughly cleaned before leaving and left in cleaner condition then when moved in. Deposit scheme allowed me to get deposit back.

Managed to buy own place and no damp or mould issues! daughter is not regularly sick either.

Will be good and bad tenants same with landlords but if decide to make a profit out of letting out properties should respect your tenant and look after them.

It’s a difficult one because I realise there are crappy examples on both sides - we rent at a high end level and the only issues I’ve ever had involved either the agent being poor at managing any issues or trying to make extra money by doing things like charging for an extra clean when I had Molly maids in only the day before - I actually contacted the landlord myself on one occasion and asked him to come round the house with me - agents were trying to charge £520 for another clean - landlord agreed with me that it was absolutely mint and very pissed off at them

The amount of times I've seen tenants advised on here to stay beyond notice, months on end, in order to get assistance with housing... is that treating a landlord like a person not a business?

No.

The relationship between a landlord and tenant isnt a personal one. Its business. Its regulated by law. Each should stick to the regulations and thats it.

Every single tenant I've had has treated me like a landlord, not a friend. And vv. Thats it.

The landlords of HMOs were the worst IMO. One threatened my house mate (came round with a baseball bat) because she'd been off work sick for a while and so submitted a benefit claim as her sick pay dropped. Turned out he'd been falsely claiming benefits in false names/previous tenants names for the property, so he was getting double rent - what we paid and what benefits paid - for each room, and he was angry because he was worried he was going to get caught.

Had quite a few who would just let themselves in to the property when they thought we weren't in - not fun when I worked nightshifts and thought we were being burgled.

They were crooks, but there were so so many who seemed to think that maintenance of their properties was optional, and they were happy to leave us without heating or with water leaks while they waited for their mate who was a 'handyman' to have a look, never willing to pay the actual cost for the actual qualified trade. Who would paint over mould and blame it on the tenant. Who would charge for end of tenancy cleans but never actually get any one in to clean.

A lot of the landlords seemed to think that if we were in HMOs it was just a place to crash, that we all had family homes somewhere we could disappear off to - no recognition for the fact that it's actually just how many people live because the cost of renting is so high.

You know the broken glass and dirty underwear was from the previous tenants, not the landlord, right?

I live in a HMO. My landlord, who owns a lot of HMOs in London, is really good, and his agent is lovely. Problems are dealt with, and maintenance issues sorted, very quickly, in most cases within 24 hours. My previous landlord was also nice, and so was her agent. I moved because I wanted to live in a different area, and my end of tenancy was dealt with without any problems. Either I have been astonishingly lucky, or there are more decent landlords than this thread might suggest.