To not agree with how some people make their money, specifically landlords and letting agents?

[RealNavyEagle]

I’m not saying every landlord or agent is evil, before anyone jumps in. But I do think there’s something deeply uncomfortable about profiting from people’s basic need for shelter, especially when that profit often comes with minimal accountability and maximum power over tenants’ lives. Rent increases “because the market allows it,” poor maintenance, opaque fees and agents acting as unchallengeable gatekeepers… it doesn’t always sit right with me as a way to earn a living.

AIBU to feel uneasy about this being a normal, socially accepted income stream?

You are a RealNavyEagle. Hmm.

I hadn't really thought about it like that before but I can see what you mean. I have two friends who rent out properties and I am pretty sure they charge below going rate so I see them in a positive light but I guess if I look at it from your perspective I might see it differently. Dunno. I will ponder.

Do you think that nobody should profit over people's basic need for food as well? Everything in Tesco should be cost price? Or what about medicine. Why should doctors be paid. You might argue that medicine is free as the NHS is free, but it's not, it's paid for through taxation.
Nothing in life is free. Everything has to be paid for, by one method or another. Why are you singling out housing as the exception?

And for what it's worth, I'm not a landlord.

By that logic, supermarkets too are condemned for making profit from selling food.
Well, of course they are, yet that isn't really down to the basic premise of either enterprise, but to the way a system facilitates greed, monopoly, and a lack of accountability.
Mention increased state control in either sphere, and the anti-Socialist pitchfork lot emerge shrieking.

How do you propose someone who doesn't want to buy or is not in a position to buy, finds rental accommodation?

I've seen this argument a lot, but nobody seems able to explain where I should live without landlords, letting agencies etc? I've rented for 25 years so I am pretty grateful they exist.
Oh and please don't say council houses. There aren't enough, they aren't going to build any more, yes they were the perfect solution but that was destroyed many years ago. Let's move on.

I’m not arguing that nothing essential should ever involve money or that people shouldn’t be paid for work. What feels different to me about housing is the combination of necessity, lack of alternatives and power imbalance. You can choose between supermarkets, brands or suppliers; you can’t opt out of housing, and in many areas tenants have very limited choice and very weak leverage.

With food or medicine, there are at least some protections around quality, pricing and access. In housing, it often feels like profit is prioritised even when standards, stability or basic decency are compromised, and the consequences of losing housing are far more severe and immediate. So I’m not saying housing should be “free” but I do think it’s reasonable to question whether treating it primarily as an investment vehicle, rather than a regulated social good, creates harm.

Don't like landlords and letting agencies? - don’t rent.
Earn money and purchase property in the same way that they did and cut them out of the equation.

Landlords are no worse than shareholders in clothing, transport, food, and utilities.

I have more of a problem with supermarkets, like Tesco, making huge profits from people’s need to eat! Then they pop a little box at the end of the aisles asking us to buy more food from them to donate to the needy. I’m tempted to fill a trolley and just skip the checkouts and dump it all in.

Mention increased state control in either sphere, and the anti-Socialist pitchfork lot emerge shrieking.

Re supermarkets, maybe there should be a chain of state owned and run supermarkets alongside Sainsbury’s etc.

Well, OP, if you want to rent a property (which most of us do at some point in our lives), then you'll need a landlord to own that property.
They are providing a service for people, they have to deal noth with the legal side and (sometimes) difficult tenants. Oh, and they're taxed on their profits! It's not an easy way to make a living.

We need landlords & letting agents as you will always have renters. The bigger issue is how distorted the market is, eg renting costing more than a mortgage & the huge intergenerational inequality around property. The landscape is completely different now.

AIBU to feel uneasy about this being a normal, socially accepted income stream

I do find it interesting how so many are ok with it but the idea of healthcare operating in the same way is considered abhorrent.

So the concern is profit over basic needs?

I think letting someone use a decent house you own and maintaining it for them & paying tax is probably more morally correct than water companies throwing shit in a river & making massive profits? Or factories churning out pollutants into the air we breathe? I hear Tesco profits from selling the food we need to survive!

I know my examples are whataboutery but the rental market is a weird place to draw the moral line.

Because they can’t explain. Of course there’s always going to be a need for landlords but it’s easy for people who don’t rely on them to condemn them all.

Agreed! I rent, buying will never be an option for me. I will never have the money available for a deposit, despite earning enough to live comfortably (although certainly not flamboyantly).

Where do people think we should live? The council housing system will never be fixed, it isn't a priority for the government and never will be.

“Let’s move on.” Sounds like Boris Johnson trying to wave Partygate aside. He’d also say “Why are people still renting, or even mortgaging? They should be rich like me, and buy outright.”

Hmmm…..So how do you feel about Supermarkets and Shops and what they charge for food - about the additional fees they add from what the farmers/ producers charge - after all they are profiteering from people’s need to eat !

You can disagree with how some people make money from this “income stream” but let’s be realistic - they are hiring out something valuable to someone for their use so similar to car hire companies and other services they should be compensated accordingly. If people don’t like it then they will take their business elsewhere.

I am really tired of hearing the constant landlord bashing - the real issue stems from the government selling of social housing and not building to replace the supply. The basic concept of supply and demand is the factor that drives this issue - more supply drives down prices - so let’s start focusing the conversation where it will make the most difference - government building and maintaining more social housing.

Supermarkets make profits, clothes shops make profits…the one I really do have a HUGE issue with is the power companies, as it’s a huge indirect taxation (with zero assistance) for the poorest people

Agree with all of this having been a renter for many years and now a landlord.

The other difference to food/medicine/clothing
is that once the tenant has used the property it still exists as an asset. It’s probably gone up in value as well in the meantime by no act of their own. If the landlord has a mortgage the tenant has paid for the asset for the LL, or at least part paid for it. If no mortgage then it’s pure income. what I find abhorrent is when the expectations for landlords to have healthy homes or pay for maintenance mean more expenses for them they pass it onto the tenant.
We rented a house for years at pretty high rental. The laws here meant they needed to ensure it wasn’t mouldy so they needed to install an HVAc. Our rent went up to the cover that cost over a year. The owner lived in a huge property elsewhere and refused to absorb any cost at all. We had no option but to accept. A year later he made us leave so he could move his daughter in. If he or she lived there he would have done it anyway so we have paid for his asset several times over.
As a LL now I would never pass those costs on. It’s my responsibility but also my social responsibility to have available housing for the low income and temporary workers in my small village. I would welcome the return of rent caps.

You know about the water companies right?? 😂

Whereas in my experience the people slamming landlords are not people like me, who rent and will never be able to buy a house, it's the people who cannot afford a second property and are jealous they can't have a slice of the landlord market

Power balance..ha! We are accidental landlords of one beautiful flat always rented below going rate, always responded quickly to any tenant issues etc. Then we got the tenants from hell. We gave them rent holidays and tried to help when they experienced income issues. She never worked. Told us she had a job lined up initially. Turns out they were both heavily into drinking and drugs. No rent paid, the flat trashed, complaints from neighbours. We finally got them out when she went to rehab. Oh no...op....we should have waited till she came back from rehab so she had a place to live. Grrrrr.

deeply uncomfortable about profiting from people’s basic need for shelter,

People also need clothes, water, gas, electric, medicine, food, transport, linens, blankets and a raft of other stuff...

What do you do for a living? Who profits from the service you provide?

Everything is a service being provided by a provider to a recipient.