to think that renters get a raw deal

[Catza]

I am in a quite an interesting position as I am currently buying a house but need to rent in the meantime.
I noticed that the treatment of renters by EAs is vastly different from buyers. Nothing about my circumstances changed: my earnings are the same, my savings are the same, I have the same job and I am the exactly same person. Yet.. when I contact EA to view a property, they are polite and helpful. When I contact one to enquire about a viewing of rental, they treat me with high suspicion, write almost confrontational emails with a long list of demands and generally make me feel like a second class citizen.
OpenRent which I have used many many time in the past has done downhill massively as well. Landlords who book viewings but don't provide property address and then disappear. Many are "away next week" and promise to get back to me, then ghost even after chasing. This morning, I had to report yet another landlord to OpenRent for failing to respond.

If anyone has been in a similar situation, did you feel this too? Or am I being a bit too sensitive due to normal house buying stress?

AIBU = I have never experienced this myself
AINBU = yes, I also feel like I am being treated poorly as a renter by EA at the enquiry stage.

Which doesn’t happen.

Whatever technicality you think you can find, there is a reality, which is they can cause damage well in excess of the deposit, and they can indeed stop paying rent.

if this is, in fact, not a problem at all, then what are we actually talking about ?

EA could therefore recommend any renter, references and checks are indeed a waste of time.
When they damage the house you can just get them prosecuted under the criminal damage act 1971 and I’m sure that’ll somehow remedy the damage.

terms and conditions in a tenancy agreement still have to be legally enforceable, and most that landlords make up aren’t (see: you’re responsible for burst pipes)

The letting agent works for the landlord. They're vetting you on the phone, everything you say they're looking to see if you are a good fit for the house. Money and income are obviously extremely important, but it's not the only thing, they also want to know if you are going to look after the house, are you clean and tidy,well presented,.are you looking for long or short term. Pets, previous problems with rentals. Everything you say is noted.There are not enough rental properties,.so it's a landlord's market definitely.

Sounds like you've had a bad experience with a rogue or overly worried LL @Itsmetheflamingo because you're just LL bashing now. Or maybe you're the tenant from hell.

Tenants don’t have to pay excessive deposits now - I suggested that following your statement that LLs should expect tenants to not pay rent and destroy their property.
Undergo excessive checking - I think you would find corporate LL would carry out plenty of checks and be less flexible than small scale LL.
LLs have a right to check their properties. Why do you think the corporates would not?

No she isn't right. If my tenants leave my property unoccupied for more than 28 days they are contracted to inform me and to mitigate any possible issues by turning off the water and draining the pipes. If they fail to do so and damage occurs it is the tenants liability not mine. Hopefully my tenants aren't stupid and read the contract before they signed it.

My husband and I have owned houses and rented. Not once in 26 years has a mortgage or rent payment been missed. Due to being train driver affected by the strikes of the early 2020s we took out an IVA on all our debts then got evicted a month later (unrelated, the landlords wanted to give the place a lick of paint and re rent it for £500 a month more)
Trying to rent without good credit is hell. We had to provide a guarantor and a few weeks before the move in date of our new place the guarantor failed checks due to a really old 200 quid debt. We thought we would be made homeless! Luckily a friend was able to do it but now we need a bigger place 3 years later we really can't face going through that again. Our only other option is pay about 3k to a guarantor company

The estate agents customer is always the property owner.

I am right and your contract isn’t legally enforceable.

can I ask what you even think it will even do? The water pipe bursts and you refuse to fix it until the tenant pays? Or you fix then invoice them? What do you anticipate happens when they don’t pay for it?

No, I am a housing professional 😁 so I know lots about what corporate landlords do and don’t do

I use an agency to find tenants as they have access to zoopla/right move etc but I carry out all my own viewings as I want to meet any future tenant, talk to them and just a get a general feel for them. I have been presented with people who look amazing on paper but were just awful individuals in person. Nothing is guaranteed of course but I certainly trust my judgement over an estate agents.

I have never had a handyman ask if I rent or own. Is this a new thing?

If you've told them you need to rent for a few months while looking for a place to buy that is likely to put off a lot of landlords/EAs. That means that rather than have someone move in for the next 5 or 10 years they are going to have to go through the whole pain of finding a tenant later this year. Why would they want that aggro?

All the red tape and the landlord can still get tenants who refuse to pay. What a waste of time for both parties.

Why not enforce rent payment. Take the money directly from tenant if they miss a payment.

What is a 'housing professional'?

I wouldn't normally quote Michael Gove but in this instance I have to agree that we've had enough of experts.

Housing professional could mean any number of things but your bias against small scale LL is clear.
You also argue against yourself. You're right when you say that in reality, LL would more often than not have to take the hit for tenants destroying their property no matter what clauses they put in the ASTs but similarly B&Q would 'clean up' someone taking a dump in one of display loos. Can't see the police rushing down to a store in that circumstance, not B&Q bringing a prosecution.

I just got bored.

Be careful what you wish for. they can afford to take the risks because the rents will be much higher. But you’re right the new rent act rewards the huge corporations and penalises the the small business person. Go Labour.

Mumsnet generally hates poorer people I've noticed.

I think the renters rights act will sort this out.
No more fixed term tenancies and a tenant can walk away having given 2 months notice.
Maximum deposit is a month's rent.

I rent fairly posh houses and treat them exactly as an owner would, if not better as I’m conscious of my £4K deposit!! It’s a mixed picture.

Good to hear. Can I ask why you choose to rent?

They’re not at all. The majority of corporate landlords in the uk are housing association. They’re not even profit making. It’s actually laughable that you think even someone like legal and general would charge more than MrSmith who sunk all his savings into a second home.

A professional who works in the housing sector

I whole heartedly agree with OP and the majority of posters. Like low waged workers, PRIVATE renters aren't treated very well(social tenants have more protection and generally pay lower rates).
I used to work for an estate agent and it was one of the worst places I've worked for, due to the human misery and desperation alongside my boss being a creepy nitpicking bully.
However, despite the fact I sympathise with private tenants (as I was one myself), many prospective tenants were quite entitled, often to the point of delusional. Often DSS tenants wanting houses or garden flats for bargain prices, and expecting first refusal. Without realising how much competition there was. Other tenants seemed to treat the agency as a drop in centre and expected us to help with benefit claims etc and that we were social workers.

Well, that’s not what’s happening in the Southeast. I wasn’t thinking of housing associations.

In what capacity, it just seems like a very nebulas title.