To think bad landlords outnumber good ones

[ThisLimeMoose]

I know there are decent landlords out there and I’m not saying they don’t exist. But looking at the volume of rental horror stories - repairs ignored, sudden notices, pressure tactics, poor communication, it sometimes feels like genuinely good landlords are the exception rather than the rule. Just wondered whether others feel the same or whether it’s just that bad experiences are more visible and people don’t talk about the good ones as much.

AIBU?

Yes, the tenant holds all the power. The landlord carries all the liability.

Nobody goes out of their way to tell the good stories though... It's like saying 99% of marriages are abusive because that's what the relationship threads on MN are about.

My landlords left me unable to shower for 3 months, waiting for the bathroom to be replaced took him 2 months just to get a quote. Wouldn’t mind but hes like this with everything, left us with dangerous floorboards as they were massive gaps for six years until I threatened to get the council involved then took another 2 months. rained indoors once, 6 months to fix the roof.

landlord before that would just randomly turn up out of the blue, asking why i had friends round etc. nightmare.

A tenant has the option to move if they think the landlord is bad, it’s now very difficult to remove a tenant. We don’t hear about the good landlords, we only hear where there’s damp and it’s all the landlords fault despite the tenant not opening any windows whilst drying clothes inside and cooking. Sad face, poor tenant, horrible greedy landlord.

You now can’t refuse a tenant and can only hold one months deposit even if they’ve got a pet - this along with all the other renters rights had seen landlords leave in droves. I would guess it’ll be a higher proportion of good ones leaving as they don’t want all the risk of a bad tenant who doesn’t give a shit about their property.

I dont think so. But Labour have fucked renters over. Twenty years ago I had the pick of everything, I could have mouldy basement (useful if you are new to an area and just need a cheap address) or I could pay top whack for fancy place in the posh parts. There was choice.

Now there is nothing but overpriced, unavailable leftovers.

All the cheap landlords have gone. All the "good" ones wont touch me because I don't have the "right" banking/credit history. I never had this problem before.

I think "bad" is relative. If you buy a cheap car from a dodgy second hand dealer, you don't run to the government screaming about how exploited you are. You just get what you pay for.

People rent mostly because they cant afford a mortgage. And don't start on the whole "my rent is more than a mortgage would be" because you don't have to pay for repairs. You don't have to fix the boiler, the plumbing, the roof, the drains. Your rent pays for all those too. Or it used to, not anymore. Which is why there's nowhere to rent now.

Given the choice, I'd rather have the option of a cheap damp hovel over being homeless or having to live with my parents.

I hear you! You've made a good point. I rented a lot of cheap places in my early 20s mainly so I could save up for a deposit on my own place - they were mostly not hazardous, just a bit rough round the edges. Recently I looked at renting temporarily between owning and I can't afford it even though I earn a lot and have a mortgage! Rental prices are crazy especially as house prices haven't gone up much, but the main reason is all the taxation and regulation, which landlords pass onto tenants.

This. There are some awful tenants out there. 🙄

And the other side can do a lot of damage in a very short time and all too often move on with no penalty

My day job is an independent inventory clerk, I write the ingoing condition reports and the check out. In almost 15 years I have seen far more unreasonable tenants than landlords - and I work for about 20 Agents and 80 landlords

Shite landlords do exist, and when you find one they are absolutely bloody horrendous. But shite tenants can be made very quickly by forces outside a landlords control.

There's no 'side' better or worse than the other, in my experience

YANBU
Our first LL was brilliant, we only left that property because our family got bigger and we needed more space.

Our current LL is useless, can’t even make a property safe to rent out, ignores things to be fixed, puts the rent up by pathetic amounts every year, impossible to contact. Even the management company has said she’s an awful landlady.

I rented from 18 to 41, and moved at least once a year so I must have had at least 23 landlords and probably more like 30. None of them were actually bad.

Some were slow to deal with issues, but those weren’t emergency issues and to be fair in my own home I’m not always quick to deal with minor problems.

I doubt I ever had conversations with anybody about how entirely reasonable and problem free our landlords were, but I know all about the one landlord my friend had who really was incompetent/dishonest. In general you’re going to hear more about problems than all the rentals that are fine.

I'm not sure that's the reality though. If you'd like to talk through the figures, it costs me around £1300 to find a tenant, carry out the affordability checks, get an inventory, do the check in. That's just the basic because after every tenant there's the additional full deep clean, carpets, curtains, plus any maintenance that might have not been reported by the tenant, that comes in around £650-£800. The RRA means a tenant can leave after 2 months, so I would have 0 income for four months, plus whatever the void period is. So if my new tenant is unhappy about anything I will do my very best to deal with it very quickly, as I can't afford to have another tenancy changeover.

That's my first point, but my second is that my £300,000 asset is being let to a complete stranger about whom I have only basic details. They could move in their 5 friends, cause £0000s of damage, be statutarily overcrowded, breaching the laws on HMOs and I cannot remove them for around 9 to 12 months and quite possibly longer.

Do you honestly think the risk is greater for the tenant, because actually financially they have nothing to lose.

The good landlords have sold or are selling up. A few are hanging on, like me, for personal reasons, there are few new landlords investing now, and that's because the risk is too high for the returns.

Of course that's only the financial side, but it's a business like any other, that has to look at gearing, profit, loss, and risk.

Exactly this! Good news is no news. If landlords are being held to higher standards then there should also be similarly higher standards for tenants. Anyone defaulting on rent should be out after the second missed payment without having to go to court and have them drag it out as they effectively steal the accommodation.

Far more bad tenants

Id say adequate landlords are the most numerous. They do the bare minimum but the house/flat is livable. An acceptable standard but not good.
E.g. years ago we had a leak - some pipes had corroded under the bath. Instead of replacing the corroded section, our landlord went for the cheaper option of bypassing the corroded section and sticking a random third tap in an odd place on the bath. It was functional, stopped the leak and we could still use the bath but obviously wasn't a "proper" repair. Now we're homeowners, I would never even consider a cheap, quick fix like that. But it was "acceptable" as in we still had full use.

I wouldn't say they were a good landlord by a long shot. But they weren't bad as in they fulfilled their basic obligations.

Actual bad landlords (dangerous/unkept properties) second - mostly career landlords.
Good landlords (going above what is expected) third - mostly accidental landlords that may want the property back at some point so have a vested interest in looking after it and keeping the tenants sweet so they look after it.

Of course you hear the bad stories, who is going to come online and randomly talk about how great their landlord is? People usually speak out when there’s a problem or need to rant.

I've lived in 4 rental properties.

1. We had an issue with mould in the bathroom, the entire walls were black LL wouldn't sort it and we had to go through environmental health to get an extractor fan fitted.

1. Shared accommodation, LL was weird complained about people using the shared spaces, had odd rules like not leaving anything personal in shared spaces sold it out from under us and gave everyone weeks to find new accommodation.

1. House share with friends, owned by the estate agent, very slow to do any repairs, picky about absolutely everything, any work was carried out by family, they were older Muslims men and refused to enter the house or talk to us unless a man was present, which inevitably led to the roof caving in.

1. Current property, £100s below market rate, unbothered about updating or fixing minor issues but has our back when the estate agents mess us about, been here 13 years can decorate however we want and doesn't bother us. It's kind of a unless it's an emergency or seriously bothering you don't ask for too much and you can stay forever. He knows that there would be a lot of work to get market value and would rather have tenants who pay on time and don't make him spend too much money.

I became an accidental LL for about 4 years due to life changes. Luxury two bed apartment in a gated riverside development. It had been my home for 8 years, I loved it and had renovated it to very high spec.

I used a property management service, all repairs done very fast - I never said no to anything. Kept the rent at appropriate market rate, as advised by the estate agent.

I had 4 different tenants in 4 years, and all of them were all awful. One kicked in a solid oak door when he was drunk and forgot his keys causing £800 of damage that he refused to pay for. Another let kids paint with glitter paint all over the bedroom carpet and then refused to pay for it. Another had two large dogs without telling me, never opened a single window, and then complained constantly that the property had a mould issue (erm, on an inside wall…?!) Another was so antisocial (loud music all night, rude to other residents, littering communal areas, weed smells etc) that the freeholder was threatening to take me to court.

Believe me, unless you’re a hardened professional being a LL is really awful and stressful and ALL the power is stacked against the LL.

They cannot do this.

I think the number of bad tenants is also probably higher