Why so much hate for Landlords on MN?

[coulditbeme2323]

Who do LL's get so much hate on MN?

It seems so much more hate than there is any real life.

It makes as much sense as hating supermarkets for the commodification of food.

They make a profit too.

How dare they!!!

It's the self pitying whinging and massive organized pushback on any kind of tenants rights including being forced to put in place basic standards for safe housing.

I actually am a landlord and am regularly appalled by other landlords. My property I rent is kept to the most lovely standards, I'd be happy to live there myself. But guess what, I don't expect to make an income off it - it just washes its own face and lucky me at the end of the mortgage term I have an asset that's paid for.

I think the expectations of landlords that with the cost of living situation they should be able to make a big profit off the monthly rent is totally unrealistic.

Generally people post of MN because they either want to moan or they want genuine advice. People don't generally need either of these things when their landlords are good.

Yes I think that's probably true.

I was listening to LBC on the renters rights bill and a man called in, complaining that his mortgage was too high and he needed freedom to be able to increase rent in line with the increase in interest in his interest only mortgage and he's retired so doesn't have spare income to cover the shortfall. He seemed to think this was a reasonable complaint. My first thoughts were why the bloody hell does a retired man have a property on an interest only mortgage that is so expensive to service that it can't be comfortably covered by the £1200 a month he was currently getting from his tenants?? This man had clearly made some very bad financial decisions but seemed to think it is the responsibility of tenants and the government to insulate him from them.

I agree op I’ve seen people saying all landlords are bad and landlording should be banned.

I mean where else are people meant to live if they can’t afford to buy and don’t have family who want them. Personally I was disowned by my family at 16 for being pregnant and would have lived in a homeless shelter forever if not for a landlord.

And he was genuinely a nice guy fixed everything and the rent wasn’t as crazy as it could have been.

Totally wrong example. In that example competition has helped keep prices down for consumers. With housing as demand (in many areas) outstrips supply, the competition is in the other direction and landlords exploit that by hiking and hiking rents.

Also supermarkets are regulated. They can't sell you moldy food at a huge mark up. They can't sell you nappies with razor blades in, or shampoo that burns your skin. Any even basic safety legislation to make sure tenanted properties are safe, not going to burn down, not overpopulated, not moldy - has seen huge organized pushback from landlords on a massive scale. Think about it. They are campaigning to say their right to make a profit is more important than the rights of children to not live in moldy homes.

The current HMO legislation is ridiculous and designed in such a way it doesn't apply to 99% of properties.

I don't think anyone thinks being a landlord should be banned. But it should be massively more regulated than it is, like it is in many other parts of the world.

And I say this as a landlord myself. I'm a good one, so any legislation wouldn't impact me as it would just be forcing landlords to do the things I do anyway. But I'm regularly shocked to see how other landlords expect people to live.

That's what the law is there for.

Anonymous forums always have extreme reactions.

As for people suggesting banning the practice:

www.greencoordinate.co.uk/motions/abolish-landlords/

It's a perfectly reasonable example.

With more housing supply, rents would come down. Demonisation of landlords is reducing housing supply and forcing consolidation so that private equity increasingly owns what rentals there are.

The difference with the food safety legislation is it is enforced, and due to high competition, the supermarkets can't cut corners.

How could it be as vocal? People won’t be marching down the street yelling I hate landlords irl

Fair

Because they hoard resources and then charge over the odds for them

They charge market rate.

You know how market rate is established though?

Which is excessively high because they are hoarding supply and people have no other choice. They're parasites.

Supply and demand.

There are many reasons why landlords are disliked.
Some because they turn family homes into HMO. And ruin a property doing so.
Some because they convince themselves they are doing some sort of public service. They do it for profit. And should not try to convince themselves otherwise.
Because people have sometimes hundreds of properties. And are viewed as parasites.
Because whilst there are decent ones, there are many that really are not.

I vocally hate them IRL too, HTH

But they aren't stopping other people buying the properties for sale are they?

I find your stance completely unrealistic. Profit has an important role in incentivising people and organisations to be productive and in fueling economic growth, this includes building or renting houses. Why would anyone bother to build a house or be a landlord if you couldn't make any money out of it? Keep in mind, you would need to take a large amount of risk to put so much money into a property that could have expensive repair bills, problem tenants or suffer a decline in value.

I suspect you think the state should play a larger role in housing but newsflash, we simply can't afford this and even if the government lent a load of money (which it can't afford to) in order to build or buy lots of housing then the banks or those that own government bonds would still be profiting from all of this. They won't simply give the government money for nothing in the same way that a private landlord wouldn't let someone live in the property for no personal gain.

So do you understand why private landlords are hating for over charging ie charging market rent, as much as they can, not reflecting the cost of supplying the product.

If you buy up so many properties it reduces the amount of those type of properties available for sale at a modest price.

If people don't want the product, they have alternatives.