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.

And I would question if you experienced so much issue with damp in most properties whether the problem was with the landlord...or you.

We don’t blame tenants for damp and mould anymore.

That's another Mumsnet trope.

I was an accidental landlord. My mum died owning a rental property and leaving a vast amount of care debt. More than the value of the property. As her executor I was the very accidental landlord for 18 months, while probate and the legal situation regarding the debt was resolved. It was miserable. After 15 months, in order to sell to raise the money to pay the debt, I had to serve notice on the tenants. They were already in arrears, and left the property in an appalling state. It cost me thousands just to get it cleared. No profit was made in that period.

One frustrating day I was talking to the rental agent and said "I have no idea why anyone chooses to be a landlord". She replied "I'm a rental agent and I don't know why anyone chooses to be a landlord, either"

There’s no such thing as reliable data in this country any more. It’s all skewed by the property-owning political class in these days of might is right. The renters I know were all in the same situation viz their multi-property owning landlords too.

If you don’t like the total lack of public trust for an Americanised country then bring back one that works for people not power.

There are a huge amount of people who will never be able to be home owners (unemployed, under employed, disability, aged out, living on benefits either totally or to some degree). There is a massive shortage of rental housing. Forcing landlords out isn't going to increase the likelihood of the groups listed above being able to buy. Therefore forcing landlords out of business is making it harder for the most vulnerable groups.

IF we want to enable housing security for those people, we're going to need a more left-wing government to encourage a massive increase in social housing.

But as we know, the UK isn't in favour of socialism and therefore we're not going to get more social housing. (And you can rant on about immigrants / migrants all you like but they aren't causing this problem. This problem started with the Tory sell-off of LA housing.)

So ultimately we need landlords. And better little landlords than big corporations. Little landlords won't have the power to oust tenants to facilitate massive rent hikes. Big corporations will.

Someone with POA has to act in the person's best interests. And renting the property creates income so that the person can pay for their care (so have a choice of care home) for as long as possible. Selling the house straight away means that the money will run out more quickly, at which point the council will likely move them to somewhere cheaper.

An attorney doesn't get to do what's easier for him/herself. They have to act in the other person's best interest.

Really? Well, my house was rented out by the previous owner before I bought it. Damp in the kitchen, one of the bedrooms and an area of the living room.

I cleaned the damp off by hand, ran a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity and now manage it by ventilating. (No idea how they managed to get damp in the kitchen. Who doesn't open the window when they're cooking?)Damp hasn't returned and I've lived here for 12 years since then without issue.

If I'd been a difficult tenant (like a friend of mine) I could have refused to ventilate and demanded my LL treat the damp. When actually, the damp problem was caused by the tenant.

A house of good standard should not develop damp from cooking without the windows open. I would imagine most people don’t open windows whilst cooking, to be honest. I don’t.

Acting in their interests doesn’t involve the POA taking on a business role, and one that involves a fair element of work, and taking on quite serious risk.

it doesn't oblige you to run any business that doesn’t already exist.

a lot of the time the care costs aren’t even covered by the rent of the property.

I wouldn’t in this instance call it a business

although I would say they are privileged to have that asset to use.

My kitchen gets very damp if I cook a lot (I batch cook for the week). So yes I imagine if the room went unventilated, it would develop again. But I just crack the window.

When I moved in, I got a damp expert to come in and assess and he said it was just down to lack of ventilation and advised locking each window on the loosest catch which would create enough airflow to prevent damp. And he was right.

being a landlord is a business. Whether it covers the cost of care doesn’t change that. It’s an additional job for the POA and they are certainly under no obligation to take it on.

Don’t you have kitchen vents?

I have a extractor over the hob but if I've got all 4 rings on, it doesn't totally get rid of the heat/humidity.

But no, no other vents. It's a Victorian house and doesn't have a lot of the ventilation that a newer house would have.

You should get it installed. There is no reason a Victorian kitchen can’t be ventilated, it’s only made of brick!

so either way, serious problems from everyday activities are really rather the properties fault, not the occupant.

I hate them when they are like the grabby daughter who posted last week who thought her parents were being scammed and the rent was something like 1500!!!
Or the land lord who was selling up and wanted to show the house when the tenant was still in place... totally intrusive .. (the tenant posting on here didn't get a great time)
Or the nosy old bag LL who would drop in and make comments and the tenant (who posted the other week ) was expected to stay in and wait for the LL to call round so some papers could be signed

I don't have an issue with LLs I have an issue with greedy , intrusive LLs who over step

who said it was an unreasonable proposition?

In this country, anyone can buy a house, every single person has that right. No-one is stopping you. No one is stopping you from buying 2, or 5 or 10 either. If you have 10 and you chose to let them out instead of leaving them empty, it's your right too.

Now if you have a house, and someone comes and declares that it's "unfair"that you have that big house for yourself, and you must stick to one room and give the rest of the room to other families, you won't be moaning so much about landlords and everyone be given the same amount of space or property will you 😂. That has happened, didn't quite work out so well.

There are a million things that need doing to my house if I could afford it. But I can't. Further complicated by the lack of reliable and good tradesmen, who are like hens teeth.

But as an owner occupier, I cope with them and make it work.

MN hates everyone, not just landlords.

Ours is 🤷🏻‍♀️

The right. Don’t forget the right 🤣

People do not tend to discuss good landlords on here, or anywhere.

Yet just yesterday, we had a thread where OP was complaining about a council tenant getting a posh house for "free" and how she had to pay market rent etc, and it it turns out she was a LL anyway.

The people they're profiteering off?

TBH unless it’s an extremely desirable property, in very good condition,
that will command a very good rent, then given the general level of care home fees, it’s hardly ever worth all the hassle - plus of course the income will be taxable, if it takes their income beyond the threshold.

Twice in this family we have thought of renting out a house after a relative has moved to a care home, but after doing all the sums, and factoring in what cosmetic work would be needed, it just wouldn’t have been worth it even with good tenants who paid regularly and didn’t trash the place.

I find this approach strange.

There will are millions of older properties in the UK that could do with ventilation improvements and other upgrades but realistically this just isn't a financially viable. It's as true for owner occupiers as it is for landlords. Nobody has infinite money to pump into properties like this when the issue can be effectively managed through making relatively easy lifestyle changes like opening windows. If you force landlords to fit all this stuff then rents will inevitably rise further to cover all these costs.

Just to be clear, I'm not taking about dilapidated houses which need essential work, but those that need extra consideration due to their age. I have lived in a few of these over my time and opening windows and drying clothes considerately make a huge difference.