To think we should ban private renting?

[honeyrosesandwich]

AIBU to think this is a great idea?

Imagine if private renting was banned. All rented houses were done under social housing / housing association. There are already over 4.5 million houses rented under social housing, so it's on a huge scale already.

It would mean rent would be affordable for everyone and effectively help the cost of living prices. I live in a housing association house and my 2 bed is £520 a month. My brother, who private rents, pays £1100 for a 2 bed in the same area.

Repairs for my house are done by the HA's own company. I just put in a request online for it.

People that want to stay in their privately rented home will be free to do so but they put a ban on any new tenancies. The owners will have the opportuntiy to sell the house to social housing or keep it for themselves, but not rent it out further. If sold, the tenant will be allowed to stay.

I've been thinking about this randomly today and haven't come up with any negatives so far. Is it bad to monopolise housing? Well, there are already certain housing associations which own hundreds of thousands of houses.

What about tenant farmers? Who is going to buy their farms?

Or The Crown Estate or other landowners who own large swathes of of the country and rent out whole villages in some cases, who care for their tenants and want their tenants happy? Should they hand over their well kept (because they are) and well maintained properties to a housing association who don't care about their tenants and will let them get into disrepair?

Paying a mortgage isn't the only reason rents go up. In fact, it's probably not even the main reason. Rents go up because like everything else, costs increase. As a landlord you need to pay for a gas safety certificate every year, a boiler service every year, electrical check every 5 years. You need to keep the kitchen and bathroom updated, you need to replace carpets and redecorate (often much more frequently than you'd need to in your own house when you see how some people treat their rental home).

All that maintenance costs money and the costs from trades to come in and do the work go up over time. It is therefore reasonable to expect rent to increase yearly in line with inflation, reflecting the increased cost of maintaining the house.

The cost to the LL is not just paying a mortgage (if there is one - and btw, where there is, most BTL mortgages are interest only and are not tax deductable as they used to be). The cost to the LL is the cost of maintaining a house, which by law needs many more things doing to it to maintain it than most people would bother to do on their owned properties.

My parents' house is a listed property in an incredibly remote area. Houses in the area take a very long time to sell, and are almost exclusively owned by bougee WFH arty types, and just sit on the market until someone buys. There is zero rental market.

We are weighing up options including rental to educational groups, artist retreats, medium term lets etc, as it's a ridiculously impractical place to live.

I'm not really a fan of these dogmatic all or nothing solutions.

Our council in Wales are placing our homeless waiting for accommodation in England. We don't have anywhere here to put them. Because rent smart Wales was set up with onerous expensive courses to complete and pass every few years. Because rent smart Wales want energy ratings of C in every private rental. Many accidental landlords and those with one to let said fuck it and sold up.

Now some were purchased by overseas investors from Germany, Holland and the UAE others by big boys from the cities. Others were bought as homes.

Our council didn't have the infrastructure budget to take over hotels locally for these families to temporarily house them. The children and parents have had to move many miles from local family, schools into accommodation in Cheshire and Lancashire.

Well this is a stupid idea. I cam afford to have a huge property- but i don't NEED a big property. Instead I have a modest semi and have bought a small bungalow that i rent out below market value. I am making an investment and also helping an older family who will struggle paying market rent. Should I sell that property and buy a big house i don't need ? Of course I can save the money but that's not the point

Well the government have asked local councils to go through the electoral roll and put it against homes number of bedrooms. So in theory two on the electoral roll, three bedrooms, we have one spare bedroom but some have to a lot more.

Now I'm curious as to why they feel the need to do this. Are we going to be given lodgers to house.

It's not just about owning more than one property.

Have they? How do you know this?

We used to have council housing. Much better idea.

All in Hell? It's a good job there's been private landlords because the government certainly haven't provided enough social housing. There'd be a hell of a lot more homelessness if there hadnt been any landlords. It goes without saying that yes, there are some shit landlords, but most aren't.

Here.

"English Housing Survey - GOV.UK" https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

Some more

"The uncomfortable truth behind baby boomers and Britain’s housing crisis" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buying-selling/how-baby-boomers-fuelling-housing-crisis/

Yep there is a name for this.... checks notes.... communism?

What are we going to tax to raise the money to hypothetically buy all of these houses?

One way is to treble council tax on empty, under occupied property. If Burnham removes stamp duty on downsizing that may help.

Take our lovely neighbours they've had a four bedroom three reception room for decades. Late 70s. Husband had a stroke so they're now stuck. He can't help with a move physically and anyway wants to die there. , she'd be overwhelmed by one now just clearing out the house is beyond her physical strength and mentally because he's so anti.

As a widow she might but she'd need family help

So you get stuck in a big property.

Agree

Yabu we aren’t living in a communist state.

But you'll also hit people like me who live in a 2 bed flat and who actually uses the 2nd room as an office. Or my parents who live in a 5 bed house and use all those bedrooms for various things.

Why should people be penalised for being able to afford a property bigger than their need just because some people can't afford to live the same way.

Empty, and under occupied, are different things.

But you want your neighbours to be taxed out of their own home rather than something like practical help?

What are various things though?.

I'm not saying I agree but the government are looking at extra spare rooms as in rooms that are not for sleeping in.

If the second room is an office it's bringing in income they might say so you pay tax on that.

What about people who get a job offer in another city and want to move there? Private renting offers opportunity to those people, who wouldn't be eligible for HA.

No I said that the government are looking at various ways to find extra rooms for people to live in. 31 million empty bedrooms in the UK in their opinion would solve the housing crisis.

How they plan to go about it I've absolutely no idea.

The government have no business in what people use the rooms in their homes as.
If someone can afford the rent/mortgage and are under occupying, then how the extra rooms are used is no one's business.

Surely if we make holding huge or even small property portfolios incredibly unattractive, in fact it costs more and more money to have them, then the houses would be put up for sale, more available houses would bring prices down and it would be easier for people to buy their own home? Once it is calmed down govt can buy up excess homes for council housing. But maintenance should be on the renter, and no right to buy. If their finances improve, their rent should be re-assessed or they move out to buy their own.

But the government are in everyone's business these days. I had to apply for a new driving licence at the weekend, so I googled DVLA. Nope I had to install a government app then register on this app. I had to scan in passport or existing licence. Then they wanted me to open a link so they could scan my face and it was a scan, not a photograph that flashed blue, yellow, green, red whilst it measured my face.

So now I have a government app on my phone which I can now use for passport, driving licence and HMRC purposes. The only thing they haven't done is put a microchip in me 🙄.

I also have an NHS app.

I'm fooked aren't I