rents will soon be rising and the poor will suffer

[bil66]

There is a new tax coming out called section 24 which the Government does not want you to know about.

The tax will put up the cost of renting properties dramatically and this in turn means that landlords will not be able to rent to people on low income.

Finding a property for people on low income is already very difficult but its about to get much worse.

Action needs to be taken to stop this tax and complaints should be made to your local council and MP.

[sausagedogsmakechipolatas]

Thank you WomanWithAltitude I was starting to think I was in some parallel universe where property couldn’t be sold (after years of renting out and having the mortgage paid by the tenants, nonetheless!)

I am laughing my arse off at the suggestion we all need educating by landlords who only have our best interest at heart. Nah thanks. I’ve got eyes, a brain and am quite capable of reaching my own conclusions about the housing and rental market, ta. Oh, and I loved a long time as a tenant before buying a house too.

Gillybeanz market rents are usually multiples of LA rates. Eg market rent on a 4 bed here (SW, not an affluent city) is an average of £1300, whilst the LA rate this year (and the maximum amount of housing benefit) is £187.14/week or £748.86/4 weekly or £810.94/pcm. A family of 5 needing benefits would have to find almost £500/pcm from payments other than housing benefit just to have a home of adequate size, which is ridiculous and unsustainable.

[sausagedogsmakechipolatas]

*lived a long time as a tenant. Didn’t love it.

[bil66]

Dear getmelikememother if you google the cause of homelessness in the UK there is almost no mention of s24.

Shelter the charitable organisation for the most vulnerable make very little mention of it.

S.24 is a major cause of homelessness and it's about to accelerate.

[AllyMcBeagle]

Shelter the charitable organisation for the most vulnerable make very little mention of it.

BECAUSE IT'S NOT A CAUSE IF HOMELESSNESS AND YOU ARE RIDICULOUS IF YOU THINK IT IS!

Sorry I don't normally shout but honestly. Here you go OP

[AllyMcBeagle]

*'OF' not 'if'! lack of logic and selfishness is making me so annoyed I can't type.

[AllyMcBeagle]

Ugh and that should have been 'Your lack of logic and selfishness'. I give up.

[bil66]

If s.24 is not a cause of homelessness then why over the past 2 years have I been evicting people for that very reason and so have many other landlords. You will soon see the rate accelerate. I am here to enlighten you my dear.

[AllyMcBeagle]

I am here to enlighten you my dear.

ODFOD.

If you are evicting people in order to sell your property then you are increasing the housing stock.

Houses being sold to first time buyers = one less person needing to rent. It doesn't matter whether the person who you were renting to is the person who buys your property. What matters is total number of properties vs. total number of people needing them.

I agree with others that buy to let landlords are seriously lacking in morals.

[bil66]

I haven't sold any.

I replace my poor tenants with more affluent ones so my tax bill is covered.

[gillybeanz]

My ds 1 is about to buy a couple of properties and I used to have one, but no mortgage, so I was more than open to tenants on benefits, as nobody telling me I couldn't.
Tbh, they were the most reliable.
People like my friend who treats the place nice for her dd, trustworthy and part of the community through school. Her LL has no problems with her at all, just like the majority of tenants.

[Shinesweetfreedom]

What a load of claptrap from a vested interest.
I take it you are from the Property 118 group for landlords.
The tax is against the over indebted landlords who have over leveraged i.e. low deposit high mortgage.
Bring it on and more I say.

[JassyRadlett]

The problem is that far too many BTL landlords have been operating a business model that does not include in its profit calculations the appreciation of the asset.

There are too many landlords who have borrowed to fund their purchase to a level where the margin between servicing the mortgage and other costs and the rent is quite small, and do not have capital reserves, so they are unable to take the long view.

Many BTL business models are reliant on government subsidy (the tax break). The government has decided this is no longer desirable, so is withdrawing the subsidy.

As others have said, as long as there is demand there will be supply, but this is likely to shift towards those with capital, who are able to buy outright and are therefore more willing and able to take the long view of their profitability - particularly risk-averse investors who see the capital asset as the main prize, and the rate of return as secondary.

[AllyMcBeagle]

I replace my poor tenants with more affluent ones so my tax bill is covered.

So the education you are offering is 'How to be a scumbag for beginners' then?

[Ollym]

Where are all these wealthy tenants you will replace the poor with currently hiding?

[bil66]

As I said in my opening statement if you increase a landlords costs, in the end the tenant will pay it through higher rents.

It's called financial survival.

[bil66]

There are lots of ways to increase revenue.

One is to rent to the polish rather than housing benefit.They pay more.

There are lots of other ways

[AllyMcBeagle]

As I said in my opening statement if you increase a landlords costs, in the end the tenant will pay it through higher rents.

Or the BTL landlords go out of business and ordinary people get to buy somewhere.

Bring it on.

[gillybeanz]

sausage

apologies for my dimness, I'm in the NW, so a different ball game.
We just charged what all the others were charging, should have understood more.

My ds is buying a couple of properties that have forever tenants, I forget what they are called. They are cheap and allow people to always have their home. more often or not vulnerable. Wtf are they called? OP, you should look at these.
They do come with a risk that tenants may not have replaced internal furniture, which they are responsible for.
He's a big softy and his business has a niche for helping those who can't usually access his product.

[bil66]

The s.24 tax can be beaten in many ways.

The easiest way is to transfer properties into a limited company. That brings an end to s 24.

There are other ways.

Even for those landlords that sell, it will make very little difference to house prices.Landlords own about 15 per cent of the housing stock and if 5 per cent sell I can't see that reducing prices

Most landlords won't do this.

[bil66]

Of course it's very convenient to blame landlords for the lack of house building and the dramatic rise in population

[gluteustothemaximus]

Maybe that’s why all the houses are being sold down our road.

It’s nice actually, as they were all shit holes when rented. But now the owners want to sell them, they look nice all done up.

Shame for the people that lived in them for years in such a bad state. They wouldn’t recognise them now.

[Shinesweetfreedom]

I think most people would be shocked and angry if they knew how many billions per year are paid in housing benefit that goes to private landlords.
I think the scandal is that landlords have had it too good for too long.
S24 should have been brought in years ago,long long over due.
The priced out have been a growing number and the government are now sitting up and taking notice.

[bil66]

Most landlords are not interested in housing benefit so you know what you can do with it

[Pradaqueen]

OP, ignoring your pejorative language, you do rather sound like a landlord who, for the past couple of years when the changes were announced (note : with plenty of notice and warning ), ignored the issue of the pending changes to the then tax position of mortgage interest payments being an allowable expense against the property rental income. Presumably you have now been enlightened. And now you have done your sums you have realised you cannot now have profit and capital growth. Your choices are to 1. Suck it up after the ‘good times’ have stopped. 2. Sell your properties and realise your capital growth (and pay your capital gains bill) 3. Put up rents (good luck with that, there will be plenty of other housing stock for tenants to choose from) 4. Transfer your properties into a ltd company and pay the additional stamp duty that incurs- oh, and unless you have a significant number of these properties, that bill will be huge.

The government is actually right in this respect. The frenzied BTL market has locked out many FTB. Why should a LL with zero debt on a property pay more tax on the same property/rental income than someone who has mortgaged themselves up to the hilt?

I predict that the housing market willl definitely open up to allow more to get on the housing ladder as BTL properties come back into the market. It won’t be quick, (as the tax bill is not due for 12mths after the income is earned) but the next two years plus will be very interesting indeed.

Perhaps you can explain to us uneducated types how your new business model of switching your housing stock from ‘housing the poor ’ to now instantly appealing to potential holidaymakers as ‘holiday lets’ works?

[NeverTwerkNaked]

Funny how landlords suddenly find the money and motivation for renovations at that point isn’t it gluteus