Rental: cheeky potential tenants

[erloe]

I have a rental which was my home before I met dh. It’s a one bedroom flat in a very very sought after development. I listed it for £3,200 a month and got no interest. I reduced to £3,000 and got one viewing. They offered £2,700 a month.

I got another message asking if the kitchen appliances had been updated since the pictures because the washing machine looked 20 years old. I have now had new pictures taken.

Have other people had tenants haggle on price? I rented it for £2,700 in 2019.

She doesn't 'need' it at all.

Why do people have this idea in their heads that a landlord is being seriously ripped off or otherwise disadvantaged if they end up having to pay, say, 10-20% of the monthly cost themselves for a mortgage that will see them owning a phenomenally valuable property in 25 years' time, whilst the people who live there - and will never own a penny share of it themselves - are 'only' paying maybe 80-90% of the mortgage?

That's part of the rank unfairness of council tax.

It only costs each council so much to provide the same/similar services as each other, so the more very expensive properties there are in an area, the less they need to charge each householder.

In a deprived area, with mainly Band A or B properties... well, the council still have to raise the money needed to provide all the services, so the rates for those lower bands will have to be dramatically adjusted upwards, regardless.

It would be much, much fairer to set the values of each band on a national level, so that the wealthier areas would raise more than they needed and so could subsidise the poorer ones... but then it wouldn't be council tax.

@OnTheRightSideOfGeography Exactly. And fresh appliances would be a couple of weeks rent. Instead, she is happy to leave it vacant. And the entitlement of landlords who think their tenants owe at least the mortgage is bizarre (as a landlord).

Every month is stands empty is opportunity cost of £2,700 seems madness not to take their offer if no other interest

For such a highly sought-after property, it does seem to be currently selling like stone cold cakes.

Not always but sometimes areas with lower council tax have poorer provision of public services. Andd even generally wealthy areas still have individuals in need.

Thst's not a London specific issue but as the thread is about London, I'll post about there. From what I've heard some London councils have very poor public services (although I don't know if they're the ones with lower council tax).

Possibly related, I don't know, is that London has the highest child poverty and highest pensioner poverty rates in the UK.

Perhaps the councils in those areas focus is on the wealthy residents who can afford rentals like OPs, so the council tax is low to attract them but that leaves the people in those areas who're in poverty, or in need of other help, with poorer badly funded services.

London has the highest rate of child poverty in England.
https://www.childhoodtrust.org.uk/about-us/child-poverty-in-london/

And from Age UK
London has the UK’s highest poverty rate for people of pensionable age. 24% of Londoners of pensionable age live in poverty (a quarter of a million people). This is a 5% increase since 2017 and 7% more than the rest of England average.

This. My landlord's reasoning for wanting to raise my rent (again!) was that his mortgage has gone up. How is that my problem?

Well I guess it will become your problem if he can’t pay the mortgage so sells up and the new landlord’s mortgage and therefore your rent is even higher with rising % or they don’t sell it to another landlord and you get notice.

It would be much, much fairer to set the values of each band on a national level, so that the wealthier areas would raise more than they needed and so could subsidise the poorer ones.

It wouldn't be fairer. Some, maybe a lot of the wealthier areas have extremes. Very wealthy residents but also very deprived ones. Like London's Kensington. Luxury mansions but also neglected estates like Grenfell.

Not only relevant to London. House prices tend to be more expensive in the south (to the detriment of people from those areas). Obviously with exceptions. Rishi Sunak's North Yorkshire constituency is no doubt a lot more expensive than Jaywick in Essex.

So your idea would unfairly penalise poorer people from areas where housing has been allowed to become too expensive.

Someone who owns a 3 bedroom house in a cheaper area would pay less than someone renting a shitty 1 or 2 bedroom flat in a more expensive area.

And there can't just be mass displacement of poor people to cheaper areas. We know how unpopular 'blow-ins' are because there's been many threads complaining about them pushing up house prices in the places they blow in to.

Fairer system would be, as well as more social housing, taking into account individual households financial circumstances.

nah, bugger him.
If the landlord cannot afford to own the house and relys on tenant to pay, they are extra useless.

@Changingplace so I should pay more rent because of my landlord's poor business sense? He bought the house I'm in for peanuts nearly 15 years ago, and has rented it out for 15 years. If he still has a mortgage on it (and that mortgage is anywhere close to the ridiculous amount I already pay in rent) then he has clearly over-extended himself. Why should I pay for his bad decision making?

The absolute gall of telling your tenant that their rent is going up - not because of market rates or supply and demand or even improvements to the property - but because your mortgage has gone up, is astounding.

Career landlords seem to think they can keep borrowing more and more and tenants will just be there to mop up their messes.

Maybe don't be a landlord if you can't do simple maths and keep your investments in order?

Exactly right, @Changingplace, you are being asked to subsidise his lifestyle.

@Sweden99 exactly. Every year I pay my landlord the equivalent of nearly 10% of this house's original purchase price in rent. And he has had that for nearly 15 years. This house should have paid for itself a long, long time ago.

Your property isn't "very very sought after" if you've had one reduced offer.

Time to adjust your expectations.

Maybe it means "used to be very sought after pre-covid" - people's priorities have changed.

It's just rubbing salt into the wound - and he's probably so privileged that he doesn't even have a clue that he's even doing that.

Very good points, actually.

Probably a lot more of a can of worms than I'd instinctively thought.

I live in Barbican. Many of those listed aren't in the actual Barbican, and most of those that are overpriced, some grossly. Indeed, this is why some have had their prices reduced! The ones listed on Open Rent are particularly overpriced. For the most part, all have higher rents to cover the rapidly increasing service charge as landlords/owners are passing these cost directly onto tenants.

Somewhere like the Heron is a much higher spec building, ditto Roman House even though the footprints of the flats are often smaller than Barbican flats. These have always had higher rental prices than Barbican.

If OP can't rent her flat out for £3000 pm it is overpriced. It's really that simple 🤷🏻‍♀️

My point was that there are flats in central London that rent out for 3k or higher - the area around the Barbican is just one example. I also mentioned Mayfair as another example- there will be many.

I said that in response to people being astonished that someone could be expecting to get 3k for a 1 bed flat because that wouldn’t happen in their area.

OPs flat may be overpriced for all I know but they’ve been offered 2.7k so it’s not that overpriced. I already said I don’t agree with OP that their tenants are being cheeky in trying to get a reduction. But I do also think a lot of people are commenting who have no clue about central London prices.

Gosh, how incredibly cheeky of them to try and bring you back down to reality and make you realise that no one is going to pay £3000 p/m for your crap flat.

Landlords don’t run rental properties out of the goodness of their hearts. If there are several other properties you could move to at the same price you’re currently paying, then you’re right: your landlord's mortgage costs aren’t your problem. However, if prices have gone up in general in your area and you wouldn’t get anywhere for the same price or cheaper, then I’m afraid it very much is your problem.

What’s your point? Do you think he/she should let you live there for free?

@BucketBouquet my point is abundantly clear if you had bothered to read my posts. My landlord does not want to raise my rent because of the market value or supply and demand, but because he has overextended his credit and is supposedly having issues paying his mortgage. That is not my problem. I am already paying market value rent for my property and will not pay more to cover his stupidity.

Stop being purposefully obtuse. Nobody is asking to live anywhere for free.

"Landlords don’t run rental properties out of the goodness of their hearts. If there are several other properties you could move to at the same price you’re currently paying, then you’re right: your landlord's mortgage costs aren’t your problem. However, if prices have gone up in general in your area and you wouldn’t get anywhere for the same price or cheaper, then I’m afraid it very much is your problem."

@BucketBouquet did you miss the part of my post where I said that properties of the same size as mine and in better condition have been advertised for rent on my street that are on for cheaper than my landlord wants? Maybe bother to read posts before replying.

I commented earlier saying as a Londoner that I thought a 1 bed at 3K was really unreasonable.

Wanted to add that ultimately the point is no one wants to rent this 1 bed flat for 3k. So the OP needs to take a hint and reduce the rent.

Or she can continue having an empty property and make no money whatsoever out of it every month...

An expensive rental for a 1 bed flat, especially if it has not outside space, will attract a more limited group of tenants to start with and someone who is willing to pay 3k will expect something really amazing for their money.