Meet the Landlords.

[Darkesteyes]

Its only been on five mins and got my back up already. This landlord wants to turn a three bedroom house into six studio flats. And charging 90 quid a week for one room in a shared house. And the state of some of the places they rent out.

I m glad I'm not a landlord amy more, it was stress after stress damage caused by tennants things stolen etc etc.

I'm not saying all tennants are bad, although those who dont pay should be penalised more and it made a criminal offense, and eviction swift.

too much bias on the tennants side in that case.

in the case of jim he didn't deserve the mindless damage of his properties just as much as he didn't need to exploit vulnerable people either. thats 50/50 too me. I can see both sides.

Mrsbucket, we commented on how it is apparently a 'civil matter' if you want to get your property back and the tenants are not paying, yet to evict them and kick them out without going down the proper channels is a 'criminal' offence!!

The law needs to change on that score. Whey should the ll pay? Because we can afford it? Judging from that Eastern European sounding lady, she couldn't afford where she was living herself due to her tenant not paying.
If you walk out of tesco and don't pay for something, the police get involved, what's the difference?

Just catching up with this programme this morning. Have only watched 15 mins and already . It's just wrong on every level from every perspective, the greedy landlords, the exploitation of people on benefits, the tenants that don't move out, the time it takes to evict a tenants. The list goes on! This is the UK in 2013. Surely this isn't representative of the rental market is it?

Where will this all end? Will property prices ever come down, will houses become affordable? I worry about future generations...

HMODaddy. Wtf? CRINGE!!!

wow. Did I watch a different programme? I thought it was quite balanced.

And some really dumb knee-jerkers on this thread.

ban buy to let, eh? So earning money is a crime? Many people who have saved for later in life are now STUFFED due to years of low interest rates and high inflation. (the 'funding for lending' policy - BTW the banks are taking cheap money and NOT lending!) Buying a property gives some chance of inflation proofing, and a return of about 3% after tax and expenses. Assuming you don't get a crooked tenant, of course.

if you buy a house you are paying a mortgage, to bankers. If you rent you are paying a landlord. Real life.

anyone whining about the law favouring landlords is a fool. Did you see those two cases where the tenants had moved in with no intention of paying rent, leaving the owners of the house stuck and bleeding money? When they were finally removed, one house was trashed to the point of uninhabitable and the other had things stolen. Neither tenant will pay anything or have a criminal record for this.

what the programme didn't mention (regarding the lady with cancer) is that many landlords don't take HB tenants not because they don't like them or don't want to, but because their insurance won't allow it. This is because so many HB tenants default due to poor money management - when HB was paid direct to landlords this happened less. Blame the defaulters, not the landlords.

The laws need changing though. LLs like Jim should be bloody jailed for explotation and being allowed to even let bedsits in the condition that he does. The man came over as bullying and nasty (what was that top-up fee all about) and I presume that chap who refused to pay then had to pay £52.00 a fortnight was on benefits, why did the court allow that?

Yet on the other hand tennants as shown last night who do not pay and leave the properties in such a state should face criminal charges.

A top up is if the benefit the tenant gets doesn't cover the rent and the tenant agrees to pay the difference for the cost of the room/house.

Jim the landlord is running a business. He can probably only do what he does because he has lots of properties so can absorb the cashflow issue when people don't pay. He earned all his money. OK, he bought when places were cheap but wages were lower then too.

yes, those bedsits were tiny. That's why they were cheap. Flame me for this, but his tenants can afford fags and booze.

oh, and no-one with a brain looks down on people who rent.

houses are NOT expensive because of 'greedy landlords'. I repeat - earning money is not a crime. Whining, kneejerk, boneheaded reactions such as this should be. Happy to pay mortgages to bankers, are we? All bankers are wonderful people? Come on - let's have the whining about them to balance it out.