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@alpin - you may be right that TJ is part of the problem (that phrase has a certain ring to it that I like! 😉 ) but as an individual if TJ sells then its quite likely that the buyer is another landlord - this one likely a money grabbing evil one. If not a landlord then in the part of the world he's in it will be an affluent middle class type, (possibly supported by parental money). Neither of those help solve the fundamental problem which no individual can. Like @cougar you've ignored that there will be people who mortgages are not viable for. Many of them make bad tennants, but some will be good tennants with no intention on buying and having a deposit, stamp duty, legal fees, perhaps because they expect to move in <3 years time, perhaps they perceive the risk of market crash leaving them with negative equity as too high (taxation than makes the buy-to-let market would be exactly the sort of thing to precipitate that), perhaps they've some previous convictions which make a mortgage really hard to get. Some will have jobs or incomes that are too variable for a lender to trust. Even if the lender trusts them they might not perceive their own job security as worth taking the gamble. Some will be too sick for a lender to consider... there must be some retirees who would rather have their "equity" to enjoy and pay rent than sit on a highly valuable asset that they will pass on to the next generation (or indeed to a charity if they've no kids) etc... the fact that not every "council" tennant with right to buy took up the right tells a story that not everyone sees property ownership as ideal.
I agree its a problem. I agree landlords are part of the problem - but individually they can do nothing about it - its a government issue to sort. Frankly the idea that everyone should own their property is a tory construct - lots of people gained wealth by doing so and that reinforced an idea that this sort of capitalism was good. Its been made worse that the only easy and relatively low risk way to turn £x into £2x in a relatively short term has been property investment, and the tax regime for doing so has been at least moderately attractive. Don't get me wrong, the other extreme, where nobody owns anything is also pretty grim and basically communism...
My friend’s mum has recently died. Her mum had rented the same flat for over 50 years.
She has recently handed the keys back to the flat. Apparently in the rental agreement it said that the flat had to be redecorated when leaving it.
There are many types of tenancy agreement and different circumstances, nobody could possibly comment without all the facts. Solicitor or CAB probably the best bet.
She had paid her mum’s rent for another 2 months after the death so that she had time to clear and clean the flat. We have been told by someone that there was no need to pay that rent.
Again what does that mean. e.g. if She mean's your friend paid it out of her own pocket then advice is correct; if it means that the executor wasn't required to pay it from the estate that depends if the estate had the funds etc.
My friend is the executor of her mum’s will and now the landlord is now chasing her for £3000 to redecorate. Can they do this?
Again "chasing her" or "chasing the estate". They are different things. Whilst I'm not a fan of paying lawyers to do executory work, sometimes its worth the cost to avoid the stress.
**** landlords and anyone who owns more properties than they themselves can live in.
So no rental properties, nowhere to go short term between selling one house and buying another. Nowhere to rent if you want to take say a work placement elsewhere for 6 months. No renting out your house so you can take a year away for travelling. No moving to an area to see if that is where you want to be long term without selling and buying each time. Nowhere to rent when you move out of the family home due to divorce.
Not a landlord myself and no desire to be one but having rental properties which are by default owned by people who don't live in them are utterly essential. An economy where rental was the only option for everyone could actually work, one that had owning as the only option would be beset with issues.
Not a landlord myself as no intention of ever being one but they are a necessity. Be much better if the mass sell off of council houses had never happened but I can't see that ever being reversed with the building of new ones.
As for this case I've no idea what the legal position is but if the landlord were to have an accident involving an open window or something dodgy in their earl grey I'd not be too upset to hear about it.
There's been some handy advice on here.
Yes, all landlords are in it for the money. In my case that was negative money, as I've lost an average of £1.5k per year for the 3yrs they've had a tenant in while I'm away.
Thanks to Marins great insight into the affairs of all landlords, I've been inspired to kick out the tenants and burn it to the ground for the insurance and fully secure my position in the ALAB club.
Phew, what a relief that was.
If not a landlord then in the part of the world he’s in it will be an affluent middle class type, (possibly supported by parental money).
It would pretty much have to be. Flat is around £225 000 in value due to the total madness of the UK housing market. 25 year mortgage on that is what - £1100 - 1200 pcm?
Like @cougar you’ve ignored that there will be people who mortgages are not viable for.
I think you've misunderstood me. Of course there are people for whom mortgages may not be viable but that was pretty much my point. Altruistic landlords like TJ aside, we penalise those people.
It's not just housing, the whole system is arse-backwards. Got loads of money in the bank? We'll pay you interest. In the red every month? We'll charge you fees. We're literally robbing the poor to give to the rich and it's ****ed up. Don't have the capital / security to pay off a mortgage, fine, you can pay a premium to pay off someone else's.
25 year mortgage on that is what – £1100 – 1200 pcm?
Geography.
As above, I live in a 5-bedroom house. My mortgage is half that. But I live in Burnley rather than Edinburgh.
sells then its quite likely that the buyer is another landlord
So one landlord passes the buck to another landlord.
And why can't people afford a deposit? Because they're paying a shit load of cash to a landlord.
As I said at the start, you're only allowed one property and any properties on top of that were highly taxed. That would stop this speculation and investment in living spaces.
Not wanting to be trapped in the cycle of renting (because people who have more than one property generally have the cash and/or security of another property to buy another property) is one of the reasons I've jacked it in and live in a van.
Yuip - the UK housing market works to transfer money from the poor to the rich. In this context I am the rich and because I ( with Mrs TJ ) bought these two flats long ago and paid the mortgages off I am now benefiting from it hugely
As above I would like to see proper secure tenacies with real redress for tenants if the flat is substandard and huge taxation on capital gains. this would put downward pressure on house prices which can only be a good thing.
If i were now in the position I was in 30 years ago I simply would not be able to afford to buy anything in Edinburgh bar maybe an ex council flat on a rough estate. Nor would I be able to rent my own flat. property values have gone up maybe 8x as much and rentals 4x as much in that time - but the salary for the job I took has only increased by a half
It utterly stinks
You can try and sugar coat it as much as you want, but no landlord is in the game for philanthropic reasons.
the idea that everyone should own their property is a tory construct
Yes and no..... Affordable housing is a human rights construct. That disappeared due to greed and speculation.
I am the rich and because I ( with Mrs TJ ) bought these two flats long ago and paid the mortgages off I am now benefiting from it hugely
Not trying to take the piss, but this doesn't sound very "accidental".
Alpin -read the post above where I explain how it came about
If when I come to sell in a few years and my current tenant is still there i will offer it to her at a discount.
read the post above where I explain how it came about
I'm struggling to see where you explain it.
The large post above explaining how we came to own the two flats and to rent them out. We lived next door to each other for 5 years, then knocked the two flats together and lived in that as one big flat, then split them again to let to friends at cost, then turned it into a commercial let then she died and left it to me. One flat was hers, one mine
Can't sell my flat, it has a non-standard build so mortgage companies won't lend on it. Far better I should leave it stood empty than rent it out, right?
How much of those costs are down to the antiquated system of stamp duty going hand in hand with house price inflation caused by those that can get credit using it to buy 1+N properties, which then puts credit beyond more people, which creates renters, which pushes up rents, which means that those that can get credit buy 1+N houses, etc, etc
Nothing in our case, as we were starting out at the lower end of the market where stamp duty didn't apply. But with 2-3 year contracts and no clue where the next job would be, it's very questionable whether it's worth buying property and in fact I took a bath on the first flat I did buy as I sold for a chunk less than I paid, even before moving and legal costs. Being as cheap as it was, it didn't really matter of course, even a 10% drop was only a few grand, was hardly going to bankrupt me. But OTOH I'd made a decision to mitigate the risk of a downturn by only buying a flat adequate for my needs rather than the biggest house I could afford.
Of course if you "know" house prices are going to go up by 15% pa, it may be worth gearing to the hilt even for a 3 year job. Most people who "knew" house prices were going to go up got lucky, and will probably subsequently claim their windfalls were due to their hard work and diligence, but in fact it was just luck. People who are forced to sell in a downturn can easily be bankrupted, some were.
As for becoming an accidental landlord, when we went abroad on the strength of one 1y contract (for me) and the hope of similar for my wife, it would have been insane to sell up. Not just the house, but all our possessions other than a few clothes that we took with us. Had we known in advance that it was going to turn into 13y, we'd certainly have preferred to sell as it was a right pain in the arse to manage from abroad, but we didn't know that at the outset.
I had a tenant who died while renting my flat.
His wife was unsure about staying in the flat,and feeling sorry for her situation,immediately stopped the rent. Her decision to leave or not dragged on for months until finally i had to tell her i need the flat back. No problem,all the furniture will be gone.The day she left my brother in law found all the old furniture had been left. She had stopped the council tax and electricity payments the day her husband had died.
I have been renting property out for about 38 years,mostly commercial,and have found increasingly that i am the nanny state.
Phoning me when a lightbulb blows. A call at midnight because my tenant can't sleep as there is a barking dog in the distance. My tenants daughter can't find a parking space when visiting. I could go on.
Think of those massive house builders with huge land banks, not building enough houses.
It's like Diamond market, it will never be flooded with houses and thus driving the cost down.
The house is available to rent or not. Up to them.Very low PCM I might add. Still got to pay for the thing.
At least I'm housing someone and they are not living in a hedge.
Yes, the housing situation sucks. Blame the outright land owners ( big ones) not small fry like me or dare I say @TJagain.
🙁
Blame the outright land owners ( big ones) not small fry like me or dare I say @TJagain.
You're all part of the problem....
Massive rise in buy-to-let mortgages are a sign that there are a shed load of private landlords out there.
Buy-to-let mortgages tanked years ago.
Most landlords are using normal standard rate mortgages, which leads to further increased rents.
Did you get your place in France in the end ?
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/french-property-app/
You’re all part of the problem….
Yes, by living and breathing in the UK we're all part of the problem.
Like I said before, best those that have fallen into it my mistake stop trying to do the right thing and just burn it down for the insurance. Which suits their money grabbing,.first at all costs ways.
Did you get your place in France in the end
Nope... Still looking around. Currently in Italy. Got a couple of private jobs lined up for summer in Germany. Might go back to France after that and have another gander.
We've got time and quite enjoy this nomadic lifestyle.
No idea what that has to do with landlords. If and when we buy a place it'll be our residence, not a second home.
Greetings from the Appennino hills.
Most landlords are using normal standard rate mortgages, which leads to further increased rents.
Yeah, gotta keep that money coming in.
In my case that was negative money, as I’ve lost an average of £1.5k per year for the 3yrs they’ve had a tenant in while I’m away.
Do you mean that it's cost you £1.5k per year to pay the mortgage on a property - depending on the property, that's a really nice earner, surely ? If it is all paid-off and you're losing money, I'd suggest you sell up
I meant that rental income didn't cover the mortgage and running costs, so costing more to rent it out, but it's only short term as we're moving back.
But as all landlords are profiteering scum I should kick the tenants out and jack up the rent until I'm bathing in champagne!
It's a loss we're prepared to make for the short term circumstances.
It is entirely delusionary to criticise all landlords and make them out to all be pirahas, but not appreciate that people need places to rent too. One can't come without the other. Sure, put in place measures beyond free market economics to make sure there is no excess profiteering but you need to appreciate private rental is a vital part of the housing stock. To criticise all small landlords is like castigating the local corner shop for daring to make a profit from a pint of milk, rather than doing it none-profit as a charitable thing or just giving up and closing.
I rented some right shitpits when I was starting out in life. Cheap though. Oddly minimum standards both required by law and expected by tenants has put up the cost of running and maintaining a rental property which is passed on to the tenants - who'd a thunk it. It's amusing a generation on watching my friends kids taking those first steps - same socio economic bracket we were when in the same situation. Both their parents and their adult kids have way higher expectations about what constitutes acceptable living standards for them than we all lived in back then (location, state of decoration, facilities), but rile against the costs too. Society can't have it both ways. This not saying there is not some serious profiteering going on too, but I don't think the profit after expenses is quite as awsums as some of the more naive posters here think.
You’re all part of the problem….
What actually is your problem?
I meant that rental income didn’t cover the mortgage and running costs, so costing more to rent it out
why should it cover all yr costs? - after all, somebody else is still paying the majority of your mortgage, and long-term landlords are getting a hugely subsidised house at the end of the mortgage period
I blame the Normans 😉 Perhaps I'm a direct descendant....by accident.
Old article.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans
What actually is your problem?
People profiting from the suffering of others.
I meant that rental income didn’t cover the mortgage and running costs, so costing more to rent it out
I was answering someone's direct question..I never pleaded poverty or asked for sympathy.
I don't understand trolls in a place like this.
You want to feel like you're a clever winner, so I'll feed you - now just jog on you small self important pr1ck.
I know you'll get a big boost from how you beat another boy on the internet.
Bit touchy...
I know you’ll get a big boost from how you beat another boy on the internet.
Yeah, I'm going to have a big tommy tank over it.
😘
Fair play....
Sorry for the thread derailment.