You’re such a good person Ivan… There, is that what you wanted?
Name one area on the planet where this doesn’t happen. It’s an illusion to think otherwise. Every decision you make has winners and losers.
i discriminate by not going to Tesco but I go to Aldi , Lidl, homebargains and so on .
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Name one area on the planet where this doesn’t happen. It’s an illusion to think otherwise. Every decision you make has winners and losers.
Unregulated markets with low rate of mortgages and high rate of direct contracts. The only problems I’ve seen with tenants in my home country are vacant property and one unpaid month.
It’s an illusion to think that reference checks do anything other than reducing the rental price. Otherwise, Airbnb wouldn’t be viable as a business.
The market is moving to a point where no one will be able to move. And there’ll be rental chains, just like with mortgages or social housing. It’s just self-inflicted misery.
With air bnb landlords are much better protected. The difficulties landlords face in private rental sector creates the need for much tighter vetting. IE eviction problems.
Rent insurance is very restrictive and is not the complete safety net some people think it is.
landlords have the pick right now. Rents are their highest ever. This is not the result of greedy landlords, this is through necessity.
They still don’t want those known to default.
Are you saying it takes more than 12 months to evict? That’s insane! Some visas last less than that.
In many instances yes. Landlords are exposed to a massive amount of risk. There’s so much legislation that works against them. It’s getting worse with rental reform bill.
Many landlords switching to Airbnb or selling up.
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Did you not know there is a huge court backlog?
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Hi, Ivan. Nice name, sounds typical from where I am from. Eastern and Central European T have been some of our best T, and we regret not having many of them around.
We do know that there’s a massive court backlog. Even without it, going to court is always the last resort. No LL will act on it lightly because it’s so money and time consuming.
Do you mind me saying that you sound like somebody from Shelter? If not, I’m not sure why you’re spending all this time, encouraging discussion and observing the reactions. What exactly do you want to achieve here? Get LL to see the error of their ways? But they’re clearly much more informed than you are and are more aware of the risks to themselves.
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Have used Openrent several years gaining many tenants.
The problems stated by Users are becoming common. I wonder could some if these ‘foreign’ applicants be via Serco trying to find accommodation for illegals. They have a wide brief which is extremely generous to Landlords but obviously those of us who use Openrent do not wish to go that route. For many and varied reasons.
My latest tenant switch, 3 months ago, my great tenant could no longer afford to run the property, below market rent by a decent bit i may add. So she went back with her daughter to live with her parents aged 40 plus. So sad.
She recommend a guy who she knew.
I was so dreading the Openrent process nowadays that I didn’t want to advertise and deal with the 50 plus no hoper applications in first 24 hours. Which is how it had been ever since the pandemic.
So i credit checked the gentleman. He had decent job low 30s salary and the recommendation was ‘reject’ cannot afford £630 a month.
I overrode the recommendation and rented it to him. 3 months rent received to date all on time and a very grateful tenant.
I still used Openrent, Rent now, because i like the swift efficient electronic sign up and process and emails generated to tenant. It saves so much time petrol and meetings trying to coordinate everything. £50 is so worth it for the convenience and appearance of professionalism.
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Hi Tim. I’m from Ukraine. I’m trying to understand the logic of the UK rental market where you can have several years worth of an average UK salary in the bank account and still being rejected by landlords. What are the options other than buying a house and selling it after the visa ends? Airbnb? Hotels?
How are international students able to rent anything? What the ideal tenant looks like? Who even rents if not people moving from abroad or other cities? There are so many questions. Why not just increase the rent to the point that covers all the associated risks? Why spend months of finding “the perfect” tenant if there are hundreds applicants lining up for viewings with deep pockets? Why should I disclose my salary and risk the next rent increase being exactly the half of my salary, not mentioning attracting burglars?
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Because 1) you won’t get offered anywhere if you dont 2) a landlord wants good tenants to stay. Too much of an increase will drive the tenant out.
Disclosing salary attracts burglars??
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Mate, you shouldn’t be a landlord, think about the insecure place of the tenants you’re usurping their entire paycheque from and the fact that you’re the problem in helping people get a renting history at all, immigrants deserve a place to live too and if you think you’re doing anyone a favour in being picky with your tenants, you’re not, you’ll get your rent and they will still be discriminated against regardless
Can you illustrate a practical real world vetting process which doesn’t include prioritising tenants somehow? Raffle ticket maybe? First come first served?
If there was a system which allowed for record checking of immigrants so LL know more about the tenant they will be housing, and eviction methods were actually adequate rather than a joke then this would level the field. Don’t blame landlords for something they have no control of and for wanting to minimise risk.
So high immigration and failure to build adequate number of housing is not the overwhelming number 1 contributing factor of housing supply issue? The fact that vast numbers of landlords have left the market has driven up prices massively not the opposite as you suggest!
Landlords have no obligation to be social housing providers.
Flip the role and see how you feel then.
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This isn’t a serious comment… Surely?
How long have you been a Landlord Jack?
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Also from Ukraine but it’s been a long time. Grew old here and of course a proper British citizen.
Singlehandedly, getting on the property ladder is so much better than the high rents. Even if it’s on the outskirts, even if it’s a studio. Just work hard, save and get your foot on a property ladder. That’s what we concentrated on. That’s what our Eastern European ex-T concentrated on. One couple now owns studio in a big city, another went for two-bedroom mansionette, but on the outskirts, in a town nearby. They have a car and can commute.
The rental prices have gone crazy recenetly. With Brexit and mortgage rate increasing several times, prices of food and heating doubling or more (I don’t look at official statistics, I have first-hand experience). Even worse situation with building materials, so any renovation is prohibitively high (and is still a responsibility of LL). It all has to be financed somehow for rental to bring income. So, the cost is passed to T. Rental prices are going out of charts.
Again, I would look outside of expensive central areas to rent, especially if you have a car or motobike. Some area would be fine if you are prepared to cycle to work/centre. It will make a big difference to the price you’re paying.
Hundreds of applicants lining up? Are you sure? We’re now advertising a flat on Gumtree and didn’t have a single suitable candidate. People don’t even read the ad. The first sentence says "If you can see that ad, then the flat is still available. Do you know how many “Is it still available?” have we got? Majority. Then, when you reply, people don’t even get back to you. Where are these hundreds? Проведите, проведите меня к нему! Я хочу видеть этого человека! (Маяковский).
As for finding “perfect” T, it’s not the case. The reason is legislation is being tightened all the time with another reform looming over us. As it is, it’s not an equal game. Law is heavily in favour of the T. If they know the basic rules, they can stay rent-free for months while poor LL spends a lot of money evicting them. It can easily be 6 - 8 months or longer now. Also, it’s very hard to trace T afterwards, so the thousands pounds of loss is on LL. That’s the reason we’re so cautious. Free legal advice is available to TT, and city councils advise them to stay put till they are evicted. So does Shelter organization. So, we just don’t have a choice but to be super-cautious. That’s our only sure line of defence.
Why should I disclose my salary? > Blockquote
I’m not sure how to answer that. LL require this information to verify that you can comfortably afford renting their place. If you refuse to disclose me your proof of income, I won’t rent to you. Savings are not the same. They will be gone eventually with nothing more to show. Also, we ask for 6 last bank statements with proof of financial commitments being honoured, including paying your current rent on time, proving your current salary and healthy bank balance at the end of each month. People who refuse, are sent packing because the risk is too high.
If you think LL cooperates with bulglars and will pass information about your high salary to them, you shouldn’t be renting from them. What kind of relationship will it be with such deep distrust?
I disagree about AirBnB being same price on a monthly basis as long-term lets. We looked into doing it. It’s noticeably more expensive for the like standard of accommodation.
Hope some of it helped. Sorry for the wall of text. But then you asked quite a few questions, haven’t you? I’m glad that you have a great job with such high salary that you’re afraid to disclose it, not to attract burglars.
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Thanks. This helps a lot.
I didn’t know local councils and Shelter advise stop paying rent and face eviction. How and who does it help? In Ukraine, you can just call the police and tenants will be out on the street tomorrow morning if they don’t pay.
So in a nutshell, buying and then selling something is preferable to renting for a few years stay? I was advised renting is more wise financially if you don’t plan to stay for many years. Especially, with high interest rates and potentially declining prices. Was I lied to?
I didn’t realise that you won’t be standing for long. Then renting is your only option.
Nobody advises T not to pay rent, LOL, it’s illegal. However, nobody is asking them if them do, either, while giving advice to stay put till eviction.
Disclosing salary attracts burglars??
If you think LL cooperates with bulglars and will pass information about your high salary to them, you shouldn’t be renting from them
I guess, it’s just deep distrust to people in general in Ukraine. The culture is that you should appear poor to not get robbed. Nobody sympathises rich in Ukraine.
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