I had an HMO, by virtue of one communal bathroom, but the council wanted to register them as individual properties for council tax purposes, i.e. 6 x 1,000 pounds instead of 1,300 pounds for the whole property, on the grounds that all other flats had their own facilities, and this one was dedicated to one flat, albeit separated. Fair enough, I lost the argument, but they then wanted me to register it as an HMO, they wanted their cake and eat it, so I told them one or the other, but certainly not both, oh but itās different criteria was their reply, my reply is not printable.
Until the government realise there is a real need for increasing social housing stock, there will be no solution to the rental property shortage.
Private landlords are being forced out of the market with the onorous legislation, and careless attitude of renters who know they are so well protected and favoured in disputes, that they can do what they want and get away with it. Itās the only business I can think of that has virtually no security from errant customers.
Most landlords make a very good living from their properties. And even though the cost of operating a property keeps going up, its still far better than having cash in the bank.
People have always needed to rent, finding the right people can be difficult, and bad tenants can cost you money, this may explain why some landlords charge more than others,ā¦to recoup their losses,or to minimise their risk.
I still feel however that far too many landlords are just plain greedy.
My properties are maintained to a high standard, even if the tenant doesnt request it. My rents are reasonable and affordable and i would be justified if i increased by 25%, but then tenants would struggle.
Property prices are increasing because of demand, tenants are fed up of high rents, so i understand why some are selling and taking the profitā¦still false economy in my opinionā¦the property will continue to increase in value.
Its a catch 22 for tenants. Give them a fair deal and treat them right. My tenants have the option to buy after 5 yrs rent with no increases.
To sum upā¦stop being greedy, we landlords are making a comfortable livingā¦rant over
Agree. Iāve advised my wife we should attempt to sell as soon as current tenants give notice. The pressure from government (and opposition) rhetoric is getting intense. Our 2 apartments have been rented to people temporarily in the UK. Or who have another property they are renting out elsewhere, or as a stepping stone in their career before they move out of the area, or before they buy a house. The only glimmer of hope is that all this shortage will mean a quick sale at a decent price. The current drumbeat of hostility to landlords means that lets are best owned by hardnosed, tough minded businesses who can afford legal expertise as well as claim more costs against tax.
I have read all these comments and all are valuable but I feel that your comment is the one that resonates with me the most and your use of the word, hostility is so true. From the TV programmes about āscum landlordsā, the government constantly saying that landlords are the reason for house shortages for people wanting to buy and the ever increasing legislation has really been a shock. My husband and I often laugh because the flats that we rent out are nicer than the one that we live in!
Many landlords in London lost so much during covid and
landlords would be have same experience in a other cities.
Also increase in service charges, maintenance work, unpaid rent by tenants, legal cost, mortgages payments etc etc as so many different factors and now shortages of rental properties because many are single occupancy.
One of the reason is that during covid period many
were forced to work from home and spent more time
together which have caused some the separation,
divorce etc too as this is one of the factor as I have
personally found out talking to some renters too.
Also the renters went back to stay with family came back to city
and want their freedom back having single occupancy.
Also shortages of rental properties and landlords are selling
so properties which are on market for sell, landlords
prefer to keep unoccupied.
There are wider pictures and predictions of increase in
interest rates etc
Youāve made one big assumption that all Landlords are fortunate enough to have no mortgage on their properties. In that respect then yes, putting your cash in properties is far better than in the bank especially when interest rates are laughable. I have always held the opinion that if you have to borrow money to fund your buy-to-let , then perhaps you should think twice.
During the covid lock-down, we voluntarily reduced our rent to less than half. I bet the Council wouldnāt do the same.
During the periods of house arrest, aka ālockdownā, some landlords had non rent paying tenants while others simply had end of tenancy voids, all of our tenants were impeccable but many simply left at end of tenancy, often to parentās homes, that has left us with Council tax arrears on multiple voids for which of course no services were received, Similalry of course the only āassistanceā that landlords received was the rollup of any mortage interest. Simultaneously, service charges went through through the roof because of the cladding farago, we have achieved a zero cost for building work and even had the waking watch costs but many havenāt and Goveās pronouncements leave many landlords facing potential bankruptcy, what does government expect when the promulgate such nonsense?
The increase in Manchester is indicated as being in M1, that area has a large number of overpriced (IMO) (cladding issue free) new builds and offering two year guaranteed rents of around 6/7%. In nearby M3, there have been some increases e.g. circa Ā£1500 for a prime two bed with parking but that is after a long period of no increases at all, many agents are still āslashing and burningā rents at levels being achieved over three/four years ago and my prioroity is to keep good tenants and avoid well, voids.
My tenants rent is staying right where it is. It is hard enough for my tenants as it is. The whole system is all wrong when people are paying more in rent than they would for a mortgage but canāt get a mortgage.
Disgusting rampant capitalism greed.
it is one of my gripes as a Landlord ā¦ People paying good rents , never late or behind but cannot get a mortgage where they could be paying LESS . It is all wrong.
It is a normal business strategy.
In simple terms, if you have Ā£100,000 to invest and buy one house to rent with that money and make a profit of Ā£5,000 in the year, you have a 5% return.
If you use that money to buy 4 Ā£100,000 houses with corresponding mortgages totalling Ā£300,000 (transaction costs ignored to keep the figures simple) and rent those out making a pre-tax profit of Ā£20,000 with interest of say, Ā£9,000, you now have a pre-tax profit of Ā£11,000 which is a return of 11% on your Ā£100k invested.
Obviously, you have the risk that you have mortages to pay whether or not you have tenants, but more properties spread the risk there because you would be unlikely to have more than 1 empty at the time if you have bought in the righ areas (covid excepted, perhaps!). You just need to make sure that you have reserves or sufficient other income to cover any lean times.
If those houses go up in value by 10% over a period, you would have a paper profit of Ā£10,000 with 1 house or Ā£40k if you had 4.
So, if you were to sell up at that point, with 1 house, you have turned your money into Ā£110,000 (plus rental profit over the period of ownership), or with 4 houses, you would have Ā£140,000 (obviously both less tax)
So, it is all about making the most of the money that you have. Risk v reward though, so you obviously need to make sure that you can afford increasing mortgage rates and if you are very risk averse, or spreading yourself too thin, as you say, not for you buying with a mortgage.
Very insightful even though Iām a qualified accountant 
. Yes at my age, I tend to err on the safe side as I prefer a good nights sleep. All too often I see people overstretching themselves financially.
Iām a qualified accountant too. No sleepless nights here over my mortgages though!!
I am a qualified joiner, at my age I do not sleep as well as I used to.But I have never taken out a mortgage on a place to rent out.
This is the position renters now find themselves in and it will only get worse. The Governmentās relentless witch hunting against landlords including over regulation, tax changes is causing a mass exodus. The law of unintended consequences is in full swing!
Please do contact Shelter, Generation Rent, the Green Party, the LibDems, George Osborne and Michael Gove and congratulate them on creating a rental market where supply is so short that Tenants are now bidding against each other for properties. Please find below some a link that shed some light on some of the reasons landlords are deciding enough is enoughā¦
. 1. S24 (disallowing of finance costs including mortgage interest)
2. Additional 3% SDLT on property purchase
3. Premium of 8% CGT when selling property
4. Banning of letting agent fees
5. Halving of lettings relief
6. Prospective banning of āNo DSSā wording in adverts
7. Promised banning of S21 notice
8. Growing trend of councils charging hefty licence fees per property
9. Changes to HMO regs including minimum room sizes
10. Right to rent checks (now shown to be discriminatory and there is no guidance on how to deal with EU immigrants)
11. Benefit tenants migrated to UC causing lengthy delays in rent payments and often substantial arrears
12. Unable to get housing benefit paid direct unless history of bad money management
13. Scrapping of Wear & Tear allowance
14. Introduction of EPC minimum requirements (even on HMOs) which can be difficult to meet with older properties
15. Unfit for human habitation legislation
16. CO detectors must be fitted (nobody is saying itās a bad thing!)
17. 100%+ council tax on properties being refurbished between tenancies. Not even the 25% single person discount
18. Substantial increases in court costs for use of S8, thus making S21 more popular
19. Membership of compulsory redress scheme for agents (and most likely for landlords soon)
20. Limit on amount of deposit weāre allowed to take
21. Rogue landlord database
22. Proposed 3 year minimum tenancies though not sure what the value of this would be with the abolition of S21 (which has promised to be abolished)
23. Some councils now charging council tax on HMO rooms
24. 6 month notice periods
25. Eviction moratorium, extended moratorium, Christmas moratorium
26. EICR legislation that only applies to the PRS, apparently social tenants donāt need to be safe. Upto Ā£30k fine if checks not done.
27. Proposed EPC to be made C (up from E)
28. Proposed legislation to force landlords to accept pets (but cannot take extra deposit)
29. Having to consult with non-paying tenants in regard to giving them ābreathing spaceā
30. Form N5B (S21) has gone from around 3 pages to nearly 30
31. In Wales the minimum notice period is now 6 months and can only be served at the 6 month point of a tenancy, meaning a minimum 12 month tenancy unless contract is breached. The tenant only has to give 28 days notice
32. Again in Wales, it is proposed that Council Tax is to be replaced with a land value tax payable by the property owner
33. Rent controls are being touted as a solution to the rises in rents caused by all the above
34. In addition the Shadow Chancellor has promised further landlord taxation if Labour come to power.
Letās all bow to the wonderful British Government for successfuly driving out Landlords out of the Market. Last week the toilet flush in my property stopped working and the cheapest plumber I could find charged me Ā£208.00! My tenant said he spent less than 1/2hr on the property but went out to a hardware store. Thanks to the government my rent insurance went from Ā£89.00 pre pandemic to Ā£270.00. Landlords have to pay for referencing tenants and their guarantors in order to have insurance in place. Tenants destroy our property and get away with it all. Deposit protection schemes always favours tenants. When the UK was still in the European Union, thousands of immigrants came to Britain and this influx has not lowered the costs os labour! It only increased the burden of people on the NHS, schools, transport and benefit system. It has also increased the population and put pressure on Housing Demand. If you have read the papers recently you will notice that hundreds of asylum seekers refuse the accommodation they are offered in other parts of the UK, they want to stay in London! Again the government has no long term strategy for this country. Britain seems like a lost ship in the ocean. Renters clearly have no idea about the astronomical costs and the hassle of maintain a property.
Made me chuckle. Thanks
Olga4 . it pays to have a little working knowledge of your fittings E G your loo cisternā¦ Look inside, take out the faulty part, along to plumbers place, show it to them and buy a replacement cistern fitting is very easy. It always pays to know where the stop valve is. In the meantime a bucket of water will flush the loo
I think, as someone else has stated, covid has brought about a change in demand. It seems that a record number of people either split up or divorced and this in turn has increased demand for more housing. More people than ever are single and younger people want to be more independent from an earlier age nowadays.
However saying all this as a landlord of 4 properties only, and starting only on 1 Jan 2020, then number of applicants per property when advertised was unbelievable. There are not enough council houses and this also has to be factored in.