How bad is renting?

ruggedtoast

Renting is paying for a service. Unfortunately in the UK its a pretty sub-standard one for most people.

If the houses I'd rented had actually been clean when I moved in; if I'd been given security of tenure; if getting repairs done wasnt like pulling teeth; if the landlord had offered ongoing renovations as part of the deal for long term stays, if they werent allowed to inspect my home with 24 hours notice to pass judgement on my fitness to continue to live there; if I hadnt had to pay every 6 months for some money grabbing letting agent to spend 5 minutes printing out a new agreement, I would have considered the tens of thousands of pounds I spent in rent to have been better value.

And I was lucky in that I was renting nice, pricier places, with reasonably decent landlords.

Think about it another way.

If you leased a car from a company and you were treated the way a tenant on an AST is, that company would be on Watchdog and your agreement would be nullified.

Imagine that conversation:

Valeted before you pick up the keys? "Sorry sir, cant be bothered so we'll just lie to you and say it will be."

Repairs? "No. Not really, er drop it round the back where you cant use it for 6 weeks and I'll see if my girlfriends mate's boyfriend's brother can be bothered to look at it at a time wholly convenient to us."

MOT, insurance, safety checks? "Maybe, if we can be bothered…”

Any other terms and conditions? "Yes, we'll let ourselves into your car, mostly when we feel like it, and send you snotty letters about how dirty you are. Iif we feel like it we'll give you a short amount of notice and make you carless. Thanks to the racket we have going with other car leasing firms this will make it virtually impossible for you to ever rent another car. Otherwise how does £100 quid every 6 months sound in order for us to proffer you the privilege of continuing to pay us £1000 every month, or £1100, or £1300 or £1600, or whatever we decide to make it.

Oh, by the way, we may not actually own the car, not properly anyway, and we might be in arrears on it, so dont be surprised if its suddenly repossessed through no fault of your own.

Also don’t even think about having friends in your car, or pets, or friends with pets, or smoking, or eating anything that may spill , or sitting on the seats too much so they get worn, and don’t even think about using it to put your kids in, we’ll throw you out of your car if we even think you will have kids.

Right, just sign here and that’s you locked in for twelve months. Oh , you have to pay £300 to sign that form as well…”

Nobody would even think of entering into such an agreement for a car, and no-one would say it was fair to expect anyone to. But for a place to live, a bare and basic necessity, not only do we have to sign exactly these kind of agreements, they have gone through a whole process of law to define them as being exactly like this.

I dont even rent anymore and it still makes me angry thinking about it.

crazyguy

But where there is a need for property you will get the good the bad and the ugly supplying them.

MacMickster

crazyguy wrote: »

But where there is a need for property you will get the good the bad and the ugly supplying them.

Why do I suddenly have a vision of a letting agent's office with Ennio Morricone music playing in the background. A man with no name wearing a poncho walks in saying menacingly "You're in the wrong business".

Unfortunately ruggedtoast presents an excellent summary of the state of regulation of the lettings market in this country. For this reason the choice of whether to buy or rent in this country is about more than a financial calculation for most people.

Whilst there are good landlords out there who provide a much better service to their tenants than the law requires, there are far too many of the bad and the ugly out there who are just trying to maximise the value of their "investment" without any concept of their social responsibilities.

crazyguy

The Germans have done it for years with no problems, I agree that rent paid is dead money but on the other hand when you are not in a position to purchase your own property what choice is there other than to rent.

ruggedtoast

Tenancy laws in Germany are rather different to the UK. I have German friends who have no problem renting. You have to paint your flat when you leave which is a pain, but other than that it seems fine, and fairly cheap.

Percy1983

Personally I would rather die than rent for the reasons mnetioned above.

crazyguy

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Tenancy laws in Germany are rather different to the UK. I have German friends who have no problem renting. You have to paint your flat when you leave which is a pain, but other than that it seems fine, and fairly cheap.

Thats the backward state we live in, the laws need changing but it aint gonna happen anytime soon.

Graham_Devon

Think one of the worst posts I ever read on this forum from a landlord was when he found out his tenant was 6 months pregnant, and was asking how best to evict her.

He, and a couple of other landlords literally could not see anything wrong with this. She was pregnant, and the landlord didn't want messy carpets, spills etc, so wanted her out.

It was suggested that 2 months should be given....leaving the girl just 8 months pregnant when turfing her out, and he could even increase the rent for the next person, which was fantastic.

I've never been so disgusted by a landlord(s). There wasn't a second thought for the pregnant lady, or that they would be chucking her out, simply for being pregnant at 8 months. Oh no. The poor landlord had had his wishes broken and was upset with the agency as he specified no children....he might want to go back to his 'home' as he called it and live in it one day and he wants it how he left it.

Best excuse "well I'm not running it as a business".

Shambles, the whole thing.

Thankfully, some landlords could see right from wong, ans suggested just giving the girl a break.

cord123

I have never had a bad experience renting.... the first flat we rented we became good friends with the landlord to the extent that he gave us our deposit back early which was great, he would come round as soon as we have a problem.etc. This house, our landlord is equally as nice. The letting agents are useless and we call the landlord direct if we need anything and he will always get it sorted within a day or two... many a time we have told im to wait so he doesnt get charged horrfic weekend charges etc... he even sends us birtdhay and xmas cards. We never have checks but would be fine if he needed to.

I know that this is more the exception than the rule but we always introduce ourself to the landlord from the off and I understand that it is their pension pot so they will want to make sure that it isnt ruined... I think the agents are a joke. They charge us £75 to renew our contracts yearly (even though they havent even changed my name to my married name) we never contact them always the landlord.

My sister rents with them and her landlord is very hands off and they had a lot of problems when they moved in, cleaning not done, painting not completed etc even to the point where the temperature had rubbed off of the oven dials and the agents told her to just 'guess the temperatue' when cooking! amazing!

Renting does need to be overhauled and tenants need to be looked after a lot more but as a previous pp said there is a demand there so it doesnt need to change as far as agents see it....

wastedtalent

One of the issues I seem to have come across a lot, is there's very little communication between LL/T, its all between a 3rd party La, which slows a lot down and increases costs.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I find letting agents are worse than landlords in most respects. Many LLs have no idea their tenants are being treated shabbily, and are also being ripped off by spurious fees.

I've mostly had no problems in several years of renting in London. I currently live in a nice garden flat in a nice area that I would never be able to buy on my current salary. When the oven broke, I got sent a nice shiny new one from John Lewis. LL left me a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine when I moved in. Rented for a while from a professional company with a 24 hour help line and a big warehouse of furniture, meaning we could choose exactly how it was furnished.

My worst experience was living in a superficially stylish "penthouse" flat, newly added to the top of a tower block. The walls were made of cardboard and we had a screaming baby all through the night on one side and a rough woman the other, who spent the day shouting and swearing at her unfortunate child. The whole flat was badly designed and flimsily built. We realised we had made a terrible mistake and gave our notice as soon as legally possible, meaning we could escape after 6 months. The LL was stuck with the place though; saw it up for sale recently and couldn't imagine who would buy it.