How bad is renting?

ruggedtoast

A tenancy should be a social contract as well as a financial one. The current system of ASTs put some of society's most vulnerable people at the mercy of some of the most privileged.

Many tenant's simply have no resource to tackle bad landlords, and will just be given a Section 21 if they try.

FTBFun

I didn't have that many problems when renting in London, bar the landlady who tried to turf me out a month before my 6 month AST finished (a letter saying, "er, our AST ends x" put a stop to that).

Fortunately I only really did private lets so no letting agents involved. Reading the various threads regarding these [STRIKE]scumbags[/STRIKE], er I mean [STRIKE]utter utter utter !!!!!!!s[/STRIKE], pondlife, that looks to be a good thing.

quantic

Rented for 3 years, up until the landlord sold it to someone else (2 years in) I loved it. After that, the new landlord turned into an absolute tool. He used to knock on our door on a Sunday morning to inspect the place unannounced. He decided to try and change the rent mid 12 month contract... I asked him to come round when he first bought it and draw up an inventory of damage etc and he said, "There is no need, do you not trust me?".

Basically, we loved renting while we had a nice landlord and hated it when we didn't...

I guess the silver lining was when I realised he had bought the flat at the absolute peak before the crash (previous landlord sold him 5 flats in the same block). He paid £210k each and they now sell for £140k. Thats quite a bit of negative equity. Serves him right for being a greedy sod.

geneer

Renting can also be a very pleasant and worthwhile experience. Particularly depending on the stage of your life your in.

I'm still best friends with the house mates I lived with after University.
We ended up living an a brilliant massive house, quite near the centre of town, with our own gardens etc, with more than reasonable rental costs.

Davesnave

How bad is renting? I'll tell you.

I was speaking to a regional branch of Shelter this morning. The person on the other end said, "All hell's breaking loose at present, as so many deposits are in dispute at this time of year. If you phone on our usual number you might not get through, so here's another number to ring....You won't get through to anyone on that either, but you can leave details and someone will get back to you.....eventually."

That's how bad.

Cleaver

Similar to a post I put on another thread tonight, whether I'm paying the bank for the place I'm living in or a landlord for the place I'm living in makes pretty much zero difference to my overall enjoyment in life. Who cares that much? Happiness in life is about good friends, ice-cream, books, making bread that is fluffy inside, breasts, that kinda thing. It's not determined by whether you rent or buy your place of residence, half the world's population live in shacks.

ruggedtoast

Cleaver wrote: »

Similar to a post I put on another thread tonight, whether I'm paying the bank for the place I'm living in or a landlord for the place I'm living in makes pretty much zero difference to my overall enjoyment in life. Who cares that much? Happiness in life is about good friends, ice-cream, books, making bread that is fluffy inside, breasts, that kinda thing. It's not determined by whether you rent or buy your place of residence, half the world's population live in shacks.

If everyone you know lives in a shack then living in a shack is normal.

The situation facing most renters isnt normal; its a disadvantage forced on , predominantly younger people, who have seen the system constantly and utterly brazenly distorted to disadvantage them, and provide a whole layer of unearned privilege to property owners. Most of whom are only property owners thanks to being born at the right time.

I enjoy fluffy bread, but its not going to stop me being angry about something which is blatantly an injustice.

dsab

We have the perfect private LL.

He has never inspected the house since we moved in 3 years ago, but knows we are caring well for it.

We asked him to rent it completely empty, and we got written permission that we can renovate and decorate it to our taste, as long as we put it back into neutral colors when we move out. If something needs to be done I give him a call to explain and then organize the repair myself, deducting the money from the next rent.

In exchange for this we take good care of it to keep in line with the neighbours, who all own their places. We paint the fence when necessary, repaint the front and back doors and undertake minor repairs on our own.

Win Win situation for everyone, and I know from someone who knows him that he is very pleased to have us as tenants.

kabayiri

Cleaver wrote: »

Similar to a post I put on another thread tonight, whether I'm paying the bank for the place I'm living in or a landlord for the place I'm living in makes pretty much zero difference to my overall enjoyment in life. Who cares that much? Happiness in life is about good friends, ice-cream, books, making bread that is fluffy inside, breasts, that kinda thing. It's not determined by whether you rent or buy your place of residence, half the world's population live in shacks.

How can you not thank a post which links happiness and 'breasts'

Graham_Devon

Cleaver wrote: »

Similar to a post I put on another thread tonight, whether I'm paying the bank for the place I'm living in or a landlord for the place I'm living in makes pretty much zero difference to my overall enjoyment in life. Who cares that much? Happiness in life is about good friends, ice-cream, books, making bread that is fluffy inside, breasts, that kinda thing. It's not determined by whether you rent or buy your place of residence, half the world's population live in shacks.

I really fail to understand your point here.

Have a look at the house buying and selling board and how many rental problems threads there are. This stresses many people out, landlord and tenant alike.

I don't understand why you would flippantly suggest all this makes zero difference to happiness.

Having access to ice cream is great, but for the people who haven't got lighting in stair wells, and have small children in houses with windows which won't shut, holes in rooves etc and it's approaching winter, frankly telling them they should be happy as they have access to ice cream is absurd and insulting. It might be OK for cleaver in cleaver world, but sometimes I think you need to look at problems people face instead of suggesting life is good cus of fluffy bread on various threads. Begining to sound like some sort of hippy!