I Don't Understand

chewmylegoff

There is no business acumen exam that needs to be passed before becoming a landlord. All you have to do is convince a bank to lend you enough money to buy a house to let out to tenants. All the bank will care about is whether the deposit is big enough and whether the rent adequately covers the mortgage.

Landlords are therefore not all savvy businesspeople. They are just a cross-section of society, and whilst some know exactly what they are doing and make £££, some of them will do just ok, some will run their businesses inefficiently, and some will make a horrible hash of things.

If you target landlord who are potentially receptive to low-ball offers because their property is a bit shabby / sitting empty, it is not surprising that you tend to come across the ones who are not maximising the full potential of their assets on a more regular basis than you come across the ones that are (whose rents you would not be prepared to pay).

edit: there are plenty of examples of incompetents on the house buying and renting board. illiterate rants from clueless landlords about their letting agent ripping them off, e.g.. (as well as plenty of examples of obviously very clued-up landlords). i don't think it's necessarily just laziness, there will be some stupidity in there as well.

silvercar

Still reckon its down to the landlord wanting an easy life. He knows you won't drive him mad because you are aware you have a good deal. You pay the rent on time, he has an easy life.

His other option is to evict you, spend money keeping the house empty while he throws money at it, then he has got to Hope he finds a tenant prepared to pay the higher rent. Once he's got the tenant he knows the tenant will expect top notch service to match the higher rent. So will complain about every detail and expect this to be done quickly.

fc123

Generali wrote: »

So why do landlords do this? I can see the appeal of being a slumlord where you pack out a house with immigrants or students but I just don't understand why people don't spend a few bob and clean up.

.

WE had a similar situation in Brighton with the derelict cottage we rented for 3 years. I found it odd too but was quite happy to live in Million Pound St for £1250pcm. The problems/shabiness were all livable with most of the time.


The LL refused to do any repairs or maintenance at all, she was about 82 and lived in something quite grand in W Sussex (yes, I google earthed her out of curiosity ) and the cottage was her mothers house that she inherited many years ago.
OH ended up sorting stuff out for ourselves as it was a waste of time to report a leak or whatever to the letting agent as nothing would get done.

It had been left empty on and off for several years at a time (according to the neighbours) and had had break-ins etc.

We are saving up to move back to that street in a few years time as a forever home.....maybe I could time it with her demise (as I also was told by the residents assoc lady who had known her for 50 years that her kids wanted her to sell it)......you never know.
I do know that it wouldn't be a renovation job but a knock down and rebuild as I lived in it. Shame as it is characterful but the plot is the real draw.

Hey, Gen when you start looking post up some links so we can have a nosy about...you know, just to help you choose

Callie22

I think it's laziness and in a lot of cases, plain stupidity - I can't honestly believe that most landlords don't need the money. My partner and I moved out of a house about eighteen months ago because of repair issues. Whilst we were living there, we had a serious leak in the kitchen. Most of the problems were caused because the landlady refused to pay for a plumber for nearly a week, we had water running down the walls but she insisted that her brother could sort it out. As you can imagine, it caused a huge amount of damage in the kitchen - walls, floor and worktop ruined. It took her ages to agree to repairs, and when she did she got in a cheap firm who did a total bodge job. It looked a mess and we were so fed up with it all we handed in our notice and moved out- she lost great tenants who really looked after the place and paid the rent early every month for the sake of a few hundred pounds on a decent repair. We had been paying £750 a month, but because the house looked such a mess it stood empty for six months, and then was finally rented out for much less, around £550. It's been rented out again since (and again for less than we were paying) and it really looks an absolute mess now.

I just can't believe how landlords just run their properties to the ground. We're having a similar problem in our current place (big maintenance issues that are just being painted over) and it really annoys me. That's why I struggle to believe that any landlord actually wants long-term tenants - if they did they'd maintain their houses so that people stayed and paid reasonable prices. They just seem happy to have an endless stream of tenants and ever-decreasing returns. Madness. It also annoys me as a tenant because I fully understand why people say they don't like living next to rentals. There's a limit to what I can do in terms of maintenance and repairs and it must be soul destroying to have bought somewhere and then watch next door decay for the want of a bit of money.

breadlinebetty

I know a landlord who has over 30 properties in London, and although he makes sure all necessary repairs are done swiftly etc, he only gets the properties all pristine and updated if or when he wants to sell one. I know a lot of tenants take care of the property they rent - but you wouldn't believe the numbers who don't. :mad:

Some tenants seem to have an attitude of "I don't own it so I'm not going to take care of it" - and even though they're at risk of losing their deposit - they'll still treat the place with disregard. Thus why many landlords aren't inclined to spend thousands on making the place all plush - in case they have to do it all over again once the tenant moves out.

the_flying_pig

if a landlord has a very well-paid job then:

a - he'll be paying 50% tax on any increase in rent; and
b - his fairly limited free time will be very precious, perhaps too much so to make it worth his while getting stuff like this sorted.

dktreesea

I've lived in Sydney, including on the water, right next to a ferry stop in the north side. If looking to buy, especially on that side of town, I would recommend looking at somewhere on the water, but with a good ferry AND train link. We were only in Neutral Bay. The problem was, when the fog rolled in and the ferry wasn't running (not so infrequent during the winter), that meant quite a hike to the nearest bus. If that bus didn't turn up (it was infrequent at the best of times because of the ferry link) it was a further hike up to Military Road, where 9 out of 10 rush hour buses didn't stop because they were already full by the time they got to our stop.

If I had realised this, I would have lived either at Kirribilli or McMahon's Point, so that, if the ferries weren't running, I could have taken the train.

Manly is a great place to live too, but had the same problem when the ferries weren't running - a bus that took over an hour to get to the city.

quantic

When I first moved out I rented and we got on really well with the Landlord, he kept the rent lower than other places in the block, always gave us the respect we gave him and we were ideal tenants for him.

He sold 5 of his flats including ours to a couple of young guys in 2006 just before the credit crunch, must have saw this mess coming, but I digress. Anyways, the new landlord put our rent up immediately by 10% and told us after 6 months it was going up again to bring it slightly higher than the other properties.

Long story short, we moved out after our contract was up, as did the other tenants (all 5 flats were up for rent for a good 9 months on the letting site afterwards) - to gain 10% he lost 5 tenants who caused him absolutely no issues.

Our original rental agreement probably looks quite rosy to him now