Separate Renting sub-board

I_have_spoken

Yes

Should be a sub-board where tenants have the right to "quiet enjoyment"

Dan-Dan

Buy to letters should have their own sub forum , located somewhere near the gates of hell should do , there will be exceptions but sometimes it`s for the greater good

ValHaller

No

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Should be a sub-board where tenants have the right to "quiet enjoyment"

And one for Landlords where they have possession.

jamie11

Yes

I believe a separate 'Landlord & Tenant' board may work. Differentiating too far though may lead to calls for a separate 'S21' board and a 'S8' Board.

I tend to steer clear of house buying threads or FTB threads, not because they don't interest me but I don't have much to offer on those questions. There is an overlap of interests but where that happens posters can easily be re-directed to the relevant board.

JoeA81

No

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Renters are already sub divided enough from the rest of society without being subbed on the internet too.

The way things are going before long renters will have to ring bells when they walk anywhere and shout 'unclean' so respectably home owners can cower in their houses until they have passed.

Agree with this wholeheartedly. Don't sub divide the forum!

Richard_Webster

No

It is usually pretty clear quickly whether a post is a renting or buying issue - but not nearly as clear whether in England/Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. So I think the jurisdictions are more important because then posters could see the options straight away.

Thrugelmir

Yes

Perhaps a section where "guides" could be maintained. There's many good posts that deserve a sticky status for having informative content on a specific subject.

G_M

No

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Perhaps a section where "guides" could be maintained. There's many good posts that deserve a sticky status for having informative content on a specific subject.

Not sure I know what you mean... got any examples?

:think:

franklee

No

Richard_Webster wrote: »

It is usually pretty clear quickly whether a post is a renting or buying issue

It depends on where the answers fall as well, for example I'd expect most people would place wanting to buy a tenanted property as a buying issue especially if there were several other questions to ask about the purchase as well. However after any split that post would not been seen by the renting experts who could point out the pitfalls of buying a tenanted property. This may lead to questions about the one purchase to be split across the two forums.

It's already frustrating when OP's ask questions about different aspects of the same transaction in different threads. People then waste time answering without having the full picture or waste time asking for more information that has already been given elsewhere. This either duplicates answers or leads to misleading answers as the full picture isn't realised.

As we have it now if a thread is titled buying a tenanted property it will likely get read by the buying and renting experts.

Also I do not think splitting the forum would make it easier for new posters to find answers. Landlordzone has dedicated renting forums yet they still get loads of questions about e.g. how the serve an S21 so presumably those OPs haven't found the answer they were seeking by searching or still want someone to comment on their particular circumstances.

[Deleted User]

No

The value this forum provides comes from the knowledge shared by the people that respond here. People don't search this forum by browsing through the topic list so organisation is not particularly important, and not that many people search either because every situation involving housing is nuanced (or so everyone thinks), which should be evident by how many of the posts made by G_M contain links to his fantastic posts that cover a large number of issues (eg: new landlords). People think their situation is something they don't fully understand so they need someone to walk them through it, they don't want to risk finding a similar problem and assuming the answers to that fit their own situation.

The focus should be on catering to those that provide the help and in general people don't want to be constantly clicking on different boards, it's much easier for someone to keep up with one forum than it is with two, and if you push someone into making the choice they will often gravitate towards one and others can miss out on potentially helpful answers.

When I've needed help I've first searched the forum and organisation isn't part of the search -- unless the user finds their way to the advanced search which is hidden -- so it's irrelevant for that use case and I never browse through a section looking for similar topics, because there's so many topics here the chance of just finding my answer there would be unlikely.

I think that if this forum was well moderated and there was a focus on good organisation, through the usage of sticky threads containing good resources, then there would be cause to expand the forum into individual buying and renting sections, so that a person renting could find common threads relevant to them and a person buying could do the same. However if the forum is going to remain as it is now (unmoderated and with threads that are many years old stickied and super helpful recent threads ignored) it wouldn't be worthwhile.

That's why I voted no, although it could be worthwhile if the organisation of the forum is improved.