The Shame of Britain. Young shredded in inter-generational economic meat grinder

princeofpounds

Which regulations are better? The ones that give tenants no right to stay any more than they are contracted to - typically 6 or 12 months? The ones that mean having to move and find somewhere else to live every year (which includes having to find deposits/agency fees/credit check fees etc.) The ones where, other than for a very limited period of time, they are at the mercy of whether a landlord lets you stay or not.

Renting as it stands now, is about having somewhere to live for a limited period of time, it is not about having a home.

I am a boomer so I remember well how renting was. My first rented flat was rented under the Rent Act and I could still have been living there now, paying a reasonable rather than extortionate rent, had I not bought. Of course it was not all rosey, however, it has gone to the other extreme where the tenant has few rights and everything favours the landlord/investor.

Thanks for the well-considered thoughts.

Coming from a younger-than-boomer standpoint, I am myself well aware that renting in the old days was also often very poor, for different reasons.

It might sound strange but I consider myself an active supporter of trying to improve the situation for tenants in this country, but I also don't think that our tenancy laws are actually that bad in many respects, especially now that we have deposit protection in place.

The biggest issue these days is one of security of tenure. 6 months is all you are guaranteed most of the time. Whilst that's not the worst problem for a young professional, 'Generation Rent' are now getiting to the age where they want to start families. That's very difficult when a section 21 can drop through your door a mere 16 weeks after taking occupation.

Anyone who owns a house or has a secure tenancy should reflect on what that means, and how it prevents you putting down any kind of roots or investing in the community.

Personally, I think this it pretty easy to fix. Make the minimum no-fault AST termination from the landlord one year instead of 6 months. At least you have the chance of getting your child through a whole school year without moving.

The second major issue concerns the condition of properties. Landlords typically underinvest in stuff that is considered cosmetic but can have a significant effect on quality of life, because there is no incentive or compulsion to do so. The only remedy a tenant has is to move, which is expensive and often disproportionate to the problem. I don't have an easy suggestion to fix this problem.

The third major issue is letting agents, and rip-off fees. I have some ideas here - I am not always in favour of heavy regulation but I would make transparency compulsory for a start, with every agent required to publicly display their charges to both LL and T in advance.

mayonnaise

Graham_Devon wrote: »

And you only have to visit the buying and renting board to get an overview of the sheer amount of problems out there.

Just looked at the TV moneysaving board and it's full of complaints about Sky and people are cancelling in droves.
I therefore conclude Sky has about a dozen customers left.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

JencParker wrote: »

Renting as it stands now, is about having somewhere to live for a limited period of time, it is not about having a home.

I rented a lovely garden flat for 5 years before buying last year- it certainly was a home to me. In many ways it was nicer than the property I purchased and I still really miss it.

It took me a while to save while renting because I'm single; that is the major financial disadvantage these days. My evil boomer parents offered to help me with the purchase, but I declined. I saved a £55k deposit on a secretary's salary.

Presumably when all these young victims inherit their boomer parents' overpriced properties they will sell them at below market rate?

LydiaJ

Linton wrote: »

Forty years ago after leaving university I shared a rented house for two years and then rented a 1 bedroom flat for two years, befor buying a semi after getting married. It was not difficult for two qualified people in reasonable jobs to afford a small house outside London, bit like now.

That would be why my workplace seems to be filling up with people who've moved here from London in order to be able to afford to live somewhere big enough to bring up a family, then. Likewise, somebody from my work applied for a job in London, on the understanding that it came with subsidised accommodation, and then found that the accommodation was only for single people. Since he's married with a kid, he turned the job down because even with an increased salary he'd be so much worse off with the increased housing costs.

It would be better for the country in all sorts of ways if the population was a bit more spread out rather than all crowded into the SE. Why do so many people want to live in and around London? I get it that a small minority of them have the kind of jobs that don't happen elsewhere in the country, and there are many who earn enough to afford to live there and are happy doing so, which is fine. However there seem to be quite a lot who could in fact find similar work elsewhere, but prefer to stay in London whinging about how they can't afford to buy or even rent anywhere half decent. The rest of the country isn't all a choice between grim post-industrial urban decay or deeply rural isolation, you know.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

So it's 8000 complaints divided by a smaller number instead. If you spend enough time playing with the data you might be able to create a really big number that looks scary.

I've dealt with letting agents and have been unimpressed but these arguments always end up with someone arguing that their anecdotal trumps somebody else's.

Is there a word for a collection of anecdotal data?

Or a word for someone that has a fear of collecting real data.

The theme here appears that you will dismiss the data whatever is bought to the table. By whatever means you feel neccesary.

CKhalvashi

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The complaints are about letting agents, not landlords per se.

However, unfortunately, it's the landlord that's ultimately (legally) responsible for the agents failings.

I've always requested to deal with the tenants/property/deposit/rent myself, and just use an agent to find tenants (with the exception of a multi-let property we owned), and by treating tenants properly, I've avoided any complaint.

CK

BillJones

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks wrote: »

It someone wants to succeed, and put in hard work to do so, then they will. Whether it be a young person today, or a young person 30 years ago.

Well said.

Some on here would like to pretend that the young are struggling irrespective if their efforts. This is simply not true. Put in the effort at school, get good qualifications, pick a sensible career, and work damned hard at it, and most people will be absolutely fine, far better off than their parents were.

Mess around at school, leave early, put more effort into slagging off the boss than into getting ahead at work, and then yes, you will find that life can be quite hard.

This was always the way. All that has changed is that some people seem to have got it into their heads that they "deserve" a nice life, without needing to put in all of the effort from a young age. Thirty years ago we did not have this bizarrre sense of entitlement that now exists.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The theme here appears that you will dismiss the data whatever is bought to the table. By whatever means you feel neccesary.

If by 'any means possible' you mean logic then yes you're correct. The 'data' presented has little context and the rest is anecdotal which has been countered by other people's, equally, anecdotal musings.

This is something you, rugged and Jen feel very strongly about yet not one of you can be arsed to source official data which may support your case. You presented data to show complaints have more than doubled but neglected to show that the number of private tenancies have doubled too - that's either sloppy research or deliberate deceit.

Google might be our friend but, even in 2014, some data searches require pen and paper to be put in close proximity. I've requested data from my local council before - it's a doddle.

Bantex_2

BillJones wrote: »

Well said.

Some on here would like to pretend that the young are struggling irrespective if their efforts. This is simply not true. Put in the effort at school, get good qualifications, pick a sensible career, and work damned hard at it, and most people will be absolutely fine, far better off than their parents were.

Mess around at school, leave early, put more effort into slagging off the boss than into getting ahead at work, and then yes, you will find that life can be quite hard.

This was always the way. All that has changed is that some people seem to have got it into their heads that they "deserve" a nice life, without needing to put in all of the effort from a young age. Thirty years ago we did not have this bizarrre sense of entitlement that now exists.

I bought a flat in London early 90s. Did then drop in value, but it was bought on a bus drivers pay with no extra input. Cannot see that happening now, the place would now cost £200k plus.

ukcarper

BillJones wrote: »

Well said.

Some on here would like to pretend that the young are struggling irrespective if their efforts. This is simply not true. Put in the effort at school, get good qualifications, pick a sensible career, and work damned hard at it, and most people will be absolutely fine, far better off than their parents were.

Mess around at school, leave early, put more effort into slagging off the boss than into getting ahead at work, and then yes, you will find that life can be quite hard.

This was always the way. All that has changed is that some people seem to have got it into their heads that they "deserve" a nice life, without needing to put in all of the effort from a young age. Thirty years ago we did not have this bizarrre sense of entitlement that now exists.

I don't think it is as simple as that good jobs are scarce and working hard does not guarantee a good job though that doesn't mean things can't improve.