Why Is A 44 Year Old Man Still Renting?

kinger101

mangle101 wrote: »

I'm 46 & rent, should I go & kiss my children goodbye before putting my head in the oven?

It won't work. People used to stick their heads in the oven in the days of coal gas, which was rich in carbon monoxide. Natural gas is too pure. Toaster in the bath probably isn't good either with RCDs. I think standing under falling pianos still works.

Crashy_Time

Best route would be the slow one, just post on here for a number of years until you have to jump under a collapsing boiler in pure desperation at the lack of HPI:rotfl::money:

zarf2007

The difference is though that renting in the UK is not the utopia renters will have you believe:

1) Free to move whenever you like

Sure, and the landlord is also free to kick you out if they decide to sell or don't like you complaining about their job as a landlord. Think of the thousands in moving/deposits each time you move...not to mention the stress....and if you rent and have kids of school age its hardly ideal moving them from one school to the next.....

2) Free Maintenance

Yeah if you count doing things as cheaply as possible so as not to dip into the rental income and also refusing to do anything expensive unless they absolutely have to.....even then they can just serve you with a S21 in most cases rather than fork out for any major works, some other mug will accept the place in its current state.

3) Not being able to make changes to make it your home

Who in their right mind would pay for a new kitchen or redecorate when they could be kicked out of their rental home on a whim? not to mention the little things like hanging pictures which are frowned on.

Tbh until they bring in lifetime tenancies then the rental market is really only suited to 20 somethings who like the freedom to move around, for anyone else its and expensive pain in the @ss for little return.

chucknorris

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Where are you "wintering" now, Wood Green...?:rotfl: Might not be too bad, didn`t there used to be a very famous jazz club there? Life`s short mate, best get spending all that cash you are sitting on and live out your dream winters now IMO. Think I`ll pop over to Portugal soon, the Edinburgh winter is just not cutting it these days, definite vitamin D deficiency creeping in. Prefer Porto to the Algarve though.

No, we live in Surrey, we moved out of London just over 10 years ago, I'm definitely no longer a city person, I much prefer the outdoors. We are taking each year as it comes, but at the moment we both like our jobs. The winters aren't that bad here, within reason, I don't mind the cold, (I still sweat when hiking/running anyway, but I'm a bit of a fair weather cyclist though). If we move to the IOM when we do retire, the winter weather would be much worse than Surrey, so Spain/Algarve would be even more desirable (essential).

Things might change on 16 March though, if pension tax relief is announced as reducing to 30%, I may not consider it worth carrying on working, as I would probably not consider it worth continuing to max out on SIPP contributions, and I would end up paying 60% marginal tax. But it is likely that they would not introduce that change until the following tax year.

seven-day-weekend

We have only ever rented once during our 44 years of marriage - a Council flat for about two years when we were first married. We have never privately rented , nor would we ever wish to.


But that is our choice. Some people chose to rent. It doesn't make them inferior, or losers.

boliston

zarf2007 wrote: »

......
Tbh until they bring in lifetime tenancies then the rental market is really only suited to 20 somethings who like the freedom to move around, for anyone else its and expensive pain in the @ss for little return.

They don't need to "bring in" lifetime tenancies as they are already here!

The main problem is that most landlords do not want to commit to offering one so it is really more a case of incentivising landlords to offer that option, especially as they can typically charge 10% over the fixed term rate for the extra security.

Carl31

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I was nodding along but then when I got to the bit about throwing things I realised you were probably being sarcastic.

no, i was being entirely honest

Obviously the main achievement a human can do in their life, ever, is pay for a pile of bricks that have been arranged in a pattern that allows for sturdy shelter

Anything else anyone does with their few years they have on the planet is entirely wasteful, imagine if someone had spent their life enjoying other things, insanity

lisyloo

zarf2007 wrote: »

The difference is though that renting in the UK is not the utopia renters will have you believe:

1) Free to move whenever you like

Sure, and the landlord is also free to kick you out if they decide to sell or don't like you complaining about their job as a landlord. Think of the thousands in moving/deposits each time you move...not to mention the stress....and if you rent and have kids of school age its hardly ideal moving them from one school to the next.....

2) Free Maintenance

Yeah if you count doing things as cheaply as possible so as not to dip into the rental income and also refusing to do anything expensive unless they absolutely have to.....even then they can just serve you with a S21 in most cases rather than fork out for any major works, some other mug will accept the place in its current state.

3) Not being able to make changes to make it your home

Who in their right mind would pay for a new kitchen or redecorate when they could be kicked out of their rental home on a whim? not to mention the little things like hanging pictures which are frowned on.

Tbh until they bring in lifetime tenancies then the rental market is really only suited to 20 somethings who like the freedom to move around, for anyone else its and expensive pain in the @ss for little return.

1) lanlord gave us notice in July. We found somewhere In 2 days. We packed our suitcases moved our stuff on the bus at very little cost (London buses cap after 3 so are effectively free after that). Yes it was a bit of a pain to deep clean the outgoing flat and go through both inventories, but it wasn't the end of the world and nothing like moving house where you have to move all the furniture. Yes there were some costs but not very significant especially compared with moving house, yes sure it's worse if you have kids but some of us can pack a suitcase and just go on the bus, so just adding some balance that not everyone has 6 kids in tow.

2) the maintencnance thing is grossly overdone. I owned my first house 12 years and the second 13 years. How many times have I changed the bioiler of fixes the roof - we'll never in 25 years (although admitted I did buy new houses). From the way people go on about this you'd thing people needed a new boiler every year. I've been renting 18 months and we've only had one minor issue with a dishwasher, so let's not overdo this point on either side of the argument (homeowners need to do maintenance too). I've not had any issue with landlords doing maintenance but then I don't break things every week either.

3) well why not recognise it's temporary and not your home And deal with it. It's doesn't ruin my life that I can't change the kitchen tiles. Buy some free standing picture frames. I'm 47 and love the fact that I can leave when I want so not sure what you evidence is for 20 somethings. Yes there's a cost but where I live it's massively cheaper than getting a mortgage.

mwpt

Carl31 wrote: »

no, i was being entirely honest

Obviously the main achievement a human can do in their life, ever, is pay for a pile of bricks that have been arranged in a pattern that allows for sturdy shelter

Anything else anyone does with their few years they have on the planet is entirely wasteful, imagine if someone had spent their life enjoying other things, insanity

We are progressing swiftly toward the utopia we've always dreamed of. In the future we will look back at this quaint idea of human endeavour to labour and produce, and scoff, while our hard working sturdy shelters do the work for us. Of course, in this utopia, all must be equal comrade, which means 100% ownership. Sadly, for the glorious good, that will mean the extermination of citizens who own more than one house.

ViolaLass

mwpt wrote: »

We are progressing swiftly toward the utopia we've always dreamed of. In the future we will look back at this quaint idea of human endeavour to labour and produce, and scoff, while our hard working sturdy shelters do the work for us. Of course, in this utopia, all must be equal comrade, which means 100% ownership. Sadly, for the glorious good, that will mean the extermination of citizens who own more than one house.

We're going to have to throw some pretty heavy things at them then.