Private Landlords

silvercar

Jeremy535897 said:

Unfortunately I doubt that the mortgage and insurance companies that don't allow tenants on benefits will change policy any time soon. 

Actually NatWest wrote to me earlier in the year to say they will now accept landlords having tenants reliant on benefit income.
"Tenants on benefits" is a wide group of people, a lot of people receive pension credits or child benefit; to exclude them all as potential tenants would be heavily limiting your market.

sweetsand

poppy12345 said:

mattyprice4004 said:

poppy12345 said:

sweetsand said:

Grumpy_chap said:

sweetsand said:

none of us have students, those out of work or the self employed, 

These groups, taken as a whole, are no more or less likely to be bad tenants than the population at large.  Indeed, sometimes, they can be more grateful for a good property and good landlord, given the extent of prejudice against them.

avoid, avoid, avoid those out of work,

Really? and why? I've not been able to work for many years because of a disability and i privately rent, never owed any landlords any rent in more than 10 years of privately renting. I take pride in my home and pay from my own pocket to make my home the best i can make it and yet we are all tarred with the same old dirty brush. I have a cat, that i paid extra for to my landlord so i could take him with me. He doesn't scratch walls, or use the toilet anywhere but his little tray. If you came into my home you wouldn't know i have a cat.

I've reported 5 issues with my house in 7 months and i'm still waiting for someone to come to sort out the issues. These range from cracks in 3 ceilings, broken and very unsafe decking in the garden and drafty windows that i can hear outside inside but i still continue to wait...

Lets not just tar those that can't work but think of the LL's that choose not to do repairs when needed, that don't look after the good tenants like they really should.

LL's that refuse those claiming benefits make me sick...

So you’d like us not to tar all benefits tenants with the same brush, but then you do the same to landlords?

Hmmmm

I've had several different landlords spaced over 19 years and i've yet to find a decent one...

You can easily tell if a LL's good or not the majority of the time by the state of the property. Even when low lives trashed our great rental proerty the first one we had, we did it up to a great standard and prices it well and often we get several people wanting it and some want to pay a bit more but we do our research on a T and take the one we feel will be best suited.

We all esnure all certificates are in place and our T's have the letting agents number and the letting agent is aware re our repairs insurance etc.
I still won'y take on those on benefits, self employed and students unless someone wants to pay me a massive deposit on their behalf and even that option has been taken away now as we can only command 6 weeks eqvilant of deposit.

Jeremy535897

silvercar said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Unfortunately I doubt that the mortgage and insurance companies that don't allow tenants on benefits will change policy any time soon. 

Actually NatWest wrote to me earlier in the year to say they will now accept landlords having tenants reliant on benefit income.
"Tenants on benefits" is a wide group of people, a lot of people receive pension credits or child benefit; to exclude them all as potential tenants would be heavily limiting your market.

Interesting. Most buy to let mortgages forbade them, or rather forbade tenants on housing benefit (child benefit is obviously not an issue). I am not sure whether the rent protection insurance products cover tenants on housing or other means tested benefits. The change to housing benefit (paying it to claimants rather than landlords) made it much harder for tenants claiming housing benefit to get tenancies, for obvious reasons (at least obvious to everyone but government).

The change in approach may have been triggered by a recent case concerning discrimination against tenants on benefits. See:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07008/

sweetsand

Jeremy535897 said:

silvercar said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Unfortunately I doubt that the mortgage and insurance companies that don't allow tenants on benefits will change policy any time soon. 

Actually NatWest wrote to me earlier in the year to say they will now accept landlords having tenants reliant on benefit income.
"Tenants on benefits" is a wide group of people, a lot of people receive pension credits or child benefit; to exclude them all as potential tenants would be heavily limiting your market.

Interesting. Most buy to let mortgages forbade them, or rather forbade tenants on housing benefit (child benefit is obviously not an issue). I am not sure whether the rent protection insurance products cover tenants on housing or other means tested benefits. The change to housing benefit (paying it to claimants rather than landlords) made it much harder for tenants claiming housing benefit to get tenancies, for obvious reasons (at least obvious to everyone but government).

The change in approach may have been triggered by a recent case concerning discrimination against tenants on benefits. See:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07008/

We don't any mortgages but the insurance cover for legals, rent protection etc most wont do certain groups as I mentioned and if they do it costs a lot more. Bottom line is when the property is trashed, non payment of rent, legals etc, you can't chase someone that has never saved a penny in their lives or don't work.
We have taken on yuonger professionals when they could not provide the 2 months deposit when you could do that up until about 2 years ago i think and we got a gurantor - it works they leave the place in an ok codition and do pay the rent otherwise the gurator usally has a proerty and we wolud get our money back and we always take out legal cover.

poppy12345

sweetsand said:

poppy12345 said:

sweetsand said:

Grumpy_chap said:

sweetsand said:

none of us have students, those out of work or the self employed, 

These groups, taken as a whole, are no more or less likely to be bad tenants than the population at large.  Indeed, sometimes, they can be more grateful for a good property and good landlord, given the extent of prejudice against them.

avoid, avoid, avoid those out of work,

Really? and why? I've not been able to work for many years because of a disability and i privately rent, never owed any landlords any rent in more than 10 years of privately renting. I take pride in my home and pay from my own pocket to make my home the best i can make it and yet we are all tarred with the same old dirty brush. I have a cat, that i paid extra for to my landlord so i could take him with me. He doesn't scratch walls, or use the toilet anywhere but his little tray. If you came into my home you wouldn't know i have a cat.

I've reported 5 issues with my house in 7 months and i'm still waiting for someone to come to sort out the issues. These range from cracks in 3 ceilings, broken and very unsafe decking in the garden and drafty windows that i can hear outside inside but i still continue to wait...

Lets not just tar those that can't work but think of the LL's that choose not to do repairs when needed, that don't look after the good tenants like they really should.

LL's that refuse those claiming benefits make me sick...

Hi Poppy
Please read my previous posts and the whole post where you took the three words from

I did read the whole comment as well as previous ones. I stand by what i said and will make no further comments on this thread. Have a good day now

sweetsand

I just want to add that there are many people that think LL's are not good, nasty, making loads of money, whislt that may be true in some cases just like T's that don't pay rent, won't work, trash your proerty etc, you do get many good LL's and T's.
Read my previous posts to see how we treat our T's
Many buy a property for their pensions as our like that this is why we left work at 50 and recently doing some work on and off from home and OH still works pays 40% tax their job is great he gets to work from home as he wants even before covid and their money quiet a bit goes to the nice things in lives and towards them leaving work soon.

We moved into rentals late ie 2009 but it was a good time to buy, i say late as most of our siblings were on their second propert by ther very early 30's we  were busy spending too much on cars and nice home but then came the crash and we could have lost money in banks if any went under, so we invested in property and bought a couple more since and gifted one and cash 2 years ago

What some people must remember is LL's are not charities.
Even charties take peoples money and those at the top pay themselves massive salaries and usually a lage proportion of donations goes to their pay, costs etc.

As LL's I can only speak for myself, my and other halfs sibling and one of them has 20 odd properties around grater London half paif off for - if a T is nice to us and our prperty we reward them with no rent rise.

Thanks

Dr_Crypto

The last LL I had was great. Never raised the rent in 5 years, all maintenance done promptly, and when I left the deposit was released the same day from TDS.
It was a mutually beneficial relationship. I paid on time every month and looked after his property which included promptly reporting any defects. 

mattyprice4004

sweetsand said:

mattyprice4004 said:

poppy12345 said:

mattyprice4004 said:

poppy12345 said:

sweetsand said:

Grumpy_chap said:

sweetsand said:

none of us have students, those out of work or the self employed, 

These groups, taken as a whole, are no more or less likely to be bad tenants than the population at large.  Indeed, sometimes, they can be more grateful for a good property and good landlord, given the extent of prejudice against them.

avoid, avoid, avoid those out of work,

Really? and why? I've not been able to work for many years because of a disability and i privately rent, never owed any landlords any rent in more than 10 years of privately renting. I take pride in my home and pay from my own pocket to make my home the best i can make it and yet we are all tarred with the same old dirty brush. I have a cat, that i paid extra for to my landlord so i could take him with me. He doesn't scratch walls, or use the toilet anywhere but his little tray. If you came into my home you wouldn't know i have a cat.

I've reported 5 issues with my house in 7 months and i'm still waiting for someone to come to sort out the issues. These range from cracks in 3 ceilings, broken and very unsafe decking in the garden and drafty windows that i can hear outside inside but i still continue to wait...

Lets not just tar those that can't work but think of the LL's that choose not to do repairs when needed, that don't look after the good tenants like they really should.

LL's that refuse those claiming benefits make me sick...

So you’d like us not to tar all benefits tenants with the same brush, but then you do the same to landlords?

Hmmmm

I've had several different landlords spaced over 19 years and i've yet to find a decent one...

That’s unfortunate, but does that mean we all deserve to be tarred with the same brush?
You are complaining about landlords doing EXACTLY what you’re doing - assuming the worst. 

When the boiler broke in my rental property I made the 15 mile journey at 9pm (about an hour after being told by the tenant) in awful weather last winter to drop off 4x electric heaters and helped the tenant set them up, and returned at 11am the next day with the parts to fix it. 

I’ve had bad tenants too, but I have the grace and mental fortitude to appreciate they’re not all bad. 

It may be wise for you to adopt a similar mindset  

Great post. Sadly many T's forget that there are many good LL's just like T's.
Recently we had a brandnew bathroom suite completed in a rented apartment the plastic bath cracked - we did not question it as the T's appear good a professional couple - bath was cut into the wall and basin over it - we had the whole suite repalced top to bottom having expalined to the T it would be more cost effective and they would get a brandnew bathroom with shower - all completed within 4 days and now a flash steel bath and T's very happy and we won't increase their rent for the third year.
In other properties, we have a repairs gurantee on boilers etc  - but some make statments like Poppy tarnish all LL's with a negative brush.

But apparently we're all money grabbing, non-repairing thieves because of this one person's experience... but we can't call benefit claimants out for the same thing, despite the fact I've had personal experience with a nightmare benefits tenant.
Go figure  

It's good to see another landlord out there who takes their responsibilities seriously - and good on you for having a top-notch bathroom fitted when you'll not really see the benefit. 
We're not all bad; evidently there are bad landlords out there - but there's also bad tenants. 

My tenants were keen to fix costs, so they've got a 5 year fixed-price tenancy - possibly a little short sighted on my part, but they're a hard-working couple and I felt they deserved some stability in terms of cost and a long lease. 

mattyprice4004

JCS1 said:

sweetsand said:

poppy12345 said:

sweetsand said:

Grumpy_chap said:

sweetsand said:

none of us have students, those out of work or the self employed, 

These groups, taken as a whole, are no more or less likely to be bad tenants than the population at large.  Indeed, sometimes, they can be more grateful for a good property and good landlord, given the extent of prejudice against them.

avoid, avoid, avoid those out of work,

Really? and why? I've not been able to work for many years because of a disability and i privately rent, never owed any landlords any rent in more than 10 years of privately renting. I take pride in my home and pay from my own pocket to make my home the best i can make it and yet we are all tarred with the same old dirty brush. I have a cat, that i paid extra for to my landlord so i could take him with me. He doesn't scratch walls, or use the toilet anywhere but his little tray. If you came into my home you wouldn't know i have a cat.

I've reported 5 issues with my house in 7 months and i'm still waiting for someone to come to sort out the issues. These range from cracks in 3 ceilings, broken and very unsafe decking in the garden and drafty windows that i can hear outside inside but i still continue to wait...

Lets not just tar those that can't work but think of the LL's that choose not to do repairs when needed, that don't look after the good tenants like they really should.

LL's that refuse those claiming benefits make me sick...

Hi Poppy
Please read my previous posts and the whole post where you took the three words from read the other prargrapghs and to remind you that we have not rasied rents for over two years told our T's to tell us asap if they have problems with rent and before the lockdown we advised our letting agent to be gentle on T's if they can't work due to Covid and that is before the government decalred her hand with the taxpayers money.

FYI. the properties we own to rent out are in nice locations and in very good conditions like somewhere we would live if we had to.
Who we choose to rent out to is our choice within the relams of the law, we have worked hard, we have saved hard, we have gone without holidays for years, we have worked close to 80 hours a week at times and quite often did 55 hours a week. There, it is our property and we will rent out to whom we feel is the lowest risk and that is that as no one will give us a penny if they trash the place.

About you being made "sick by ll's that...."  - with respect it is not a charity and as others have said renting out to the groups we mentioned costs more in insurance etc and certain types of insurance you can't get eh rental protection.
I stand by the fact I would not rent out to the groups I mentioned and it is within the law.
x

Might be within the law, but morally it is very wrong.  You have tarred all people on benefits and those who are self employed as not being good enough for you/too much of a risk, but take umbrage when someone does the same based on their experience with landlords.  

I accept benefits tenants, but I have to say - if I had rental guarantee insurance or any other insurance that'd refuse cover / increase the cost, I'd have to reconsider this. 

It's not about tarring with the same brush, it's about making sure that one of your biggest investments is adequately covered. 
If they'd just turned around and said 'no, don't like them' then fair enough - but if their insurance physically won't offer the cover needed then I can't see how that is wrong.

Why should the landlord have to take on more risk? 

Galloglass

Why should the landlord have to take on more risk? 

If you go back to the link that @Jeremy535897 provided and if you read it, you will see that the so-called avoidance of risk (benefits claimants) opens you up to another risk - that of indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Being a professional landlord means being professional and either keep up with the legislation or have you agent do it for you.