It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

linz

You'd hope a decent landlord would see the importance of good tenants who keep the place clean and tidy are worth more than an extra bit of money a month! Especially if they already have a decent buffer between the rental income and their BTL mortgage payment. Maybe I've watched too much Can't Pay We'll Take it Away but if I were a LL i'd much rather stick with good existing tenants than turf them out for others who may be stretching themselves too much and start to fall behind.

Woolsery

linz said:

 Maybe I've watched too much Can't Pay We'll Take it Away but if I were a LL i'd much rather stick with good existing tenants than turf them out for others who may be stretching themselves too much and start to fall behind.

That's the other side of the coin. In the last few years it's been very hard to get tenants out if they stop paying. I believe the courts still have a large back-log and meanwhile legislation keeps demanding more of the small-time landlord. I'm not saying that's wrong, because tenants need a proper level of protection, but it means many 'accidental' and single property landlords are deciding to give up.

My daughter's landlord lives overseas and he's decided to sell because he thinks the housing bubble in the UK will go pop very soon. I believe he's right. If that happens and the prices begin falling, another incentive to hold and rent out a property will lessen, though currently other investments are very wobbly too.

Kantankrus_Mare

linz said:

You'd hope a decent landlord would see the importance of good tenants who keep the place clean and tidy are worth more than an extra bit of money a month! Especially if they already have a decent buffer between the rental income and their BTL mortgage payment. Maybe I've watched too much Can't Pay We'll Take it Away but if I were a LL i'd much rather stick with good existing tenants than turf them out for others who may be stretching themselves too much and start to fall behind.

We do this as we have a fantastic tenant in our BTL property. We used to have two properties but let one go as it needed a lot of work doing to it. Over the ten years we have been landlords we have had a mixture of good and bad tenants and got to the point where we tried to sell as it had got to be more hassle than it was worth. It was a bad time for selling and after 4 months we had got to the point where we couldnt afford to keep paying the mortgage and council tax with no rent coming in so used a specialist to help us find a tenant. It paid off as we now have a mature lady in the property who loves it and says she will be there for the rest of her days. She has made the house a proper home and we always respond quickly if there are problems. We keep the rent at less than the going rate as I understand her being on her own must be a struggle. No intentions of raising rent either for the foreseeable future as I would rather have a good tenant than chase a few extra pounds. Some would say this isnt good business sense but its working for us. I dont have a decent pension to look forward to so when we eventually do sell, this will help me hugely but even if we dont sell, its a regular income.

EssexHebridean

It’s happened….the 20p spaghetti is now 23p - in Aldi at least. And the 500g bags of pasta that were 29p are now 32p so the same level of increase there. Feels like the end of an era! 😂 Joking aside though as a percentage that is a heck of a jump. 

TheAble

Little attraction to being a landlord these days that I can see - so much tax, regulation and cost. Plus the potential of non-paying tenants who won't leave. If you're an existing LL then I guess it's a judgement call, but for a prospective LL I'd say other investments make more appeal.

euronorris

linz said:

You'd hope a decent landlord would see the importance of good tenants who keep the place clean and tidy are worth more than an extra bit of money a month! Especially if they already have a decent buffer between the rental income and their BTL mortgage payment. Maybe I've watched too much Can't Pay We'll Take it Away but if I were a LL i'd much rather stick with good existing tenants than turf them out for others who may be stretching themselves too much and start to fall behind.

I think this is the attitude he has always taken in the past, so I hope it continues. We always pay on time, never miss a payment, we keep the place clean and tidy, and look after the garden. We pay all our other utility bills too, and council tax, so no arrears to worry about there. And we get on well with the neighbours. And in the 7.5 years we've been here, we've had very little need to contact him - extractor fan in the bathroom needed replacing early on, and the boiler was replaced a few years ago (on the advice of his own plumber).

So, I do hope that he still views it in the same way, and doesn't need to sell for personal reasons.

Florenceem

I had a Dentist appointment today - I have a NHS one - paid for a check up. Dentist decided to do two fillings while I was in the chair so I had to pay the extra up to the second band.  I had a small hole appear in a tooth - phoned that day and had to wait 6 weeks for an appointment meaning a much larger cavity. Hubby was in the waiting room with the next two patients who were late going in for their appointments because of me. Dentist didn't want me to wait another month to see him for the filling as the tooth would probably have been past saving. Real shortage of Dentists in my area so I feel very Blessed to have one and an NHS practice is a bonus.

sammy_kaye18

Afternoon all, 

Currently sat suffering with what I suspect is a summer cold that my darling daughter Holly has shared with me after she had some sort of lurgy last week and possibly a touch of hay fever as well. Either way between the headache, runny nose and the horrid throat - I am struggling to stay awake or sleep and just feel generally exhausted --- and just to make it clear I have lateral flow tested twice and they are both negative. 
I did tackle a fear the other day though and went out with my sister to the beach, she brought my youngest niece up and we stopped in pound stretcher to get a bucket and spade for her. I have severe social anxiety but it was nice to see them and get out of the house and enjoying the sunshine for a little while. She has also been growing chilli's in her kitchen and so I asked her to do a swap - she's going to save me a few chilli's or possibly a plant and I have given her a couple of my extra tomato plants. 

Im also sat at the minute watching my way through a series on YouTube called DoomsDay Preppers and have been sat cross stitching Christmas cards as well. I want to try and get ahead now with my Christmas preps because it will creep up on me before I know it and once my daughters birthday in July has gone then I know I have no more big birthdays coming up so I can save and start doing gifts so I wont feel the pinch so much come December. 

RE : The food plan that was posted on here. It does look OK as a general plan to get you through but I don't think it would sustain my lot. Me and my daughter are the only two who would eat soup, and my husband works 10 hours a day so I don't know how substantial some of those meals would be to fill him up. Plus they dont generally have time for breakfast in the morning as my 3 are all out of the house by about 7.40

London_1

Been a productive afternoon as I got all my loose covers on  my sofa washed, dried, aired and back on again, then I tackled one of my 8 kitchen cupboards which I knew had some well out of date stuff in.

A jolly good throw out of odds and ends, and one cupboard sparkling clean and tidy, bit of a very late spring clean but well worth the effort.

listed all the available stuff in there to use  and listed the food items and stuck the list on the inside of the door so easy to see whats OK to use Only another 7 to go  its true the more cupboards you have the more you find to put in them . I had some unrecognisable packets that I just decided I will never use and can't even remember why I bought them right at the back was a packet of cornflour that had been forgotten and was BBE 2014 !!! why I had a spare packet I can't imagine as I don't use it very often (obviously ) 
So I was really ruthless, and now have a good binfull of out of date , and I really mean out of date things . Feels good to have a good tidy up. 
May try another one tomorrow I have one full of empty tupperware and storage boxes to sort out. God know what I'll find in the cupboard under the sink  

But no shopping to buy, so it kept me busy, and now parked up with a cuppa and some stem ginger biscuits (BBE date Jan 2022 so not too bad and still crisp so they will get used up now I found them  

JackieO xx

KxMx

Florenceem said:

I had a Dentist appointment today - I have a NHS one - paid for a check up. Dentist decided to do two fillings while I was in the chair so I had to pay the extra up to the second band.  I had a small hole appear in a tooth - phoned that day and had to wait 6 weeks for an appointment meaning a much larger cavity. Hubby was in the waiting room with the next two patients who were late going in for their appointments because of me. Dentist didn't want me to wait another month to see him for the filling as the tooth would probably have been past saving. Real shortage of Dentists in my area so I feel very Blessed to have one and an NHS practice is a bonus.

I badly chipped a tooth- one of my two front teeth! at the weekend, leaving a sharp jagged edge.
Far too big for a filling so looking at a crown or maybe an onlay. 

I have a list of 10 dentists in my town to ring round, who mention NHS on their websites.
I'm fully expecting to get nowhere, even with a 111 referral because it isn't an emergency.
I shall probably end up at a private practice that offers 0% finance, or wait until I develop an infection and can get an NHS emergency appointment.