The joy of being a landlord

fez said:
Nice idea but the fact most people who own their houses don't do this work should perhaps tell you something. As suggested, the only way it makes sense for landlords to sink this sort of money is if they can pass it on to tenants.
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I cynically think it's to pressure the small land lords to sell up and increase housing stock available for purchase and potentially lowering the cost of houses.
 
Just looking at one of mine, it's a D. Next door (identical) is a C.

Mine (D - 66):
Feature Description Rating
Wall Cavity wall, as built, no insulation (assumed) Poor
Roof Pitched, 100 mm loft insulation Average
Roof Flat, limited insulation (assumed) Very poor
Window Fully double glazed Average
Main heating Boiler and radiators, mains gas Good
Main heating control Programmer, room thermostat and TRVs Good
Hot water From main system Good
Lighting Low energy lighting in 67% of fixed outlets Good
Floor Suspended, no insulation (assumed) N/A
Secondary heating None N/A

Next Door (C - 69):
Feature Description Rating
Wall Cavity wall, as built, no insulation (assumed) Poor
Roof Pitched, 100 mm loft insulation Average
Roof Flat, no insulation (assumed) Very poor
Window Fully double glazed Average
Main heating Boiler and radiators, mains gas Good
Main heating control Programmer, room thermostat and TRVs Good
Hot water From main system Good
Lighting Low energy lighting in 89% of fixed outlets Very good
Floor Solid, no insulation (assumed) N/A
Secondary heating None N/A

So I just need to get a few more low energy bulbs? The flat roof (assumed) very poor i'd contest as I know it's full of insulation between the rafters having replaced the roof in the last few years.
 
sx_turbo said:
I cynically think it's to pressure the small land lords to sell up and increase housing stock available for purchase and potentially lowering the cost of houses.
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Stock is stock. You have 10 people and 10 houses and up to a point it doesn't matter if you have 10 homeowners living in those 10 houses or 10 renters. The only way house prices will drop is with a massive supply injection. No government wants to be in power if house prices tank either. Thats why they are constantly pushing for things other than actually building houses to get people on the property ladder. People buying houses is popular. House prices dropping isn't despite it benefitting most people.
 
The proposals don't sound that bad tbh.

Getting to a C by 2030, a price cap on improvements of £15,000 (or £10,000 in cheaper areas) with a 10 yr exemption if you can't get to C after spending that.

Avg cost expected to be about £6.5k, which will be tax deductible either with income tax or CGT, depending on the improvement.

There's also been lots of grants available for LLs with E properties and below if they have a tenant on benefits that a lot of the improvements will be done for free. I missed that one as mines a D, which was a bummer :p

EPCs to be reformed, with focus on insulation and double glazing before solar panels etc.
 
I have a very old pre 1900 house and the main part of it is solid flint wall. I have some real concerns about introducing internal or external wall insulation to it, just to get it from E to a D rating, let alone a C. Not the cost so much but I am worried about trapping moisture in the house lending to major problems. I believe they built the walls to allow the house to breath as there is a very small gap in the centre of the wall.
 
Freakbro said:
The proposals don't sound that bad tbh.

Getting to a C by 2030, a price cap on improvements of £15,000 (or £10,000 in cheaper areas) with a 10 yr exemption if you can't get to C after spending that.

Avg cost expected to be about £6.5k, which will be tax deductible either with income tax or CGT, depending on the improvement.

There's also been lots of grants available for LLs with E properties and below if they have a tenant on benefits that a lot of the improvements will be done for free. I missed that one as mines a D, which was a bummer :p

EPCs to be reformed, with focus on insulation and double glazing before solar panels etc.
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I think anything funded by anything else aside from a grant is going to fuel rent inflation. The schemes available are also quite poor, they are nowhere near as generous as owner occupier schemes, and have no double glazing, boilers have a clause that the property has never had a boiler before. I think this new requirement combined with freezing LHA is not from a government who claims to care for renters.

My property was a G, me fitting LED bulbs seemed to bump it to F, I expect it might go to E now I have a valve thermostat with new boiler. It wont go any further though without the windows being sorted, my LL is a business man not a charity, he pays out thousands for that, then rent will explode. Walls apparently cant be done due to property type which only leaves the loft. Upstairs neighbours are very different to my own approach, they are threatening with solicitors and so forth so they will be out end of their tenancy 100%. I tried to tell them to concentrate on one issue at a time, and that the one who is the official tenant is on UC, to work with LL on a scheme for the loft insulation, but they dont think rationally, and have gone all out with rage. I also offered to show them a DIY double glazing kit which they might be able to talk the LL round into fitting as its far cheaper than proper double glazing and might work ok (their property is far worse than mine), but instead of listening they have kept on the path they on.

I alkso think this wont be enforced the same as it isnt enforced now, the council's will likely be asked to enforce it, but its not in their interests to do so, as it will create more homeless people, which adds to their housing problems.
 
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~Mike~ said:
I have a very old pre 1900 house and the main part of it is solid flint wall. I have some real concerns about introducing internal or external wall insulation to it, just to get it from E to a D rating, let alone a C. Not the cost so much but I am worried about trapping moisture in the house lending to major problems. I believe they built the walls to allow the house to breath as there is a very small gap in the centre of the wall.
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This is most peoples fear. They don't trust the building trade in this country and for bloody good reason. You could spend £20k upgrading your house and then find you have hired an absolute cowboy who made a complete mess of it and has caused you many thousands of pounds worth of damage before you even think about the money wasted.

I've been watching quite a few videos on improving the EPC of older houses and it seems like a lot of work that needs to be done properly or you will have issues. Some stuff is simple enough to do and if you **** it up you will just have a badly functioning system vs how it should work. When it comes to doing things like internal walls though, you can make a right hash of it and thats where damp, mould etc comes in.
 
we had loft & wall insulation installed. it was strongly encouraged by our council and somewhat subsidised - but still cost ............................... then we had damp and mould issues and a few years later we were contacted offering to remove it for us (for a fee) and to install an updated product (for another fee). The loft insulation is ok, its the wall that is the problem.

But this is a joke. imo we were bordering on pressured to install it in the 1st place, any costs to remove AND replace should not be my expense. And as what fez said.. now i have very little faith in the quality of these council approved installers. obviously the company which actually carried out the work have gone under - tho a "new" company with the same name does exist but they are not responsible for it.
 
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The only way house prices will drop is with a massive supply injection
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Not the only way. Reduce immigration to a sensible level and that immediately relieves pressure on the stock. If you are importing 900,000+ people a year then you need to housing, health, welfare and vacancies. BTW most of these will also want to be mobile so will be adding to our already crowded infrastructure, even if you don't build new roads (aka the antiroad building mantra of more roads = more cars).
 
Nigel Kingdon said:
Not the only way. Reduce immigration to a sensible level and that immediately relieves pressure on the stock. If you are importing 900,000+ people a year then you need to housing, health, welfare and vacancies. BTW most of these will also want to be mobile so will be adding to our already crowded infrastructure, even if you don't build new roads (aka the antiroad building mantra of more roads = more cars).
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If we reduce immigration levels to a sensible level then we will have other problems. There is a reason all countries are letting immigrants in and its not out of the goodness of our hearts. The first world has a problem that no one actually wants to tackle. Aging populations. Our entire system is predicated on a pyramid where the bottom outweighs the top. Thats falling apart. The only way 1st world countries are stumbling on is with immigration to plug that gap at the bottom.
 
So, for say 3 generations, there would be a lot of issues (debatable as to which would be worse staying where we are or tackling the issue for good). After that things level out and whilst you are at it you solve the planets No 1 issue (too many humans wanting too much stuff).
 
Nigel Kingdon said:
So, for say 3 generations, there would be a lot of issues (debatable as to which would be worse staying where we are or tackling the issue for good). After that things level out and whilst you are at it you solve the planets No 1 issue (too many humans wanting too much stuff).
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The issue isn't just as simple as "let the population contract for 3 generations". Firstly you would literally just have to let people die or euthanise them unless we magically get robots that can do a lot of manual work for us. Then the crux of the issue is how do you start making babies again. People never seem to consider this. The birth rate isn't plummeting because people can't have children, its because they don't want them. The future is looking bleak to some, they are unaffordable for many, they are a huge amount of work and society has very little love for children. We place very little value in education and raising good children in this mess of a world is getting harder and harder.

We would have to somehow fix all the reasons people aren't having enough children while we let the excess population die off.
 
Nope, just don't keep reiterating the 'growth is good' mantra, it's not. The low birth rate in 1st world countries would over 3 generation level off the population with natural die off. There are longer term gains here, both financially and personally. There's an awful lot of 'make work' out there. Stuff that's meaningless in the real world. There's lots of stuff currently done by office admin that AI would do a better job of. The government could very easily be replaced by AI, that suggests policy that can then be voted on. The sooner we get shot of those who are in that place for personal advancement the better. I could go on.
 
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