The joy of being a landlord

[Freakbro]

I'm still aiming to improve my rental property to a C by installing a few panels with isolar diverter for hot water within the next few years.

Main reasons being it'll increase the price/desirability if I come to sell it, Labour (if they win next GE) could easily reinstate the requirement and it is the right thing to do, that is affordable to me.

Sure, the tenant is effectively paying for it as I'm saving up from the profit from the rent, but that just makes me financially prudent or an evil capitalist exploiter of the masses, depending if you live in Cornwall or not

 

[413x]

I don't disagree... the 1 thing I do like down near Cambridge is the weather tho. it's noticeably warmer here with less rain / wind.

house prices are silly tho and with no London weighting on salaries to even partially offset.

I had long planned to emigrate when I retired (I had visions of a property on menorca ) but I suspect that is off the table now.

as for the rental properties no longer having to improve their insulation. Really our housing needs improvements across the board and having D or E rated rentals is not great. Ideally I would rather they kept the mandate up upgrade D and E properties but offer tax breaks and what not to get it done . but I would draw the line at going beyond better insulation and decent windows etc. LLs should not be forced to install solar or batteries or heatpumps etc... not when new builds or private homes don't even have to have them.

Yes. The only thing I miss is the nice rivers and drier Winters.

I've actually not found the summers that different south Wales vs Lincolnshire and Suffolk.
But the winters are far wetter here and more drab.

 

[FoxEye]

I'm still aiming to improve my rental property to a C by installing a few panels with isolar diverter for hot water within the next few years.

Main reasons being it'll increase the price/desirability if I come to sell it, Labour (if they win next GE) could easily reinstate the requirement and it is the right thing to do, that is affordable to me.

Sure, the tenant is effectively paying for it as I'm saving up from the profit from the rent, but that just makes me financially prudent or an evil capitalist exploiter of the masses, depending if you live in Cornwall or not

You're not on my Christmas card list, I'm afraid.

 

[chrcoluk]

So apparently house building is slowing down due to lack of demand, and Gove has had to return money to the treasury due to lack of ways to spend it. Whilst at the same time rental demand is at insane levels vs supply and rents continue to increase at record levels.

This supports my earlier view the house buying issue is largely affected by people paying rents they cant afford so as such cant meet the criteria to buy a home in the first place.

Basic common sense would have had Gove's unspent money on council houses and then that would be a step for everything else improving.

Labour's plan appear's to be to abandon any fixing of rental to try and follow the false promise we merely need to move housing from rental use to ownership to fix everything. When it will just push even more into the affordability trap.

 

[chrcoluk]

That is good as those plans where silly and would have done nothing but drastically increase rent by forcing upgrades that most renters don't even care about or wont really benefit from. I am not against energy efficiency improvements but the way those plans where set out was unfeasible. I agree with the lower grade improvements. It was the grade C+ that was unfeasible. Grades D and E should stay really though.

E is already here, but not enforced. C was the new proposal. (which was I think D and E what you meaning).

The reality is it was never going to get enforced, so was a on paper thing only.

I do think rental energy efficiency standards need to improve (I can tell you its not fun living in a grade F property), but at the same time, if there is no system devised for the government to assist landlords on the cost alongside no rent controls, then as you said it only would have led to either higher rents via the costs being passed on or properties been sold up (which in itself via less supply would lead to higher rents). I do think its preferable to have poorer condition properties at lower rents than better one's at even less affordable rents.

Obviously the government was not prepared to fund these upgrades to properties so hence have scrapped it.

However I believe this was part of the renters reform bill? So this change doesnt bode well for that going through as its now going to need time to be amended, and the market desperately needs S21 going away.

We still need Osborne's tax changes reversed.

 

[chrcoluk]

I'm still aiming to improve my rental property to a C by installing a few panels with isolar diverter for hot water within the next few years.

Main reasons being it'll increase the price/desirability if I come to sell it, Labour (if they win next GE) could easily reinstate the requirement and it is the right thing to do, that is affordable to me.

Sure, the tenant is effectively paying for it as I'm saving up from the profit from the rent, but that just makes me financially prudent or an evil capitalist exploiter of the masses, depending if you live in Cornwall or not

There is a thread I read from a LL forum, where the LL was asking for advice.

He has long term tenants happy with the current condition of the property and the rent they paying.

But he wants to improve the property and pass on the cost to the tenants, he made this proposal to them, and was surprised they said they were happy with how things are and didnt need the improvements, however he was unhappy with their response so is now looking to impose the rent increase (and of course S21 evict if necessary) so he can upgrade a property he doesnt live in and where the tenants dont want it.

Now not saying this is your situation of course, but felt it an interesting story to tell. In your case it seems like the tenant is already paying a level of rent to fund it.

As things stand Labour have your back, they have scrapped any kind of rental reform plans they had, whilst the Tories still have the renter reform bill as a policy although looking increasingly less likely they will push it through parliament by the election.

 

[FoxEye]

So apparently house building is slowing down due to lack of demand, and Gove has had to return money to the treasury due to lack of ways to spend it. Whilst at the same time rental demand is at insane levels vs supply and rents continue to increase at record levels.

This supports my earlier view the house buying issue is largely affected by people paying rents they cant afford so as such cant meet the criteria to buy a home in the first place.

Basic common sense would have had Gove's unspent money on council houses and then that would be a step for everything else improving.

Labour's plan appear's to be to abandon any fixing of rental to try and follow the false promise we merely need to move housing from rental use to ownership to fix everything. When it will just push even more into the affordability trap.

When we do build, we're still building some of the lowest quality housing in the whole of Europe.

It's not about what the people need. The whole system has failed.

Developers say they aren't making enough profit to build. How can that be so... we build such cheap, shoddy housing. I have family who work in the trades and they keep saying they wouldn't live in any new development as the construction standards are so poor. Built as cheaply and quickly as possible. Articles have even suggested builders are faking compliance with building regs, attempting to fool inspectors with fake venting and other dodgy practices.

How have we got into this mess? We can't build infrastructure and we can't even build decent housing.

This country is circling the toilet bowl, and the longer term problems we're storing up will probably kill it.

 

[chrcoluk]

When we do build, we're still building some of the lowest quality housing in the whole of Europe.

It's not about what the people need. The whole system has failed.

Developers say they aren't making enough profit to build. How can that be so... we build such cheap, shoddy housing. I have family who work in the trades and they keep saying they wouldn't live in any new development as the construction standards are so poor. Built as cheaply and quickly as possible. Articles have even suggested builders are faking compliance with building regs, attempting to fool inspectors with fake venting and other dodgy practices.

How have we got into this mess? We can't build infrastructure and we can't even build decent housing.

This country is circling the toilet bowl, and the longer term problems we're storing up will probably kill it.

It is a complete mess, I would say the answer is if these developers cant do it, then we do it ourselves directly, but we have an ideology of the private sector should build so there is no will to go more hands on when that fails.

I have seen videos of some of these new builds and yes they can be really bad. Not to mention the size of the gardens which are basically not much bigger than a shed.

 

[Quartz]

Developers say they aren't making enough profit to build.

Can you give a cite? Because I regularly lunch with someone who builds for developers and - at least hereabouts - that's not what he reports. I used to know an actual developer but he died early this year, so all I can say of him is that he made a good living.

 

[Freefaller]

Our management company keep trying to get us to increase our rents. We have refused to do so for over 5 years. We're not after making money. Just cover costs and have an asset in due time that we can use.

I'm very tempted to get rid of them but at the same time it's nice to have someone to look after things for us.

 

[kindai]

Had an inspection and rent review of one of our tennants.

2 issues found, 1 the flush button on the toilet broke, so theyve been using a bucket to pour water down instead and some paint peeling over the shower. Neither issue reported to the letting agent. Obviously got both sorted immediately but apparently they didnt want to cause a fuss?!

Otherwise the rest of the flat was in immaculate condition, so happy with that.

 

[Quartz]

Our management company keep trying to get us to increase our rents.

Yes. Remember that if you put up the rent the tenant could leave and a month or two without rent is going to be a big hit - and don't forget the expense of renovating the property for new tenants. That 'increase' could take years to recover.

 

[FoxEye]

Can you give a cite? Because I regularly lunch with someone who builds for developers and - at least hereabouts - that's not what he reports. I used to know an actual developer but he died early this year, so all I can say of him is that he made a good living.

I can give you a local perspective.

Several developers bought huge parcels of land near me, with the intention of building 4,500 new houses between them.

Since the land was purchased, one developer wound itself up (the shareholders voted to sell of the company's assets and liquidate it). The remaining developers did nothing, citing that they needed money from the local council in order to start building. They claimed that it simply wasn't profitable to start building without subsidy.

I've heard similar things from posters on this forum. That margins are super thin. I can't verify that tho.

 

[Freefaller]

Yes. Remember that if you put up the rent the tenant could leave and a month or two without rent is going to be a big hit - and don't forget the expense of renovating the property for new tenants. That 'increase' could take years to recover.

Indeed. As I said not after making money. Want good long standing tenants and give people affordable housing not exploit them.

 

[taB]

I'm a landlord. Love it. I get a butchered lamb for rent each year for a field that has no other practical use.

 

[dlockers]

I can give you a local perspective.

Several developers bought huge parcels of land near me, with the intention of building 4,500 new houses between them.

Since the land was purchased, one developer wound itself up (the shareholders voted to sell of the company's assets and liquidate it). The remaining developers did nothing, citing that they needed money from the local council in order to start building. They claimed that it simply wasn't profitable to start building without subsidy.

I've heard similar things from posters on this forum. That margins are super thin. I can't verify that tho.

The margins aren't super thin at all. The issue is that house prices are rising at such a phenomenal rate there is no need for urgency. A developer near me is sat on a parcel of prime land which has effectively 10x'ed in value for doing nothing. Why lift a finger when you can make millions for doing nothing?

 

[dlockers]

When we do build, we're still building some of the lowest quality housing in the whole of Europe.

Citation please.

 

[Werewolf]

When we do build, we're still building some of the lowest quality housing in the whole of Europe.

It's not about what the people need. The whole system has failed.

Developers say they aren't making enough profit to build. How can that be so... we build such cheap, shoddy housing. I have family who work in the trades and they keep saying they wouldn't live in any new development as the construction standards are so poor. Built as cheaply and quickly as possible. Articles have even suggested builders are faking compliance with building regs, attempting to fool inspectors with fake venting and other dodgy practices.

How have we got into this mess? We can't build infrastructure and we can't even build decent housing.

This country is circling the toilet bowl, and the longer term problems we're storing up will probably kill it.

There's a guy on youtube that does inspections of new builds and some of the stuff he's finding (very regular uploads) are amazing given how basic and obvious they are, including things that should have been fixed very early on and to comply properly will by the time he's got to it require things like taking down a wall because it's that far out of true (he regularly sees them at 3-4 times more lean than they're allowed,).

Loads of things like fake weep vents, damp course at the wrong height, roof supports damaged or not secured and that's just the issues with the actual structure of the properties.

This is stuff that by the time he's looking at it should have been spotted by multiple supervisers, managers, inspectors from the companies, let alone all the actual tradesmen who have been working on and around the issues.

 

[FoxEye]

Citation please.

English housing is worst in Europe, report finds

England has the lowest number of houses available in the developed world, and the highest rate of inadequate housing in Europe at 15%

www.pbctoday.co.uk

British homes among the worst insulated in Europe

In Britain the average home loses three degrees Celsius of indoor temperature after five hours.

www.newstatesman.com

Just do a Google search. There's no shortage of info about the state of the UK's housing.

e: will add some more

Why are Britain’s new homes built so badly?

We compare UK construction standards to those abroad – and talk to buyers deeply disillusioned by their experiences

www.theguardian.com

Our new build nightmare: New homes now average 157 defects,

Britain's new housing developments are often full of unhappy residents. Owners are complaining of soaring numbers of defects

www.thisismoney.co.uk

 

[JonRGV250]

I couldn't agree with this guy more..

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1710271230052381060

We seem to bringing up a society of work shy lazy halfwits who want everything for nothing, and the concept of actually making an effort at work seems an alien concept.

You thoughts @FoxEye