The sinister side of landlord bashing
There is a lot of negativity about landlords around.
However, do ‘small’ private landlords really warrant this negativity and indeed should they be a target at all?
Investing in a rented property is one of the very few investments that ordinary middle and working class people can make which is totally under their control.
Most ‘real landlords’ (as opposed to the criminal landlords described by Ben) are (as discussed here) ordinary people with ordinary jobs. If they want to invest – what else is available to them?
Alternative investment options
Most investment products are provided by banks and other financial institutions.
They tend to be opaque products run by men in suits and may well be supporting businesses and services whose ethics and environmental credentials you disapprove of.
If you know about them.
Consider also:
- Private sector landlords, collectively own only a relatively small percentage of this countries land. The rest is owned mainly by the aristocracy and large corporations.
- Many of whom use off-shore tax havens and so pay no (or little) tax. So do not contribute to society
Rather than driving small landlords out, surely we should encourage them?
NB If there is an interesting website on who really owns England.
The consequences of driving out small landlords
If a small landlord sells up, finally bowing out under the pressure of taxation and excessive regulation, this is not necessarily a cause for celebration as some would have it:
- It often means that a tenant has been evicted from their home, and
- The pool of rented accommodation available for those who cannot afford to buy has just got smaller
Is this really a good thing?
Contrary to what many seem to think, many ‘proper’ (as opposed to rogue and criminal) landlords do actually care a great deal about their properties and providing a good environment for their tenants.
And finally
As I said above, investing in a rented property is one of the very few investments that ordinary middle and working class people can make which is totally under their control.
Take that away and all we are left with are investment products managed by men in suits.
If you are anti-landlord, think of this. Why are you trying to take this away from ordinary people? Is this really going to lead to a fairer society?
In asking, “do ‘small’ private landlords really warrant…negativity…… ?” you assert that,
Therein lies the kernel of the problem.
It’s not that private landlords only grant tenancies without security of tenure and no rent control (notwithstanding the Housing Act 1988, section 22). And the fact that 25% of private rented homes fail the Government’s Decent Home Standard (see the latest English Housing Survey).
It’s that we are in the middle of a housing crisis and the needs of investor hobbyist landlords requires that demand must outstrip supply.
In short, they are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Did you ever try renting a property pre the Housing Act 1988 Ron?
Yes, it was a council flat.
There are very few of them available nowadays Ron.
Even if there was the will, it would take decades to get back to those levels.
Politicians are decimating the private rental sector right now but have nothing to take its place.
You’re making my argument for me.
It is the lack of affordable secure homes that hobbyist landlords exploit to make their money – I don’t blame them, it’s not their fault. It’s just that society would be a whole lot better if such exploitation was not actually possible.
Yours is a typical Socialist view.
You refuse to accept market realities but live in a Utopian world that doesn’t exist.
The PRS is a vital part of the housing solutions in the UK.
There are many others.
Social housing being one of them and which should be a far larger part of the housing solution than it currently is.
However that doesn’t make it practical to eradicate the PRS.
It matters not who provides the rental accommodation as long as somebody does.
There is no difference between a corporate or small LL.
Both types are subject to the law of the land.
Homeownership simply cannot be achieved by those who wish it to be so.
For a wide variety of reasons it is slightly harder to buy now.
Paul
It does matter who provides the rented accommodation. A private landlord seeks to maximise their profit that can be achieved through increase of value of the property and also the short term through rental income as against mortgage if any.
A private landlord will seek to become mortgage free in the shortest possible timescale maximising income as against any costs, whereas a social housing provider will see the property as a long term asset that will continue to provide income for the whole life of the property and will not need to have it as a source of money to live on.
The main issue is not to seek the eradication of the private sector but to recognise that it is often not suitable as long term accommodation for families as it generally prevents a tenant to make the place their home by furnishings and decoration, especially if they have no idea if they will have a tenancy 6 or 12 months later. They cannot perhaps buy furniture if they have an unfurnished property and 6 months down the line cannot find another unfurnished place. Sell or store furniture is not an option.
The private sector has a role for groups of young people and students although private corporations have cornered that market in the last 15 years. It also has a role for people who need temporary accommodation or for the more wealthy who are able to negotiate as equals and personalise contracts
You contemptuously mention ‘utopia’ but fail to understand that from the 1920s of the Wheatley Housing Act prior to the disaster of Thatcher’s housing ‘reforms’, the provision of social housing for those who did not want to get on the treadmill of the housing ladder and for those whose income prevented them from doing so was accepted as both a necessary and a social good to create vibrant mixed communities where most people valued, loved and enjoyed a place they could call home.
Also….
I know of several private landlords, myself included, who don’t use agents and have never charged exorbitant fees.
We used to charge £40 in total to the tenant to reference them via the NLA and register their dilapidations deposit.
Our rents won’t be increasing due to the changes in the law, unlike many other professional landlords who manage their properties via agents.
Private landlords, in the main, are not giant ogre’s looking to make fast money. They care about their properties and want long term tenants who also care.