Call for CGT roll-over relief to apply to Buy to Let landlords

I think perhaps you are more optimistic than me.

Govt won't help the PRS

Perhaps you have an insider who knows that things might be coming along to assist the PRS.

Can't see it myself!

No, I'm afraid if govt wanted to assist the PRS they would get rid of the eviction law for rent arrears only and start treating the PRS as a proper business,......................as I say never will happen; I'd bet ALL my negative equity portfolio on that being the case!!!!!!

I would love to know exactly what tax advantages a landlord has over first time buyers? They can happily sell without any chance of having to pay CGT, or indeed any other tax, and even get breaks on stamp duty when buying which landlords do not.

If you think we are persecuting you with high rents, then you could always do what many tenants do and not bother paying the rent. Don't worry, nobody would touch you as there is nothing a landlord can legally do, so you won't be evicted for at least 3 or 4 months, and then of course you can just move on and do the same to another landlord. Maybe that's one reason for higher rents as landlords have higher costs to pay in evicting non-paying tenants and cleaning up the mess they leave behind. Oh, and don't worry about being chased for the outstanding rent, as if you play your cards right the landlord will have no chance of tracing you anyway so there'll be no way he can recover the lost rent.

And on the subject of low interest rates, they are far more beneficial for a first time buyer than a landlord. Have you seen mortgage rates recently for homebuyers and buy to let? Homebuyers, probably a rate of less than 4%, buy to let 4.95% if you're lucky. Then there's the deposit, 10% usually required for a residential mortgage, 25% for a buy to let.
So with all due respect I really do think it is landlords who are being persecuted, not the other way about.

I think if most tenants understood the risky business model that is being a LL; they would question why on earth people bother being a LL:
Especially if the LL is a small LL.
Personally I would have made more money leaving my money on deposit!!
Instead my losses are more than I will ever make as long as I live, caused by 4 wrongun tenant!!
Being a LL is a gamble; me I lost due to the pathetic eviction laws in the UK
Instead I have housed people would never stand a chance of buying a property.
Where would these people live!?
brit1664 just has no understanding as to the issues facing a small LL.
I think his ire is aimed mainly at large LL who may have more flexibility with rents etc.
But even so why should a large LL have to make things easier for tenants.
They are entitled to make as much money as they can.
They tend to buy more property which houses people who will NEVER be able to afford to buy even if they wanted to.If every tenant in the UK tried to purchase a property today; very few of them would succeed!
They rely on other people taking a risk on them paying rent to provide them with somewhere to live at great personal financial risk to the LL.
Tenants need to appreciate how close they are to being homeless if the LL decides to pack the whole game in.
There is not enough rental property and further inward EU migration as the problems with the EU worsen will cause even more pressure on the already limited rental property availability.
So rent will be going up.
All down to supply and demand and there is nothing the likes of brit1664 can do about;
I'm afraid it is very much a question of 'sucking it up!'
This will be the case for decades.
Many LL will withdraw from the market or only let to less riskier tenants.
This means mostly letting to tenants on whom they can obtain RGI on; or UC tenants who are unlikely to rip off the LL.
This generally means family types.

I totally agree Paul. I wish I hadn't become a landlord now as well. I'm like you, in that my money would have been better kept in a deposit account rather than spent on property. Even now I have a tenant who is 9 months in arrears but that I can't get rid of as I cannot prove to a court she hasn't paid. Needless to say this is a HB tenant.
Another point worth noting is that many small landlords today are 'accidental' landlords, who never even wanted to enter the letting market, but thanks to the complete lunacy of the last government found themselves unable to sell so they had to let out the house instead. Where does all this leave them? It's going to be quite some time before they can sell if they are depending on market prices rising. So what are they supposed to do? Many of them are good hard working families who do not deserve this disgusting treatment they get from tenants, as well as from groups such as Crisis and Shelter, who themselves do not have a clue about this either and think all landlords are scum.
Larger landlords know the business and in any case often provide better accomodation than smaller landlords, because they are able to. They will, however charge higher rents for this privilege.
And yes many tenants do not realise how close they are to being made homeless. In my case, my non-paying tenant could be homeless within days, as I may have to sell the house just to get rid of the costs as there is no money coming in from it. One of these companies that buy within 7 days, etc could well be a possibility here. Have tenants even thought about that? Of course not.
Yes i should have taken RGI, I realise that now. I won't be making that mistake again, but that will be HB tenants right out of the window.
Sorry we are going a bit off the original topic here, but sadly some people need to understand far more about the problems facing a landlord before posting such ill judged comments.

The bottom line is that until the culture of greed and envy which exists in the UK in a far more aggressive form than in almost any developed country is shot out of the water the landlord - small, big or somewhere in the middle (how do tenants know the size of their landlord's portfolio?) will never be accepted as a profession. The property owner is seen as "the enemy"; the "rich" landlord exploiting the poor downtrodden masses" and this view is encouraged by the people who work in the public sector and the housing "charities". The fact that the tenant may have more disposable income (often not from work) which they spend on transient pleasures whilst the landlord is presumably building a portfolio as a business to provide an income for the future and perhaps an inheritance for his children is working hard to do this but the view still persists that one is the victim and one is the exploiter.
The only politician who saw clearly that this attitude of greed was harming the fabric of the country was Mr. Blair whose politics I could not stand.
Great to have a rant on a Monday morning!!!

Make sure you're getting all the right reliefs and allowances, but roll-over relief still has to be paid when all is finally sold so in the long run it makes no difference (unless you hold till death when IHT applies). Your accountant should have certainly informed you but would not be able to prevent it.

I'll introduce him to my chartered accountant (ex -accountant) who managed to make the basic error of setting property losses against general income (instead of just property income) The Inland Revenue loved it! As they say: "theres a lot of it about". Problem about suing accountant: look at terms and conditions of his/her employment including alleged exclusions and what instructed to do. Did you consult him/her, or did you just assume she /he would advise you on tax liability? Other obvious question is: if you had received the advice before disposing of the property, would it have altered what you did? or if wrong advice were given, did it alter what you did? you need to check this through and then get legal advice (check the cost in advance!) on professional negligence/breach of contract.

I don't know for sure, however, I suspect Sheridan did what a lot of landlords do, i.e. nothing! Sadly, far too many landlords just don't know what they don't know. Therefore, they take action and only learn of the consequences when it's too late. Before I do anything which could be remotely significant these days I stop and think to myself, who else should I be talking to about this? I have a very long list of people to whom I ask a lot of very daft questions I'm sure, even after 24 years now in this business. I still go to my landlords association with many questions I already know the answers to, just in case things might have changed.