New BBC1 Programme about Landlords

Nice one, Mark and Yvonne. Yvonne, you've reminded me that I also have lived in my HMOs - in two of them over different summers for 2 months at a time. They are both lovely houses - the one has loads of original features; the other is opposite a tennis court which the children and I then went to to play.

Also, many landlords rent out their original home - I've done that too - and would be very happy to go back to that original house as it too was in a great area and I improved it massively - an old retired police officer in his 80s had lived there for many decades and his daughter thought it was practically worthless when she inherited it as it was in such a state - dangerous, even. After I had spent several years living on a building site, sorting it all out, my first tenants wrecked it and I had to do it all up again, whilst also being owed hundreds in rent.

This is the reality we recognise. We don't need to be 'taught' about the rental market by BBC producers who don't know a fraction of what we do. I will add 'patronising' to my list of objections - another reason why this programme concept is so offensive to landlords.

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "12/05/2017 - 11:13":

I have, on many occasions, spent a few days living in my rental properties when they are vacant.

For example, I own a three bed flat in Wherry Road in Norwich. Very inconveniently, a few years ago my tenants decided to move out just before Xmas. The prospects of re-letting it until after the festivities were over was very remote. However, we lived 26 miles outside Norwich at the time and had several Xmas parties to go to in Norwich. Therefore, rather than paying for taxi's, we decided to use the flat ourselves.

The outgoing tenants were three helicopter pilots whose jobs were to fly oil and gas workers from Norwich airport to the oil rigs off the coast of Great Yarmouth. If we had been given their budgets to live on during our stay I'd have had an even happier Xmas 🙂
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I think most wise housing provider will realise the core elements of this programme and the other growing ones the BBC keeps airing surrounding landlords do not unite but divide society and cause chaos to everyone. Not forward or helpful at all.

I would really hope Grace and her team would put their energy on some programme which contributes e.g. if it is a changing housing environment, how we can embrace the changes as many other countries are with high amount of rental.

Most of us can see the end agenda is always trying to create divide and as Mark said putting landlords on further negative spotlight as scape-goats. I mean how can any intelligent person ever see any good in saying 'we want to showcase the gap between 2 walks of live as it is', when we clearly know there are millions of different circumstances between landlords and tenants and the BBC has free play to edit anything they like to create a bias programme based on historic programmes made?

Again, why not create more hours of airtime to showcase bigger gaps in society like for another example maybe MP's like George Osborne and David Cameron, how their family are multimillionaires with big businesses, Osborne gets over £600,000.00 pa just for his editing job (nice way to influence the media further btw) while still holding on to his MP pay for a period of time while their slogan was 'we are in it together' and their last manifesto says they will not increase income tax but for landlords they increased it by a few folds. From what i can see since they went in power, what they did to all of us, we are not in it together. The gap between their lives and say the tenants on Benefits like in areas in Easterhouse in Glasgow is huge. Why not create a programme to 'showcase reality and bridge the gap between wealthy MP's and tenants by reflecting the actual country as it is.'? I am sure the gap is even bigger between those 2 walks of lives and would create more interest and serve better purposes telling the truth. By saying they want to bridge the gaps between us is effectively say we want those 2 groups to be in the same platform. Why not apply the same platform for rest of society where there is so unequal, if we do i guess that is communism when a potato pickers gets same wage as a surgeon. Is this what we want to get involved with?

The house I share with my family and pets is always in a mess and maybe we'll get around to redecorating one day. By contrast I put time, money and pride into my buy to lets and my tenants are pretty house proud. Especially the single mums

I can't help wondering why a lot of the landlords posting here wish to pass the baton on to other issues rather than housing. If the BBC wish to make programmes on housing then that's fine with me if the format is right. Please don't stamp on this suggestion by telling me of BBC bias. My daughter works on PR for BBC news programmes and she tell's me that they do attempt to take the moral high ground and I for one partly agree with her. Truth in these issues is not an exact science.

Why for instance do they not look at Germany and it's renting system which has a tradition of long lets and permanent tenants. Mark I can see you have tried to address some of these issues by your assurance agreements you wish to make with your tenants but this is only tickling at the margins. In Germany, for instance tenants move in with their bathrooms and kitchens but that would never be allowed here and consequently they have the freedoms to make them selves a proper home with securer leases. Landlords in the UK have a host of government restrictions imposed upon then whether or whether not the tenant require these requirements.

I'm not advocating poor safety standards but I have seen huge restrictions over the forty years I have been renting and I must say I would hate to rent now. I moved into a flat in the late Sixties, badly decorated, completely unfurnished. I set about decorating and furnishing very cheaply as I had been a student and had no money, but we made it into a nice home and lived there for many years with good relations with our landlord.

There are problems the BBC could air and deal with if they so had the mindset and they are problems which if we as Landlords wish to survive in this business and have a good future, should encourage rather than suggest other 'topics'.

Sorry, I was not able to read every comment on that very interesting thread, but I have a question.
yesterday I was contacted by a researcher regarding "NLA Case Study interview". That was a follow-up of a survey I filled in. He asked if I had to move to higher tax bracket due to S24. Apparently this is an NLA's exercise involving the BBC. That aspect of the fieldwork would involve personally speaking to the BBC in a filmed interview. As well as presenting your case as NLA case study. It sounded like something to do with S24.
I just wonder if anyone else had a similar phone call?
Is it possible that this is related to the same programme Grace is preparing? The researcher was definitely from a different agency.
I do not think I am prepared to personally give an interview - I am of foreign origin and of course a "persona non grata" after Brexit, (regardless my 25 years of paying tax in this country), I do not want to be called bastard and parasite and criminalized for providing a roof over someone's head. .
But it is interesting that BBC has something to do with S24? In what way? The timing is just too much of a coincidence.
Any ideas?

Reply to the comment left by "Alan Wong" at "12/05/2017 - 11:47":

I think both Osborne and Blair are landlords. Why not contrast them with most unincorporated landlords and show how the tax system favours the richest landlords over the ordinary ones.

Reply to the comment left by "Mick Roberts" at "12/05/2017 - 07:56":

I don't get it as my tenants often earn more than I do and live in the same sort of house. Why would they want to live in mine, not convenient for their work or kids' schools? Would the BBC pay for landlord and tenants to take unpaid holiday (if their employers would allow it) in order to live in another place. I couldn't do ti as most of my house is converted into office space for my other business and I couldn't work from anywhere else (unless the BBC would pay for office space and removal costs).

Reply to the comment left by "Kathy Evans" at "12/05/2017 - 16:42":

I don’t get it as my tenants often earn more than I do and live in the same sort of house.

Same here Kathy. Not much point in swopping with my tenant neighbour who earns more than I do.

Besides which, no decent landlord would want to intimidate their respected tenant by asking them to appear on a reality TV show.

None of my tenants are Jeremy Kyle show types nor Grauniadistas with an axe to grind, perhaps the Beeb would get a better response trawling the anti-landlord sites.

I think what they are after is a landlord with an extravagant lifestyle who lets to benefits tenants at the bottom end (which is rapidly becoming a niche market).

They won't be interested in the majority of hard working landlords providing quality homes to satisfied tenants.*

"Reflecting the actual renting market as it is" would make damn boring telly for the vast majority of rentals.

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*Source- The English Housing Survey.

Reply to the comment left by "Grace Hetherington" at "11/05/2017 - 12:48":

I would like to go and live in one of my rental properties (one of which was my home for many years until 6 years ago) but guess what, I can't afford to...