New BBC1 Programme about Landlords

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

It would have been interesting to do a swap with my tenants when I started out as a landlord not so long ago.... They could have tried living as a lodger in a house where they were increasingly unwelcome (even while being clean, tidy, respectful and always up to date with the rent) and I could have gone back to my nice flat.

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

Rosalind's experience of having the "professional tenants" in is sadly far from uncommon; most of my time as an advisor on a phone helpline for landlords is taken up explaining how to get rid of very unpleasant "tenants" and even then the landlords are only very reluctantly doing it as a last resort.

BTW I hope the programme will also deal with "professional tenants" and also show that most possessions are sought because of such tenants.

Landlords probably wouldn't want to live in some of their tenants houses, that's the whole idea, make good viewing. Test us.

Come on Mark, get out the sun & even better do a swap with one of mine:

https://youtu.be/i_HKaqYlHi4 Tenants from Hell Bulwell.

https://youtu.be/OzqVVRlZzE8 Tenants from Hell Bestwood Park

https://youtu.be/QcENHbgfMR4 Tenants from Hell Top Valley Nov 2010

https://youtu.be/_UvO8dmxGQQ Tenants from Hell May 12th 2010.

https://youtu.be/DzRIyfLHRn0 Tenants from Hell May 10th 2010.

The rest are on http://www.youtube.com/mickroberts2006
I han't done any for years.

You'd make good viewing ha ha.

I think the Rich house poor house could do really good for some of 'em, see a MUCH better life & the kids could aspire to want & get that.
I've got one with some single glazing I din't even know till last month (I thought all mine had been done over the 20 years). Gal said Oh can u do me new windows this year, I said have u got wooden windows? She said Yeah, not bothered me, but getting a bit scruffy now. She's lived there 20 years. I said Let's get em done. She said Oh I don't want 'em done till summer. She did smash up all the doors in her 1st week of living in the property, & I don't think she's wanted me to look inside since. She is brilliant though.

I'd be under the spotlight if they did a swap with me, I've got pool, spa, gym, 7 bathrooms, 7 garages etc. Can u imagine the backlash I'd get. But they wun't say this guy has been homeless, not holiday'd at the start for years, worked 6am to 10pm 7 days a week in the early days, still does 70 hours a now, Ooh no, that would be failed to be mentioned.

A few of my tenants have been on Jeremy Kyle.

Reply to the comment left by "Mick Roberts" at "13/05/2017 - 06:44":

Hi Mick

The problem isn't your houses, I grew up in very similar properties.

The problem I would have is moving into a house that had been lived in by such disgusting and filthy people. There were houses like that in the areas I grew up in too and I had school mates who lived in them. I refused to go in some of them because they stunk. There are some places you would want to wipe your feet as you left, not before you went in.

The thing is though, it's not just poor people who live like that. There are still some old stately type homes where the owners live like hobo's.

The size and value of the property doesn't matter, it's the people who live in them.

Why anybody would want to swap for an inferior house on an inferior budget is beyond me. If that house has been occupied by a slob then .... erm ... no thanks!

I've been poor and I've been rich and now I've settled at somewhere in between and like my life just the way it is thanks. Neat, tidy and well ordered.
.

What Mandy says about some landlords not being able to afford to live in the home they rent out is quite true. I have a tenant who pays £260 per month for a room in a shared house with all the bills included, while renting out his family home. I'm not sure of the circumstances - there may have been a divorce involved - and he said he would stay at our house for a few months while getting his home renovated. That was about 2 years ago. He obviously finds if far more affordable and maybe less lonely as well, sharing with others. So if he swapped, which home would he be swapping from? His rented out property or his current home?

I also think Alan Wong makes some very interesting points about the logical conclusion of the assumptions behind the programme possibly being that we should become a communist country. I'm all into fairness - it's the main reason I oppose Section 24 so vehemently and unlike many others see this is as the central point and not the collateral damage to tenants (for example, if it helped rather than hindered tenants I would still oppose it to the same degree) - but communism? It was a good idea but it's been tried enough times for us to know that it doesn't work and that it causes untold misery, again, for those who are purported to gain from it, as well as for everyone else.

The point is that landlords, tenants and the properties iet cuts across the whole of society, with people from all backgrounds incomes and circumstances represented as both landlords and tenants (i.e. from high net worth landlords AND - shock! tenants to tenants AND landlords of very modest means).

While there are many large profile landlords such as Mark who tend to let to tenants on lower incomes than themselves, the majority of landlords are very small time with most letting only one property.

The tenants of the typical landlord (of which I am one) are mostly from the same income bracket as the landlord, and in fact often earn more (see my earlier posts and many other posts above).

Another point is that many people who are landlords are also tenants at the same time (though I can't find any data on this). I fell into this category for a time and I work with a lady who is both and indeed, Mark Alexander is now both.

Moreover, there are a few landlords around whose own residential status is that of lodger meaning they merely have permission to live in someone else's home for a short time with few rights and absolutely no security of tenure. I lived as a lodger while also being a landlord for a time and I believe Paul Barrett (who posts on Property Tribes) has also done this. There will of course be many more people who rent out properties (typically their former homes) who live with partners but who only have licencee (lodger) rights to live in the homes they share.

If the BBC want to make an entertaining documentary about the housing crisis, they could do worse than to look at house sharing, especially the lodger/live in landlord scenario in which there is a very unequal balance of rights, both legally and day to day with many lodgers denied the right to live (as opposed to merely sleep and exist) in the homes they rent or on the other hand, you often find a live in landlord intimidated by a rogue living in their home.

After my experience as a lodger (which was uneventful and peaceful compared to a lot I've come across though it cost me a long term friendship) I had enough material to write a whole website, and was I glad to move into my own little flat as a tenant after that!

I'd be too busy running my business and keeping up with the constant attacks from this government and country

Simple message to the BBC.

Your programs are never balanced, so stop lying.
We have no faith in your words of claptrap
You simply want to demonise landlords
We prefer to work with Channel 5
We should abolish the licensing fee and sell off the BBC

Hi Grace,
The vast majority of landlords and tenants are very good and share a good relationship. Both sides already have a pretty good understanding of the market.
The people who seem to have no realistic basic comprehension tend to be in local and/or national government.
Good indicators of this are:-
1) Extra 3% stamp duty
2) Removal of relief on the costs of financing
3) Paying housing benefits to tenants instead of direct to landlords, wrongly assuming all benefit tenants can manage their finances
4) Advising and encouraging tenants who fall into arrears to stay in occupation of the property until the bailiffs or enforcement officers evict them
5) Failing to recognise that the results of 3 & 4 increase the need for expensive emergency housing
6) Failing to recognise that the result of all the above leads to a reduction in available properties
7) Failing to recognise that the results of 3 & 4 increase the costs of landlord insurance premiums
8) Failing to recognise that the increase cost to landlords and reduction of profitable income of all of the above results in rent increases
So I'm afraid that rather that trying to provide entertainment with a contrived role reversal program, I would much rather see a documentary involving councillors, MP's and ministers learning about the real world private rental sector and the problems they create.

That post has hit the nail on the head and couldn't be put better its the powers that be meddling that is causing the issues not the stakeholders in the industry