Estate agents and greedy landlords
12-May-2008
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Estate agents and greedy landlords

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Wealthy people who buy up houses to let and their treacherous minions the estate agents that bleed their tenants dry make me sick.  Such a despicable example of pure greed and what is the government doing about it?  As usual, absolutely nothing!  “There you go, of course you can buy as many houses as you like, and don’t forget to rent them out for as much as you can get so your tenants can cover you’re mortgage.”

I really hate way the housing market works these days. It’s very polarised, designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer!  There is a real shortage of ‘affordable housing’ in this country now that the property market has gone nuts and house prices have gone through the roof.  The only real option for some of us is to rent, and unless you’re a single teenage mother or an asylum seeker, renting a council house is pretty much out of the question.  So what else do you do?  You rent privately of course and that leaves you at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords and their estate agents.

It really grates on me that there is no such thing as fair and reasonable rent.  Landlords are always hiking up the price to get as much money as they can, squeezing tenants for every last penny. It’s just ridiculous, particularly here in the South East where we live together like sardines. Some private landlords that rent the house themselves are okay.  I have had good experiences as well as bad.  So many of them however, are just out to get you to pay their mortgages on their second home.  If these people hadn’t bought up all the houses there might be a few left that the rest of us could afford!

House Rent, Estate Agent

When it comes to renting a house, another thing I hate is inspection day.  The agency that I rent through at the moment, insist on inspecting the property every six months even though I’ve been there for nearly two and a half years and have always looked after the property! I have nothing to hide and I am clean and tidy etc., but I just don’t like the thought of these people wandering in when I’m at work (they don’t do inspections at weekend) and nosing around. It feels almost… degrading.


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Save thousands by selling your own home. if you live in havering in the uk you can sell your home for just £225 +vat. first 50 registered properties are completly free of charge and will be on very well known property portals including Fish4. Feel free to Have a look though the site and see how you can win a brand new VW Beetle www.haveringhomes.co.uk
*paul_haveringhomes  31-Jan-2008 09:55

 
Gordon Brown '97 " I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of the recovery"
Sums it all up in a nutshell. Now we have constant chatter of ' affordable housing'. Funny how government is incapable of putting a figure to the slogan. Perhaps we should have means testing introduced ?
With sub prime troubles in the states it won't be long before the tears start pouring from the swathes of amateur buy to let landlords.
There is little if any regulation in the private rental sector and there never will be. As a lifelong private tenant it would be in all parties interests (especilly in the current economic climate) for the landlord to provide ;
1 Bank references to the tenant stating that their mortgage(s) are paid up to date.
2 Employment references to state that the landlord can maintain their mortgage liabilities given a market downturn.
3 Legally binding reference from their agent indicating all problems with previous tenants and an exact breakdown of all repairs carried out on their properties over the past 2 years.
4 Agents should be foced by law to return all interest paid on deposits for ' non problematic ' tenants.It belongs to the tenant afterall.
Sadly we live by the free market ethos which translates under governments as " we could'nt care less ".
Landlords on the whole should take responsability for their own properties given that estate agents are solely interested in rolling turnover.
One final one for would be BTL's. If you're worried in any way about what'll happen to your property with tenants, don't let it out.
One final word for estate agents, you sail close to the wind with choice wording.
1 No Smokers
2 No Pets
3 No CHILDREN
How about adding....
1 No Asians
2 No Blacks
3 No people with learning difficulties
I'm sure you would be hauled up in court to account.
Tenants are screwed and the Third Reich lives on in a good percentage of these individuals and institutions.
*Tenant on the sole of my shoe.  06-Sep-2007 13:20

 
El Boy has it never occurred to you that the reason why house prices are not more widely affordable is because the very wealthy have massive amounts of money that they either own or can borrow and it's this wealth that they chuck at houses which then forces up house prices?
The rest of us just have to wait until house prices become too high even for those with wealth before they stop going up, in other words we have to buy houses at a level set by the rich.

I work for a letting agency and tenants could help themselves by not accepting rent increases for tenancy extensions. Be prepared to move, don't be afraid to ask your agency if they have any other houses available at the price you want to pay, there are plenty of other agents who would want your business if yours were awkward. If you were prepared to call the landlords bluff he could well back down, as finding a new tenant would mean he has to pay a new load of agency fees. We were letting a property in Oxfordshire at £1250. The tenant had accepted 5 consecutive rent increases to get to that rent level. When he vacated we could only re-let it at £925. The (now) ex-tenant found out and was unhappy when he saw the new price being advertised. The landlord suffered a 2 month void period, until he came down in price. My manager thought both parties were amateurish. I happen to think my manager is a w@?$er!
*Karl Marx  22-Jul-2007 00:16

 
I fully agree, me and my partner hasnt got a clean credit history and finding it really hard to rent privatly, we are both working and bringing in quite a big wage but cos of the credit history we need a gaurentor, that lays the problem we cant find one, if you have any idears please let us know.
*Rick  06-Jul-2007 23:11

 
Isnt your letting agent brakeing the law inspecting the property when your out?
*fred  29-Mar-2007 02:17

 
Can anybody tell me if there is a decent letting agent in the southeast who, if possible, acts fairly for both tenant and landlord?
We have been put into the position where we have no choice but to rent our well loved/looked after home, and would like it to remain that way!
*Shell  27-Mar-2007 15:15

 
Landlords who have purchased many properties to rent out are helping out society a great deal.
They house people who cannot afford to buy, the government collects high stamp duties, the government also charges landlord capital gains tax, presently at 40% on all profit made from more than one property owned by landlords.
Also the government offer long term council tenants properties that they live in at discounted purchase prices, and what do they do? they buy it cheap and then sell it onto buyers at a big profit. who then most probably rent it out to people who spend their money on drink, cigarettes, holidays, clothes and cars they can probably do without and they same people complain that they cannot afford to get on to the property ladder and landlords rip them!
*El Boy  05-Mar-2007 22:46

 
50 years ago there was no need to get on the property ladder. Rents were protected by fair rent schemes. Nearly 95% of the population lived in rented accommodation.

Since that time the amount of protected rental accommodation has reduced considerably, to the extent that it is practically no longer available and persons unable to afford their own homes are flung onto the open-market, which is nothing but a jungle.

Private rentals are nothing but a con. Yes you are paying for the mortgage of the absentee landlord. With buy-to-let the price of affordable property has risen even higher.

The Government should charge a huge Stamp Duty if you are not going live in the property you have bought. And bring in swingeing capital gains taxes to knock down the prices.

Young peole today if they take out a mortgage, can expect to have to pay for it for the next 40 years.

There's is going to be a revolution one way or another: complete and utter house price collapse or thousands of homeless and hungry people, a forgotten lost generation.

Landlords are a medieval institution. They should have been abolished years ago.
*Modernist  05-Mar-2007 17:44

 
Sob story, you can't afford a Ferrari but you would you rent out your clapped out Volvo to someone else, but charge them the going rate for a Ferrari and then not make sure that it is properly maintained whilst doing so?

Nobody is asking anyone to rent their house out for free - we just want a fair rent and today's inflated rents are certainly not that! We're basically just paying their mortgage for them.

"Ask yourself why you have no house of your own" - because greedy people have super-inflated property prices to such a level that some of us can no longer afford to get on the property ladder. Do you have your head buried in your tenant's' rent book or something? Watch the news before you spout out a load of drivel!
*Matt  05-Mar-2007 12:35

 
Frank Hill . Com are thieves and swindlers too. Avoid like the plague.
*Vitalite  02-Feb-2007 02:15

 
Im sorry but its called business. The landlord has obviously had the insight to invest in property. The fact that you cannot afford a house is not his problem. I cant afford a Ferrari; does that mean that I should complain that they are charging to much? Its a free market; if you dont like your rent; move. If you were in his/her position, what would you do? Allow people to live there for nothing??? I dont think so. Some earn money from retail, others from services and others from property. Ask yourself why you have no house of your own.
*Sob Story  01-Dec-2006 18:31

 
I have been renting for almost 7 years now and I have only experienced 1 decent letting agency. The others I have dealt with either rip you off with outrageous fees for doing nothing or do not return your bond you gave in good faith. I am now training to be a letting agent as it seems like a good scam (license to print money so I can afford my own cardboard box for £120,000) Living in the UK you can't beat it eh!
*Shaemus  24-Nov-2006 19:20


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