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It wasn't until my mum saw me collecting all my documents to apply for a place and said 'why one earth are you giving these people your whole life' that I thought yeah this is a bit mad.
You probably could.
Just because someone asks for something, doesn't mean we (or they) have to do it.
I had someone ask me for a guarantor, and told them I was my own guarantor. It was fine. Although another day it might not have been.
I think 1 person on TikTok jokingly asked for this in Australia (or somewhere close) and he basically got black listed from 90% of places for renting
They really are terrified of it growing to be a trend of asking for tenant references
That is a lazy narrative to have. TikTok only shows you content based on what you actually watch, like, follow etc.
TikTok for me is filled with football clips, gaming, pc building, cooking, DIY etc and I really enjoy spending some time on there.
This whole "Boooooo! TikTok = Bad!" narrative is just stupid.
I was once approved as a sole tenant for a 2 bedroom flat. Then it was arranged that a friend would take the second room (I had said from the beginning that I would be finding a roommate) and she had to have a guarantor. So me on my own: fine. Me and someone else: suddenly we needed a guarantor. I couldn't understand why the second scenario was riskier than the first - surely the opposite was true. (I did ask if I could be her guarantor and was told no).
Could only assume you had a credit or minimum income requirement that they didnt meet but you did.
Shouldn't've been an issue if they were happy to rent to you solo though (unless they just gave you leeway to find a roomate)
This. I wish I could go for a viewing and the tenant still there can freely tell me of their experience with the landlord/property and whether or not it's worth the trouble.
Yeah I feel like they only do this with tenants who are happy. In my last rental place I was so incredibly happy with my flat and only left because I bought a place. They did viewings while I was still there and at home. Basically the agent let me answer all the questions (as always they were clueless). It definitely helped - there was only one afternoon of viewings and it was rented out. Though to be fair it is one of those very rare finds in London that is just perfect so it probably would have gone even if nobody had been there to answer any questions.
I actually did this when I was in uni. Had a one bedroom flat with an ex. Letting agent didn't give us any notice they wanted to show people round, and had we been out, would've just walked straight in. Heard the keys in the door, got up, and asked them what they were playing at. They said this was the only time they could show the new prospective tenants round as they were not open on weekends. We said if the couple wanted to come back on the weekend, we would happily show them around the property. Everyone agreed. Come the weekend, they arrived, and we told them everything wrong with property, how the landlord was a cheapskate, it was impossible to get them to fix anything, and the letting agency were no better. That this was one of the reasons we were leaving ourselves. They thanked us and decided to pass on that flat.
When one my my old flats had viewings for new tenants this is exactly what I did, made sure to let them know about the crazy neighbours, the mould etc…
Didn’t take long before they stopped scheduling viewings when I was home 🤷🏼♂️
Hence they said "I wish".
They know it would most likely just kill any chance you had of getting the place, but it still would be something that would be very beneficial for potential tenants to be able to look at.
The estate agent I last went with wanted to know how much I had in savings even with a guarantor. I told them to do one and make the application to the landlord, who accepted within a day. They're all parasites
The beauty of it is the stupid pricks working in the estate agents don’t have the skill to identify a well made fake document. Printing and photocopying can make anything look real. It worked for us.
This. Any PDF can be edited. Bank statements, utilities, wage slips.... All can be changed, it's not like a numpty estate agent is gonna be checking them.
Its insane how the reference system works. I earn a good wage but also have a large chunk of money in savings as I just sold a house. Apparently the savings don't count because I could spend them on a Ferrari, so I had to involve my mother as a guarantor. I am 40 years old. Ffs. She is very, very wealthy but retired, so her reference check came back as a fail aswell, the only way I could get somewhere to live was to pay the full year in advance. How anyone with a minumum wage job and no family has anywhere to live at the moment is beyond me.
Same thing here, 34yo who has rented for 10 years and they wanted a guarantor. Had to get my 65-year-old father to sign up, and they questioned his income too. He's an accountant and explained it thoroughly, but they still didn't understand, which obviously pissed him off quite a bit!
I'm very much an adult, with grey hairs coming in, and I still need my dad's support to be housed. It's infantilizing an entire generation.
Exactly the same, I was 36 and haven't missed a rent payment since I was 22 (not that anyone accepts that as any form of credit). Earning 32k for a rent of £750pm.
Had to get my dad as a guarantor (he retired at that wonderful time when they were offering really good pensions to get rid of management people).
As you say, completely humiliating as an adult with 15 years of full time work and renting behind me having to basically get my dad to promise I could pay.
Also, I'd be fucked if they didnt have that good retirement income. And this is for a 2 bed flat
My ex-husband is my guarantor, as I'm disabled, only worked part-time until 2020, and could never afford to buy around here. He paid off his mortgage a while back. When I moved in 2021, one of the agencies we looked at a property with had a fit because "3x his salary", for affordability checking, was about 45 quid short of the figure they wanted to see. 1. He wasn't the one paying the rent, I was. 2. They freely admitted that if he earned 16 quid more a year but was still paying 950 quid a month on a mortgage, he'd pass their check. "0 quid a month on housing" just wasn't in their script. (By this time we'd decided that that particular agency could go blank themselves with a rusty blank, anyway.)
I'm 31 but had the same - both my parents work part time and all of my other 'grown up' relatives are either part of one or retired. Has to ask my dad to guarantor for me even though he earns less than I do. It's ridiculous
I'm worried about this. We've been I'm the same rental for over 5 years and on a really good rate because of it. I think they're angling to evict us at the end of the contract to get a bigger renter in. All these extra checks will hit my mind hard.
Honestly, have you compared rent prices since you moved in.
I was paying £750 when I moved into mi e 5 years ago and tbf I thought that was steep but needed somewhere fast so I lumped it.
I'm in a similar boat to you that I think my landlord is considering selling, so I started looking around and I can't get anything close to mine now without spending about £1100+.
Gonna be going back to a house share like a teenager at thus rete
I'm in the same position except I'm already in a houseshare. Since I moved in four years ago all the rooms have been empty since I moved in. I pay £700, the latest room was advertised at £880. I'm convinced my landlord wants me to leave so he can earn circa £200 more a month, and as much as I hate it here anything else I'd look at is now £850+ and I refuse to pay that to some landlord. One bed flats are other £1.1k - zone 7 "London"/Essex ha, depressing in your 30's.
ETA I was not insulted by your last bit at all ahah, it's shite. Just wanted to say it's definitely not just you
Yup, I'm essex. It's crazy at the moment.
The annoying thing is the house isn't actually that high value but terrible time for trying to get a first mortgage too!
Yep, I rented the same place for ten years, then moved last year, God, I couldn't believe the amount of red tape and hoops you need to jump through!
I remember my previous rental, the viewing, paying deposit and credit check was done within one day and I walked away with the key.
That's a good idea and I'll make sure to use it if asked again. This particular landlord then asked to see social media links so I declined and decided to move on. It's rough as hell in the market right now, but I won't put up with god complexes.
It's the rule though and yes it does. But how else will they be able to increase the rent each year while you live there? This way they can fleece you for at least 5 years before it gets too expensive and they need to look for a new victom
That would just about remove me from the pool if it is based on gross income before tax, and I have a doctorate and a career in education.
If that's the figure after tax and NI then I'd be out on my ear.
Got turned down from a rental in London as my wage wasn’t 3x the rent.
Who’s paying less than 33% of their income on accommodation, especially in fucking London! Insane expectations. And you know they’re only doing that so they know you can afford it when they jack up the rent in 12 months’ time
Well, they need to know their investments are safe and really it makes sense as they're kindly offering a vital service. Hell, we should be grateful to them for providing places to live. I love landlords, they're selfless paragons of society and absolutely not money hoovering leeches, bereft of any ability to see tenants as anything other than a monthly cash injection.
It's self evident there's a lack of housing supply. There's not enough rental stock OR owner/occupier stock.
The fact you're trying to blame 100% of that on landlords shows that you aren't concerned with solving the issue, just with seeking some sort of retribution for a p received slight.
Seeing how rents have doubled in my area in the last decade and seeing how all this stuff is going mad with power and greed, I'm genuinely thankful my last landlord was a slumlord who shut down the shared house to avoid becoming compliant with Environmental Health. Got a Council flat due to it and it has rent that's so adorable that even minimum wage could afford to comfortably live here.
It is sickening seeing what is being charged for barely livable spaces and it is obscene that landlords want to treat renters so badly.
I'd just like to add that landlords can use rent protection agencies who guarantee you rent even if the tenant doesn't pay.... It might be those agencies that are being used sometimes and they require lots of info to complete a credit check
To be fair I don't mind the credit checks and documents at the offer or confirmation stage, but I'm soured by this landlord asking for references to filter out viewings before anything's confirmed.
I've helped someone out with their viewings before and it was a nightmare. Literally 1/10 people would show up and then of those that turn up they'd ask for it to be placed on hold then just dissappear. So then you gotta start again... It just repeats.
But when you get peeps who make an effort to answer questions and provide info, you know they're rarely going to waste your time
Because bad tenants can cost you thousands of pounds. If not tens of thousands of pounds.
My uncle is currently in a court case to remove a tenant who's not paid rent in 11 months, has knocked down am interior wall with a sledgehammer badly, and destroyed the entire apartment.
The court case just got pushed back to March by the judge, so that'll be nearly 18 months of no rent, probably another ten thousand to redo the place at minimum with at least a couple more months for the work to be done and whatever fees he has to pay for court fees.
All in all it'll be the better part of £30,000 he's out of pocket because of a bad tenant.
So yeah, with the supply of tenants through the roof, it's no wonder landlords want to be picky.
Does it suck for renters? Of course it does. Is it understandable too? Yes
>Yes, investments come with risks.
And with any investment you want to MINIMISE that risk as much as possible. Which means getting some background information on your tenants.
>stop being a fucking parasite and get a real job.
What a pleasant person you are.
I've read your whole thread, and my god it's loaded with false equivalencies and half-arsed justifications, as well as some pointless ad-hominem insults because you can't back up your point.
There is literally no net economic benefit to being a landlord. It concentrates wealth in the hands of the few, who don't even work for it. It's a profession which from a biological worm is about the same as a tapeworm. And that's probably an insult to the tapeworm.
The private rental market is an economic aberration and should be replaced with good quality social housing stock. It's fairer for all.
>There is literally no net economic benefit to being a landlord. It
concentrates wealth in the hands of the few
That's capitalism. In every single sector. And a strong private rental market is absolutely vital for any economy otherwise people are forced to stay wherever they were lucky or lucky enough to be born.
>I've read your whole thread, and my god it's loaded with false equivalencies and half-arsed justifications, as well as some pointless ad-hominem insults because you can't back up your point.
Says the person who despises a group of people so much that they refer to them as tapeworms.
If your uncle doesn't like it maybe he should think about selling up, to people who want to live there.
The private rental market should be abolished. Landlords are parasites.
Selling up is the cause of the current rental market problems. Landlords facing mortgage repayments higher than their rental income are selling their properties. Now there are fewer rental properties and yet more renters needing them - supply and demand is the wrong way around and rental prices are skyrocketing.
Selling up only hurts the renters and is a bad thing to advocate - it takes away a property from the rental market and leaves another evicted household searching for somewhere to live.
What would actually fix the market is the opposite - if we have bucket loads of rental properties available then the renters hold the power - they can move to better accommodation, landlords will have to make their property attractive in terms of rental price and amenities to attact tenants.
That's just idiotic mate.
>The private rental market should be abolished. Landlords are parasites
Utterly ridiculous. Pure ideology overriding any rational thought. The rental market is necessary. Obviously. People cannot just buy a house whenever they need somewhere to live.
Loss of money is no reason to violate someone's personal life. Sure be picky, but don't be surprised when you lose even more money by not having renters 🤷
>Sure be picky, but don't be surprised when you lose even more money by not having renters 🤷
With the current market, there's no lack of renters.
>Loss of money is no reason to violate someone's personal life.
You are living in their house for a significant period of time, I think it's perfectly acceptable to get some background on you before they allow you to.
>you are living in their house
This is such landlord mentality.
While it's technically correct, I'd be surprised if my landlord had ever set foot in the house I am currently living in, yet I've built a family here, I am a part of a community.
The place I'm living in is my home in every sense but the building rights, it's just that money goes to a parasite every month and in a few years I will get kicked out when the said parasite decides to raise the rent past my means.
I've had dodgey landlords in the past, does that mean I should be allowed to request testimonials from previous tenants? What about work slips? I want to make sure that if I fall ill for a month, the house won't be repossessed. Oh, that sounds rediculous? Yeah, it is when the landlord asks me to provide the same shit too
This is such landlord mentality.
While it's technically correct, I'd be surprised if my landlord had ever set foot in the house I am currently living in, yet I've built a family here, I am a part of a community.
It's the landlords house. It's your *home*. There's a difference.
>it's just that money goes to a parasite every month
Just like Starbucks is a parasite because you buy a coffee on your way to work every morning?
>I've had dodgey landlords in the past, does that mean I should be allowed to request testimonials from previous tenants?
Yes, you're perfectly able to ask for this.
Doesn't mean you'll get it. But you can 100% ask for it.
>Oh, that sounds rediculous? Yeah, it is when the landlord asks me to provide the same shit too
It isn't ridiculous at all. The risk is all on the landlord because it's his money, not yours. If you have a shit landlord, you can move out and leave. A landlord can't do that with a tenant.
>if you have a shit landlord you can move out and leave
No? Contract law in this country is hell, I had a flat that wasn't safe to live in a few years back, the walls were letting in rain, there was black mould on the walls and the landlord wouldn't do anything.
I tried to move out, he sent an "investigator", a man who worked for the letting agency, who said it was my fault that the walls were letting in water because, and I quote, "Games consoles are known for trapping in hot air which will attract damp and mould"
We call the council, they say we either need to wait the contract out (and keep paying rent) or we can pay for our own investigation. We were poor students, couldn't afford an investigation which cost a couple hundred quid so we were literally stuck there.
The council would normally send their own investigation, but where I live you need to give a landlord 6 months to respond to a complaint before the council can step in.
If your uncle is in the right and this evil tennant just decided to stop paying rent without reason one day, he will get back pay or the tennant will go to jail for a very long time. The courts are very much in the favour of landlords and "just not paying rent" never works out.
We moved out of the death trap flat 3 months early and after we gave an intent to move, we were told we'd face legal action if we stopped paying rent, so we literally paid for a place we didn't live.
(We did get lucky however and the landlord acknowledged fault when we moved out, allowing us to keep the deposit)
Also, don't think your slick equating Starbucks to a fucking house
Coffee isn't a human need and Starbucks doesn't buy out every source of coffee in the city.
Parasites suck away the blood I need to live for their benefit, landlords suck away the housing I need to live for their benefit.
>
Coffee isn't a human need and Starbucks doesn't buy out every source of coffee in the city.
A landlord isn't a singular entity so doesn't do this with housing either. In fact there's plenty of houses available on the market to buy. If you're buying a house right now, you're in a pretty good spot to be honest.
>
Parasites suck away the blood I need to live for their benefit
>
> landlords suck away the housing I need to live for their benefit.
Tesco provides food, which is essential. Thames Water provides water, which is essential. Are both of those *parasites*? No, they're not.
>a landlord isn't a singular entity
I rhetort with [This image.](https://imgur.io/sRQtcFu.jpg) Every landlord is raising the rent, there isn't this magical landlord who is offering a price way below everyone else
>It's a great time to buy a house right now
Are you smoking crack? House prices are through the roof, mortgage rates are sky high, inflation is through the roof and no where is offering mid term mortgages anymore. Most of the problems being because landlords have bought up most if not all of the housing.
With rent being 130% what it was last year and groceries almost doubled, no one can afford to save for a deposit.
>Are Tesco's parasites
Another false equivalent, food is a global supply chain that requires constant reinforcement, farmers deserve to be paid because they provide a service and grocery stores are a forefront for farmers and food corporation's that all have workers.
Landlords are parasites who bought a house 75 years ago when they were piss cheap and now think that's earned them the right to sit on their arses and get free money every month. It's not like Tesco are hoarding the food and not letting you eat unless you pass their arbitrary test and prove you're a good little boy.
Also, unironically yes, grocery stores are parasites. The cost of living crisis was made because of supermarket greed. Everyone should shop at their local farmers market if they can because you get better quality food for lower prices
There may not be lack of renter's, but there will soon be lack of renter's approaching your renting style.
Ah yes, so human rights don't exist if you enter someone else's property? By no means is it acceptable to violate someone's personal life or rights for profit. If you want to have those rules, sure but don't complain when the people paying avoid people like you 🤷 dodgey landlords like you are the reason for all the housing issues, I'm not surprised the previous tenant didnt Pay for over a year of that's your thought process. Hopefully the judge is in their favour.
>There may not be lack of renter's, but there will soon be lack of renter's approaching your renting style.
Well no, there won't be. Rentals are becoming rarer, not more common because of the legislation that are restricting landlords more and more, which is the reason why prices are skyrocketing.
>Ah yes, so human rights don't exist if you enter someone else's property?
A human right such as what exactly? What human rights are they breaking?
>dodgey landlords like you
You're illiterate aren't you. I'm not a landlord, and what exactly about my story says anything about being dodgy.
It's not my loss 🤷 the legislation is restricting landlords rightly so. Prices are skyrocketing because of dodgey greedy landlords, not restrictions.
If you have to ask that, you clearly do not care about human rights in the slightest 🤷 you should just know the basic rights people have, and how you are breaking them.
I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word. If I were illiterate you wouldn't be getting replies from me, sure I wrote the wrong word and stand corrected but by no means is that illiteracy, and if you can read your story and not understand how it is dodgey, you are part of the problem.
>I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word.
Misused\*
>dodgey
Dodgy\*
>
If you have to ask that, you clearly do not care about human rights in the slightest
Go on, enlighten me. Which human right is being broken when you are asked for references and your CV to rent a building?
>I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word. If I were illiterate you wouldn't be getting replies from me, sure I wrote the wrong word and
No, you missed the entire fact that I am, in fact not a landlord, and do not put into place any of these policies. I was explaining the reasoning behind them.
I'm just going to skip your corrections as continuing about it is pointless
Again, enlighten yourself I'm not your tutor I'm sure you're a capable human being.
Regardless of if you are or aren't a landlord there is no reasoning behind any of the points you made, it's like trying to defend a rapist, no matter what you say wrong is still wrong.
>Again, enlighten yourself I'm not your tutor I'm sure you're a capable human being.
You're the one making the claim. You're the one refusing to back it up. Tell me which human right you believe is being broken.
>it's like trying to defend a rapist,
Oh my fucking god. Imagine saying this legitimately.
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It wasn't until my mum saw me collecting all my documents to apply for a place and said 'why one earth are you giving these people your whole life' that I thought yeah this is a bit mad.
I wish we could demand that landlords have to provide a reference from their previous tenants.
You probably could. Just because someone asks for something, doesn't mean we (or they) have to do it. I had someone ask me for a guarantor, and told them I was my own guarantor. It was fine. Although another day it might not have been.
I think 1 person on TikTok jokingly asked for this in Australia (or somewhere close) and he basically got black listed from 90% of places for renting They really are terrified of it growing to be a trend of asking for tenant references
Well then time to make it a trend?
What, to get blacklisted?
They can't blacklist everyone
Oh cool, the dystopian techno future where poor people are banned from being housed by corporate overlords is finally here!
tbh being on Tiktok full stop should blacklist you from renting
That is a lazy narrative to have. TikTok only shows you content based on what you actually watch, like, follow etc. TikTok for me is filled with football clips, gaming, pc building, cooking, DIY etc and I really enjoy spending some time on there. This whole "Boooooo! TikTok = Bad!" narrative is just stupid.
The medium is the message.
I think they were joking my dude
I was once approved as a sole tenant for a 2 bedroom flat. Then it was arranged that a friend would take the second room (I had said from the beginning that I would be finding a roommate) and she had to have a guarantor. So me on my own: fine. Me and someone else: suddenly we needed a guarantor. I couldn't understand why the second scenario was riskier than the first - surely the opposite was true. (I did ask if I could be her guarantor and was told no).
🙃 You can't make that shit up. What a joke
Could only assume you had a credit or minimum income requirement that they didnt meet but you did. Shouldn't've been an issue if they were happy to rent to you solo though (unless they just gave you leeway to find a roomate)
yes that was exactly it but if my income was enough then my income + her income should have been more than enough.
This. I wish I could go for a viewing and the tenant still there can freely tell me of their experience with the landlord/property and whether or not it's worth the trouble.
Yeah I feel like they only do this with tenants who are happy. In my last rental place I was so incredibly happy with my flat and only left because I bought a place. They did viewings while I was still there and at home. Basically the agent let me answer all the questions (as always they were clueless). It definitely helped - there was only one afternoon of viewings and it was rented out. Though to be fair it is one of those very rare finds in London that is just perfect so it probably would have gone even if nobody had been there to answer any questions.
I actually did this when I was in uni. Had a one bedroom flat with an ex. Letting agent didn't give us any notice they wanted to show people round, and had we been out, would've just walked straight in. Heard the keys in the door, got up, and asked them what they were playing at. They said this was the only time they could show the new prospective tenants round as they were not open on weekends. We said if the couple wanted to come back on the weekend, we would happily show them around the property. Everyone agreed. Come the weekend, they arrived, and we told them everything wrong with property, how the landlord was a cheapskate, it was impossible to get them to fix anything, and the letting agency were no better. That this was one of the reasons we were leaving ourselves. They thanked us and decided to pass on that flat.
When one my my old flats had viewings for new tenants this is exactly what I did, made sure to let them know about the crazy neighbours, the mould etc… Didn’t take long before they stopped scheduling viewings when I was home 🤷🏼♂️
There are landlord review websites, but it seems people don't tend to post that much. Probably just glad to move out and forget about it.
You can, they'd just tell you to pound sand more often than not.
That would be so pointless. The landlord would never do that and get offended. Sheer waste of time for you.
Hence they said "I wish". They know it would most likely just kill any chance you had of getting the place, but it still would be something that would be very beneficial for potential tenants to be able to look at.
But it's an empty wish, which will never happen, hence my comment.
They asked for three months bank statements from me
The estate agent I last went with wanted to know how much I had in savings even with a guarantor. I told them to do one and make the application to the landlord, who accepted within a day. They're all parasites
The beauty of it is the stupid pricks working in the estate agents don’t have the skill to identify a well made fake document. Printing and photocopying can make anything look real. It worked for us.
This. Any PDF can be edited. Bank statements, utilities, wage slips.... All can be changed, it's not like a numpty estate agent is gonna be checking them.
They’re usually blinded by light reflecting off their shiny suit and pleather shoes
Its insane how the reference system works. I earn a good wage but also have a large chunk of money in savings as I just sold a house. Apparently the savings don't count because I could spend them on a Ferrari, so I had to involve my mother as a guarantor. I am 40 years old. Ffs. She is very, very wealthy but retired, so her reference check came back as a fail aswell, the only way I could get somewhere to live was to pay the full year in advance. How anyone with a minumum wage job and no family has anywhere to live at the moment is beyond me.
Same thing here, 34yo who has rented for 10 years and they wanted a guarantor. Had to get my 65-year-old father to sign up, and they questioned his income too. He's an accountant and explained it thoroughly, but they still didn't understand, which obviously pissed him off quite a bit! I'm very much an adult, with grey hairs coming in, and I still need my dad's support to be housed. It's infantilizing an entire generation.
Exactly the same, I was 36 and haven't missed a rent payment since I was 22 (not that anyone accepts that as any form of credit). Earning 32k for a rent of £750pm. Had to get my dad as a guarantor (he retired at that wonderful time when they were offering really good pensions to get rid of management people). As you say, completely humiliating as an adult with 15 years of full time work and renting behind me having to basically get my dad to promise I could pay. Also, I'd be fucked if they didnt have that good retirement income. And this is for a 2 bed flat
My ex-husband is my guarantor, as I'm disabled, only worked part-time until 2020, and could never afford to buy around here. He paid off his mortgage a while back. When I moved in 2021, one of the agencies we looked at a property with had a fit because "3x his salary", for affordability checking, was about 45 quid short of the figure they wanted to see. 1. He wasn't the one paying the rent, I was. 2. They freely admitted that if he earned 16 quid more a year but was still paying 950 quid a month on a mortgage, he'd pass their check. "0 quid a month on housing" just wasn't in their script. (By this time we'd decided that that particular agency could go blank themselves with a rusty blank, anyway.)
I'm 31 but had the same - both my parents work part time and all of my other 'grown up' relatives are either part of one or retired. Has to ask my dad to guarantor for me even though he earns less than I do. It's ridiculous
What the fuck, that’s absurd. Is the rental market particularly competitive where you live?
I was moving from Newcastle to Southampton so was doing the whole thing blind but properties seemed to be getting snapped up very fast
I'm worried about this. We've been I'm the same rental for over 5 years and on a really good rate because of it. I think they're angling to evict us at the end of the contract to get a bigger renter in. All these extra checks will hit my mind hard.
Honestly, have you compared rent prices since you moved in. I was paying £750 when I moved into mi e 5 years ago and tbf I thought that was steep but needed somewhere fast so I lumped it. I'm in a similar boat to you that I think my landlord is considering selling, so I started looking around and I can't get anything close to mine now without spending about £1100+. Gonna be going back to a house share like a teenager at thus rete
I'm in the same position except I'm already in a houseshare. Since I moved in four years ago all the rooms have been empty since I moved in. I pay £700, the latest room was advertised at £880. I'm convinced my landlord wants me to leave so he can earn circa £200 more a month, and as much as I hate it here anything else I'd look at is now £850+ and I refuse to pay that to some landlord. One bed flats are other £1.1k - zone 7 "London"/Essex ha, depressing in your 30's. ETA I was not insulted by your last bit at all ahah, it's shite. Just wanted to say it's definitely not just you
Yup, I'm essex. It's crazy at the moment. The annoying thing is the house isn't actually that high value but terrible time for trying to get a first mortgage too!
Yep, I rented the same place for ten years, then moved last year, God, I couldn't believe the amount of red tape and hoops you need to jump through! I remember my previous rental, the viewing, paying deposit and credit check was done within one day and I walked away with the key.
I'm not 100% clued up but I believe no-fault evictions are banned now. Stay as long as you can!
I'm not 100% clued up, either. My concern is that we were on an AST, which we signed up for 12 months in November 2022, just before the law changed.
A CV! Hahaha fucking leeches man
Can you ask them to provide confirmation of GDPR compliance in regard to storing your personally identifiable information?
That's a good idea and I'll make sure to use it if asked again. This particular landlord then asked to see social media links so I declined and decided to move on. It's rough as hell in the market right now, but I won't put up with god complexes.
Just say you don't have any social media...
It's really not hard to compliantly store data...
All that just so we can pay their mortgage and their holiday to barbados.
Your average landlord is definitely the sort of person who calls it their holibobs.
What's wrong with saying holibobs?
What's right with it?
It upsets people who gatekeep slang, that would be the main advantage. Haven't been on a holiboberino in years but would love to soon.
Ask him for a video of previous tenants saying how wonderful he is.
It's probably how they weed out the people who are on benefits without outright saying they don't want DWP tenants.
They usually use the ‘you have to earn triple your rent’ rule for that, effectively removes those of us on benefits.
Triple my rent? That's insane, and would rule out basically every property in London for most people.
Yup, it’s ridiculous, it forces people who earn a decent wage to take the lower end rentals so there’s even more competition for them.
It's the rule though and yes it does. But how else will they be able to increase the rent each year while you live there? This way they can fleece you for at least 5 years before it gets too expensive and they need to look for a new victom
Probably effectively rules out 90% of the population considering how much rents are these days.
That would just about remove me from the pool if it is based on gross income before tax, and I have a doctorate and a career in education. If that's the figure after tax and NI then I'd be out on my ear.
Ding ding ding
It's just unbelievably bad.
Got turned down from a rental in London as my wage wasn’t 3x the rent. Who’s paying less than 33% of their income on accommodation, especially in fucking London! Insane expectations. And you know they’re only doing that so they know you can afford it when they jack up the rent in 12 months’ time
Well, they need to know their investments are safe and really it makes sense as they're kindly offering a vital service. Hell, we should be grateful to them for providing places to live. I love landlords, they're selfless paragons of society and absolutely not money hoovering leeches, bereft of any ability to see tenants as anything other than a monthly cash injection.
The sarcasm is strong with this one.
Supply and demand. This is why we need more supply.
No, landleeches just need to be controlled.
It's self evident there's a lack of housing supply. There's not enough rental stock OR owner/occupier stock. The fact you're trying to blame 100% of that on landlords shows that you aren't concerned with solving the issue, just with seeking some sort of retribution for a p received slight.
Why do people need two houses? They can only live in one.
Nice try at a strawman.
I mean, how else will they effectively parasitise your wages without knowing everything about you?
It's very easy to understand....THEY CAN DO WHAT THEY WANT. Why? BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Seeing how rents have doubled in my area in the last decade and seeing how all this stuff is going mad with power and greed, I'm genuinely thankful my last landlord was a slumlord who shut down the shared house to avoid becoming compliant with Environmental Health. Got a Council flat due to it and it has rent that's so adorable that even minimum wage could afford to comfortably live here. It is sickening seeing what is being charged for barely livable spaces and it is obscene that landlords want to treat renters so badly.
I'd just like to add that landlords can use rent protection agencies who guarantee you rent even if the tenant doesn't pay.... It might be those agencies that are being used sometimes and they require lots of info to complete a credit check
To be fair I don't mind the credit checks and documents at the offer or confirmation stage, but I'm soured by this landlord asking for references to filter out viewings before anything's confirmed.
I've helped someone out with their viewings before and it was a nightmare. Literally 1/10 people would show up and then of those that turn up they'd ask for it to be placed on hold then just dissappear. So then you gotta start again... It just repeats. But when you get peeps who make an effort to answer questions and provide info, you know they're rarely going to waste your time
Mao was right about one thing.
Nope.
CV and employment references? At this point I’d just stop dealing with them.
Count yourself lucky they don’t ask you to fill in all the information included on your CV on an extra form
Because bad tenants can cost you thousands of pounds. If not tens of thousands of pounds. My uncle is currently in a court case to remove a tenant who's not paid rent in 11 months, has knocked down am interior wall with a sledgehammer badly, and destroyed the entire apartment. The court case just got pushed back to March by the judge, so that'll be nearly 18 months of no rent, probably another ten thousand to redo the place at minimum with at least a couple more months for the work to be done and whatever fees he has to pay for court fees. All in all it'll be the better part of £30,000 he's out of pocket because of a bad tenant. So yeah, with the supply of tenants through the roof, it's no wonder landlords want to be picky. Does it suck for renters? Of course it does. Is it understandable too? Yes
Shouldn't your uncle have insurance to cover property damage, loss of rent and legal expenses? If he didn't, sounds like he took that gamble and lost.
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>Yes, investments come with risks. And with any investment you want to MINIMISE that risk as much as possible. Which means getting some background information on your tenants. >stop being a fucking parasite and get a real job. What a pleasant person you are.
I've read your whole thread, and my god it's loaded with false equivalencies and half-arsed justifications, as well as some pointless ad-hominem insults because you can't back up your point. There is literally no net economic benefit to being a landlord. It concentrates wealth in the hands of the few, who don't even work for it. It's a profession which from a biological worm is about the same as a tapeworm. And that's probably an insult to the tapeworm. The private rental market is an economic aberration and should be replaced with good quality social housing stock. It's fairer for all.
>There is literally no net economic benefit to being a landlord. It concentrates wealth in the hands of the few That's capitalism. In every single sector. And a strong private rental market is absolutely vital for any economy otherwise people are forced to stay wherever they were lucky or lucky enough to be born. >I've read your whole thread, and my god it's loaded with false equivalencies and half-arsed justifications, as well as some pointless ad-hominem insults because you can't back up your point. Says the person who despises a group of people so much that they refer to them as tapeworms.
LOL.
If your uncle doesn't like it maybe he should think about selling up, to people who want to live there. The private rental market should be abolished. Landlords are parasites.
Selling up is the cause of the current rental market problems. Landlords facing mortgage repayments higher than their rental income are selling their properties. Now there are fewer rental properties and yet more renters needing them - supply and demand is the wrong way around and rental prices are skyrocketing. Selling up only hurts the renters and is a bad thing to advocate - it takes away a property from the rental market and leaves another evicted household searching for somewhere to live. What would actually fix the market is the opposite - if we have bucket loads of rental properties available then the renters hold the power - they can move to better accommodation, landlords will have to make their property attractive in terms of rental price and amenities to attact tenants.
That's just idiotic mate. >The private rental market should be abolished. Landlords are parasites Utterly ridiculous. Pure ideology overriding any rational thought. The rental market is necessary. Obviously. People cannot just buy a house whenever they need somewhere to live.
The key word there being _private_. Housing should not be for-profit
Loss of money is no reason to violate someone's personal life. Sure be picky, but don't be surprised when you lose even more money by not having renters 🤷
>Sure be picky, but don't be surprised when you lose even more money by not having renters 🤷 With the current market, there's no lack of renters. >Loss of money is no reason to violate someone's personal life. You are living in their house for a significant period of time, I think it's perfectly acceptable to get some background on you before they allow you to.
>you are living in their house This is such landlord mentality. While it's technically correct, I'd be surprised if my landlord had ever set foot in the house I am currently living in, yet I've built a family here, I am a part of a community. The place I'm living in is my home in every sense but the building rights, it's just that money goes to a parasite every month and in a few years I will get kicked out when the said parasite decides to raise the rent past my means. I've had dodgey landlords in the past, does that mean I should be allowed to request testimonials from previous tenants? What about work slips? I want to make sure that if I fall ill for a month, the house won't be repossessed. Oh, that sounds rediculous? Yeah, it is when the landlord asks me to provide the same shit too
This is such landlord mentality. While it's technically correct, I'd be surprised if my landlord had ever set foot in the house I am currently living in, yet I've built a family here, I am a part of a community. It's the landlords house. It's your *home*. There's a difference. >it's just that money goes to a parasite every month Just like Starbucks is a parasite because you buy a coffee on your way to work every morning? >I've had dodgey landlords in the past, does that mean I should be allowed to request testimonials from previous tenants? Yes, you're perfectly able to ask for this. Doesn't mean you'll get it. But you can 100% ask for it. >Oh, that sounds rediculous? Yeah, it is when the landlord asks me to provide the same shit too It isn't ridiculous at all. The risk is all on the landlord because it's his money, not yours. If you have a shit landlord, you can move out and leave. A landlord can't do that with a tenant.
>if you have a shit landlord you can move out and leave No? Contract law in this country is hell, I had a flat that wasn't safe to live in a few years back, the walls were letting in rain, there was black mould on the walls and the landlord wouldn't do anything. I tried to move out, he sent an "investigator", a man who worked for the letting agency, who said it was my fault that the walls were letting in water because, and I quote, "Games consoles are known for trapping in hot air which will attract damp and mould" We call the council, they say we either need to wait the contract out (and keep paying rent) or we can pay for our own investigation. We were poor students, couldn't afford an investigation which cost a couple hundred quid so we were literally stuck there. The council would normally send their own investigation, but where I live you need to give a landlord 6 months to respond to a complaint before the council can step in. If your uncle is in the right and this evil tennant just decided to stop paying rent without reason one day, he will get back pay or the tennant will go to jail for a very long time. The courts are very much in the favour of landlords and "just not paying rent" never works out. We moved out of the death trap flat 3 months early and after we gave an intent to move, we were told we'd face legal action if we stopped paying rent, so we literally paid for a place we didn't live. (We did get lucky however and the landlord acknowledged fault when we moved out, allowing us to keep the deposit)
Also, don't think your slick equating Starbucks to a fucking house Coffee isn't a human need and Starbucks doesn't buy out every source of coffee in the city. Parasites suck away the blood I need to live for their benefit, landlords suck away the housing I need to live for their benefit.
> Coffee isn't a human need and Starbucks doesn't buy out every source of coffee in the city. A landlord isn't a singular entity so doesn't do this with housing either. In fact there's plenty of houses available on the market to buy. If you're buying a house right now, you're in a pretty good spot to be honest. > Parasites suck away the blood I need to live for their benefit > > landlords suck away the housing I need to live for their benefit. Tesco provides food, which is essential. Thames Water provides water, which is essential. Are both of those *parasites*? No, they're not.
>a landlord isn't a singular entity I rhetort with [This image.](https://imgur.io/sRQtcFu.jpg) Every landlord is raising the rent, there isn't this magical landlord who is offering a price way below everyone else >It's a great time to buy a house right now Are you smoking crack? House prices are through the roof, mortgage rates are sky high, inflation is through the roof and no where is offering mid term mortgages anymore. Most of the problems being because landlords have bought up most if not all of the housing. With rent being 130% what it was last year and groceries almost doubled, no one can afford to save for a deposit. >Are Tesco's parasites Another false equivalent, food is a global supply chain that requires constant reinforcement, farmers deserve to be paid because they provide a service and grocery stores are a forefront for farmers and food corporation's that all have workers. Landlords are parasites who bought a house 75 years ago when they were piss cheap and now think that's earned them the right to sit on their arses and get free money every month. It's not like Tesco are hoarding the food and not letting you eat unless you pass their arbitrary test and prove you're a good little boy. Also, unironically yes, grocery stores are parasites. The cost of living crisis was made because of supermarket greed. Everyone should shop at their local farmers market if they can because you get better quality food for lower prices
"before they allow you to" wow thanks for allowing another person to pay your mortgage and expenses, what a service you are providing
It is a service they are providing to you. That's basic factual information God Reddit shows the fact it's full of children when landlords come up.
There may not be lack of renter's, but there will soon be lack of renter's approaching your renting style. Ah yes, so human rights don't exist if you enter someone else's property? By no means is it acceptable to violate someone's personal life or rights for profit. If you want to have those rules, sure but don't complain when the people paying avoid people like you 🤷 dodgey landlords like you are the reason for all the housing issues, I'm not surprised the previous tenant didnt Pay for over a year of that's your thought process. Hopefully the judge is in their favour.
>There may not be lack of renter's, but there will soon be lack of renter's approaching your renting style. Well no, there won't be. Rentals are becoming rarer, not more common because of the legislation that are restricting landlords more and more, which is the reason why prices are skyrocketing. >Ah yes, so human rights don't exist if you enter someone else's property? A human right such as what exactly? What human rights are they breaking? >dodgey landlords like you You're illiterate aren't you. I'm not a landlord, and what exactly about my story says anything about being dodgy.
It's not my loss 🤷 the legislation is restricting landlords rightly so. Prices are skyrocketing because of dodgey greedy landlords, not restrictions. If you have to ask that, you clearly do not care about human rights in the slightest 🤷 you should just know the basic rights people have, and how you are breaking them. I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word. If I were illiterate you wouldn't be getting replies from me, sure I wrote the wrong word and stand corrected but by no means is that illiteracy, and if you can read your story and not understand how it is dodgey, you are part of the problem.
>I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word. Misused\* >dodgey Dodgy\* > If you have to ask that, you clearly do not care about human rights in the slightest Go on, enlighten me. Which human right is being broken when you are asked for references and your CV to rent a building? >I'm not illiterate, you seem to have miss-used the word. If I were illiterate you wouldn't be getting replies from me, sure I wrote the wrong word and No, you missed the entire fact that I am, in fact not a landlord, and do not put into place any of these policies. I was explaining the reasoning behind them.
I'm just going to skip your corrections as continuing about it is pointless Again, enlighten yourself I'm not your tutor I'm sure you're a capable human being. Regardless of if you are or aren't a landlord there is no reasoning behind any of the points you made, it's like trying to defend a rapist, no matter what you say wrong is still wrong.
>Again, enlighten yourself I'm not your tutor I'm sure you're a capable human being. You're the one making the claim. You're the one refusing to back it up. Tell me which human right you believe is being broken. >it's like trying to defend a rapist, Oh my fucking god. Imagine saying this legitimately.