EU Trying To Kill Buy To Let – sign the petition to STOP it now.

Its time we left the EU

The Membership of the EU has so far cost this Country around £165 Billion and currently costs us around £50 million per DAY.
These unelected commissars have caused us major problems since we have joined in the name of creating a communist superstate to control every aspect of our lives.

They have removed democracy from Greece and Italy and appointed Bankers and Euro Commissars to run the countries.
I have no doubt that this move will not stop at those two countries. Watch out Spain.

The Break up of this massive Gravy Train aimed at world domination cannot come too soon

I thought that was currently the case that lenders will not accept affordability on the rental income but now need to show 25K profit in your accounts. That is the case with Birmingham Midshire.

The EU is a dictatorship driven by greedy businessmen. Our forefathers fought in two wars for nothing. We won the war but what is happening now is what would have happened quicker had Hitler won.

Hi Neil. At first I misunderstood your position. Reading your first two paragraphs, I thought you were an accidental landlord, renting out your own home due to moving away for work. I thought you were complaining about the massive regulation, fees, costs and complications involved in being a private landlord, which make it not a passive speculative investment for your spare millions, but a full-time job with variable and unpredictable income. It's not an easy career option for the faint-hearted.
The reason landlords ask for credit checks is because they are handing the keys to a property worth tens of thousands of pounds, which is usually mortgaged to the hilt, to a total stranger, who then has the right to live there without disturbance and can do whatever they like with it. The landlord has to jump through legal hoops for many months to eventually evict someone who chooses not to pay the rent and trashes the place. They will have to pay all legal expenses and can whistle for it if they hope to receive any damages compensation from the tenant who only needs to plead poverty. If you rent through an agent, which is a necessary service for large portfolio landlords or those who do not live near their properties, they also need paid for their service, and they take fees from the landlord as well as the tenant.
Frankly, I don't even understand your comment about subsidising the BTL sector with low interest rates? BTL rates are usually higher than residential mortgages.
The current slump has not been caused by the BTL sector, and we are suffering its consequences like everyone else. Meanwhile, as long as councils do not have enough rental properties, and not everyone wants to live in one, or buy their own home, private landlords just provide another option for people who need to live somewhere, and a possible career for those who are brave enough to attempt it. That's all.

Tony I wish that I had said that, excellent well reasoned post thank you.

Most of my tenants are choosing to rent. I have young couples who are saving to travel before they settle down. I have professionals who move around the country to where the work is and need the freedom that renting provides. I have companies who reduce their costs by providing my flats rather than hotel rooms where they have staff who visit the area for a short time. I have people who are unable or unwilling to work and rely on benefits to pay their rent. There are many people who choose to rent in the PRS and as long as a landlord is doing a good job and providing them with a nice, safe home it is insulting to imply that they are making the wrong choice.

I have two couples living in my flats and both would agree with Tonys points about the cost of home ownership they have both told me that they dont want "a mill stone around their neck" just yet. They have a great lifestyle and are choosing to spend their money on holidays, entertainment, cars etc rather than boiler repairs, new bathrooms, furniture and mortgage interest. People have the right to make choices and I am proud that they have chosen to live in my properties.

If you are reading this and you are a landlord please see my Celebrate good tenants blog. December is almost here I this is the chance for us all to grab our 15 minutes of fame and grab some of the media attention away from Rogue landlords and Tenants from hell. Please support this campaign

Mo Very well said.

Yes Svetlana, I would go so far as to say all tenants or would be tenants should sign it too. If I read that Sainsburys were going to be prevented from investing in more stores I would sign a petition to help them because I remember the hassle and cost of food before the days of supermarkets. I also remember the days when people like my parents lived with their family until the loca authority offered them a home of their own. Local authortiies are now struggling to house the homeless and young people have no chance at all of finding a home through them. In Birmingham a person going on the waiting list now who is not high priority will wait 16 years before they are offered a home - that is unless the population of Birmingham increases further which is quite likely to happen.

The PRS gives people another choice no one is forced to rent from us

I have currently have one rental property, tenanted by a young couple who are on benefits, who have two young children. They were living apart, each with relatives, which was causing stress and unhappiness. There is no way on earth they could afford to buy a property or indeed be granted a mortgage. I have provided them with a safe, secure home; I reduced the rent, so they weren't too over-stretched to afford it, as benefit doesn't even cover rents in this area. I pay for gas and electrical safety checks, have had to pay more for landlord's insurance, as tenants on benefits are classed as a greater risk, gave them £50 towards furnishing when they moved in..
I am a good landlord. I have chosen this investment as an alternative for a pension in my retirement, so I can provide for myself in old age. It annoys me when ignorant people lump me in with bad landlords, some of whom I have encountered myself, when I was a student and then afterwards, before I saved up for a deposit to buy my first home. Where would my tenants live if they didn't have the option to rent from me? The social housing sector is inadequate and set to become more so, with the Govt planning to increase the subsidy for RIght to Buy, thus decreasing the housing stock. Wish someone had given me a 50% discount on my first home, but that is another story!) Private rented accommodation is a very important option for those who can't afford to, or don't want to, buy their own home.

Lots of landlords with multiple properties have gone bust this year in my area of the north east, all it takes is a few tennents not to pay the rent and that happens a lot with these slum landlords as there sick of them not doing repairs and they go down the pan, recently one with 200+ houses went under making it a ideal buying market for the rest of us

It's just scare mungering and I for one welcome the legislation

The EU is, financially, a different world to the UK and, right now, not a world I'd want to be a part of. So, they think that locking their stable door after their horse has well and truly bolted- by making it much more difficult to obtain new mortgages- will help clear up their mess? Whatever their reasons, we don't need it here, and this is why:
- it is becoming much more difficult to get any mortgage here in the UK. Commercial decisions by the lenders have seen to that. We didn't need laws passed in another country.
- it is particularly difficult to get a BTL mortgage due to punitive rates and high deposit requirements. The chancers who used to put deposits on houses 250 miles from where they lived without even seeing them are thankfully a thing of the past. Again, a commercial decision.
- The mortgage industry is working very hard to stamp out mortgage fraud, by ensuring that all Chartered Surveyors - who are the best chance of intercepting a bent mortgage- have to be registered. In practice, this means that an established (not necessarily huge) company has to sponsor them. The rogue sole practitioners, who in some cases knowingly allowed these rackets to go through, are being hit very hard. Another result of the UK's resilient commercial sector.

No, we're not perfect, but I for one am proud of our country's independence and ability to respond sensibly to our economic problems; at a time when others, across the Channel and across the Atlantic, are struggling.

I don't want out of the EU but we need to be allowed to make our own decisions to reflect our own business requirements. I say kick this daft, ill considered piece of one-size-fits-all red tape, and everything like it, firmly into touch!