General Election 8th June – Who on earth do landlords vote for?

Reply to the comment left by "Cautious Landlord" at "02/05/2017 - 13:15":

This is really getting dangerous.
I desperately hope Labour will not get in... Business rates on students let will be so unjust - first of all for the students. they are struggling already - back in 2011 our son paid £720 +plus bills in London, 5 sharing...
NB I looked at some remortgage rates at NLA website and it is clear that despite the 5% increase we do not charge enough. We are short with rent for a number of good deals.. It is getting ridiculous by the day.
I am completely at loss how to vote. Awaiting my MP response. In any case - NEVER LABOUR!

Agreed. Our children are younger but will of course need to rent idc when they are students if this is the route they want to go down. I can see it from both sides. We only have three student houses now - for years we used to charge an average of less than £60 per week per room and give the summer free. Since the Gideon bombshell we've jacked them up twice now to get an average of £80 per week and will keep going. Can't afford not to. Before this we would leave all rents well alone until people moved on. We were too busy buying/refurbing to worry about it and felt that as we were doing well with base rate low we could give a little back to the tenants. No more. 11% across the board last year and already this year on vacation we are getting some major increases still. Someone has to pay for our incorporation. Well done tories - we're so much more professional now.

Reply to the comment left by "Cautious Landlord" at "02/05/2017 - 14:46":

From what I undertstand regarding canturbury, is they realise/know they would not be able to get 'business rates' but by going that far they hope the gov will allow them to levy council tax.

I don't see them doing it personally. Perhaps just possibly in the medium to longer term but in my view the powers that be want the young in debt and without landlords such as you they would not be able to go to UNI.Maybe when the build to rent bunch have build enough to house the students its possible they may try it. But at the moment they have not. Plus student dwellings don't pay council tax and the tories like depriving local authorities of funds so as they don't get the council tax they get that added benefit.

Also re Biz rates liverpool council called last feb the power to do it and again in september last year and seems to have been ignored. Further I can think of 2 anti landlord MP's 1 called for biz rates on student dwelllings but has not even asked in the commons to be given the power to do it (so may be just rhetoric for locals whom dont like students) and another MP who also has not asked despite (from memory) their council passing a motion asking them to do just that.

In a nut shell I share your worries but hope what I have relays your mind to some extent.

Wonder where you are Cautious landlord. My student granddaughter pays £100 a week for a minuscule single room, shared house of 5 and has to pay all through the summer, i.e. 52 weeks a year. this is Durham not exactly London prices. The other one is in Oxford, I dare not ask her what she pays. Luckily she is from the family that can afford it but the one in Durham struggles. Thank goodness for grand parents.

Reply to the comment left by "Cautious Landlord" at "02/05/2017 - 13:15":

I have increased my rents in a HMO in Liverpool and it is now down to 2 tenants.

There is a glut of singles and doubles in our market.

Double Rooms @£70pw / singles @ £63 pw.

The others have left for landlords offering rooms at a lower cost.
They don't appear to be licensed either, unlike us.

My choice is to reduce my rents, sell or subsidise the property in the short term, until my competition gets their first tax bill under section 24.

(My other competitors are corporate building thousands of student lets).

# vote UKIP

Kate Faulkner has compared the manifestos of the Labour, Conservative, LibDem and Green parties, but did not mention UKIP. Her conclusion is:

“The difficulty with all political parties are that their plans for the private rental sector are potentially so damaging to stock levels and the business model of agents and landlords, that they may well completely backfire. We are already seeing more tenants coming into the market, but far fewer landlords. This means if more landlords sell up and leave on top of this, as they don’t tend to buy the same properties as first-time buyers (don’t believe everything you read!) the current policies designed to support tenants are also very much likely to be the ones that will hurt tenants the most.
Currently the policies aim to improve the security of tenants and their rights in the private sector. However, there is no point improving tenant rights and security if it makes the business model so unprofitable that landlords sell up, resulting in no, or few, properties left for people to rent.”
http://www.propertychecklists.co.uk/articles/election-promises-housing

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Dully" at "03/05/2017 - 08:27":

Hello Gary,

But I thought you said in your little rant that tenants pay for everything? Now you're talking about potentially "subsidising" the rent yourself. What went wrong?

Reply to the comment left by "J Moodie" at "01/05/2017 - 16:56":

Tenants should be fined for allowing decent properties to get into a bad state ...

Reply to the comment left by "Kathy Evans" at "03/05/2017 - 16:47":

Kathy, I appreciate your sense of humour.

Reply to the comment left by "Charles Mackay" at "03/05/2017 - 16:24":

Nothing's gone wrong Charles, my revenues are now up as all my other tenants are now filling up my section 24 war chest.

My main concern is who wins this election, because the Tories have decided to eliminate enterprise if it isn't corporate.

In Liverpool, my flats, which are now licensed, are still very popular, but my HMO's are suffering from oversupply.

In Nottingham, my tenants there are going to face some big rent rises if mandatory licensing is issued.

In London and the South East, Section 24 is going to wreak havoc with the rents, it's just that the politicians, such as Dianne Abbot, can't add up.

I suspect I will be diverting into other areas of business anyway, because quite frankly I'm getting fed up with other people telling us that we are the scourge of society.

As for my tenants paying for everything, they always have and so have yours.

Any subsidies will come from other tenants rents, so the same mantra still applies.

# Vote UKIP