Don’t shed a tear for all landlords
BrIaN STaNYer (Letters) makes a spirited defence of landlords who use Section 21 to evict tenants for no reason. he claims landlords are not getting a fair deal. Well, I’m still fuming over my treatment in 2020-2021.
I lived in what I assumed was my home for 15 years, each year my contract being renewed. Letting agency staff inspected the house every six months and often complimented me on its upkeep, as the walls and carpets looked no different from when I’d first moved in. But with every new contract, the rent went up until, after 15 years, I was paying over the market rate. The landlord was informed that he couldn’t justifiably raise the rent yet again, so he immediately decided to put the house on the market and began court proceedings against me. I had just a short time to pack up and find a new home.
The court decided not only to make me homeless (within a couple of weeks of their decision) but ordered me to pay the landlord’s costs, which I will be doing until the middle of 2025, as I am a female pensioner.
The local council stepped in and I was given a couple of months’ reprieve while they found a home for me. Sadly, making it habitable took up a lot of my savings and increased my health problems. That was 21 months ago. about six months ago, I met my old neighbour who told me the house was still empty and unsold, which I think is karma, as I paid for my own eviction and the landlord lost more than
£10,000 in rent because of his greed. I suspect the house is still unsold. So I have little pity for those who advocate that landlords can behave in this way when a tenant has kept a property in good condition and, like me, never missed a single rent payment.
Name supplied, Banbury, Oxon. The housing market suffered its most devastating upheaval between 25 and 30 years ago. at that time, there was a balance of ownership, with first-time buyers ‘getting on the ownership ladder’ by
buying all the wonderful terrace houses at a reasonable cost.
Then the buy-to-let mob saw an opportunity that was better than their long-term pension policies and bought everything in sight, causing mayhem. Starter homes disappeared and, eventually, renting became the only option for many. The rich got annoyingly richer and the decline in home ownership gathered pace. Don’t feel sorry or shed a tear for those landlords. They destroyed a way of life.