Bad government policies are hurting private landlords

IT has been a hard ride for me as a landlord, and it is getting much worse as I have to pay every month for mortgages and insurance, and maintenance on the properties I rent out. But I am at the end of my tether, because I am now renting houses for nothing.

The government is destroying private landlords. They know they just can’t afford to go on and on with the way they are being badly treated by the government.

Private landlords are being strangled and all they want to do is help people to have a roof over their heads.

We landlords want to make a living but we are just not allowed, one legislation after another, one problem after another. Tenants can stop the rent and landlords have to wait months or years, and then when the judges decide to evict the bad tenant the poor landlords still lose out on the money.

Then the property has to be fixed because some tenants can leave a terrible mess, and the council still charges the private landlord even though the house is empty and not being rented out.

So landlords have to pay for the house they live in and all the houses that they rent out even when they are empty. What a rip off! And this government has turned a blind eye to it, in my opinion.

It is bad enough they are abolishing the Section 21 notice. Now they are going to make private landlords pay tens of thousands to make properties EPC regulations compliant from 2025.

Houses that are over 50 years old will not comply unless landlords fit triple glazing and fill up the walls with cavity foam.

Can this or any other government tell all private landlords where they will get the money from to do all this work when, in fact, some tenants are in rent arrears and not even paying rent?

The government and tenants also know damn well that without private landlords there would be millions of people homeless. But what do we get for all our troubles?

I believe 40 per cent of landlords rent to top up their pension, but some landlords who have mortgages will have to get a job to top up.

We are doing the country a service and instead of rewarding us the government is killing us with bad policies and bad practices.