IMAGINE you owned a snazzy two-seater sports car and that, as you were going abroad to work for a while, you decided, rather than leave the car unattended for the duration of your stay, to leave it with a pal to look after.
You told him he could use it, but that the cost of petrol and servicing was his responsibility. You told him that he had to maintain the car’s exterior in the condition you gave it to him, and generally return the car in the same state it was handed over to him, which he agreed to do.
After your years work abroad, you came home and asked for your car back.
Your friend came to see you and told you he didn’t want to give the car back because he didn’t have another car to drive. In addition, he’d changed the colour of the interior seats and added a towbar.
How would you feel in this situation? Pretty annoyed, I’d suggest…
In which case, you can understand how private-sector landlords are feeling right now. The private sector has been treated abominably over the past ten years, starting with the abolition of claiming mortgage interest against rental income, through to the draconian proposals of the SNP/Green alliance, attempting to ensure that a tenant could almost never be removed from a property at the end of their tenancy.
It is a fundamental right that property owners should be able to regain possession of their property at the end of a tenancy, for whatever legal reason.
It is my property – not anyone else’s; I allow a tenant to have the benefit of my roof over his or her head and I thank them for the rental payments they make – but they are in no way a payment towards owning the property, or being able to stay there forever.
I am sorry that various Governments, both Left and Right, did not ring-fence the monies from the sale of council housing in the ‘80s and 90’s (to be used solely to build more council houses for you, allegedly); instead, central government used the funds to pay down the debt that councils had run up building their housing stock.
That meant properties being offered by private landlords were, in many cases, filled by tenants that could not be re-housed using the conventional social housing route – because it was becoming more scarce.
And yet.. successive Governments, of all political hues, have treated landlords as if they are criminals.
This has led to many deciding they’ve had enough of this game and selling up – where they can gain possession.
I used to own 17 properties in Edinburgh and West Lothian. I made sure they were safe, comfortable and compliant and treated my tenants well, being both responsive and proactive.
I lived off the rental income and thought I was providing a decent service for those who couldn’t or didn’t want to get a mortgage to buy their own property.
At no time did I ever leave any tenant in any doubt that, at some point in the future (and the choice of when that moment would be was theirs) I would want my property back.
It was my property. I paid the mortgage on it, and when they didn’t pay their rent, I still had to pay the mortgage, including the mortgage interest.
And I reserved the right to increase the rent at the end of a tenancy, before a new tenancy started, to whatever the market was declaring it would pay, because I never increased my rent during a tenancy – even if mortgage interest rates increased to a level, where the monthly payment was higher than the rent received – so I was effectively helping pay for the tenant to stay there!
I just don’t understand which part of “If you frighten all the private landlords away, there will be fewer flats to go round, which will not only increase rents, but levels of homelessness too” the opponents of privately rented properties don’t get?
The SNP and Labour started making the regulations more costly, added in new bits of legislation we had to comply and pay for, do they not see that they are harbingers of their own doom?
That landlords are saying “Sod this” and voting with their feet, selling up and thus subtracting from the ever-diminishing number of private rented properties available?
Where is the support for landlords? Where is the financial incentive for landlords to purchase more flats to add to their portfolios, as I once did? Why would you, why would anyone, want to become a landlord, in face of such hostility from the left wing governments?
I had enough – I sold 15 of my 17 flats over a three-year period and my life is much simpler, less hassled and just as financially rewarding as it was when I had the flats – and I know I’m not the only one to go down this route.
What the SNP politicians don’t seem to get, is that whilst they are sabre-rattling against wicked landlords, the very people they are allegedly trying to protect – the tenants – are being penalised by having to pay more for somewhere to stay.
And if you still think it is a good idea to get rid of smaller private landlords, just wait till you see how the pension companies, with their build-to rent empires, are going to change the market. Not only are they already expensive and difficult for ordinary renters to access, they’re going to increase rents even more.
The only way to defeat homelessness is to encourage private sector landlords to buy more properties, that can be rented out at fair market rents to tenants who are trustworthy and credible – but I fear that, under the SNP, landlord bashing will just continue to get worse.
So let there be no illusion about the real cause of homelessness and high rents in Scotland and the rest of the UK. The blame lies squarely with the governments who have created all sorts of goody-goody-for-tenant legislation that has driven the good landlords providing properties away.
Established in 2006, ThinkScotland is not for profit (it makes a loss) and relies on donations to continue publishing our wide range of opinions – you can follow us on X here – like and comment on facebook here and support ThinkScotland by making a donation here.
All opinions expressed here are the personal view of David McLennan and unless otherwise stated do not represent ThinkScotland.org or Reform UK policy.
Photo of to let signs in Scotland courtesy of The Negotiator
