Landlords selling up rental properties

Most young people don't want second-hand furniture like we did many years ago.

It’s unbelievable what you see on the kerbside being dumped for anyone who wants it to collect. They whinge about being hard up but sometimes you wonder ! I have seen tables ( perfect), chairs, garden furniture, coffee tables, flat screen tvs, lawnmowers, you name it. All in good condition. Amazing.

I wish I saw stuff on the kerbside to be collected.

Where we live rents for people are extremely expensive and some landlords just greedy. Several people have never been a problem paid rent on time looked after the property and have been given no fault evictions. They are then left chasing properties that are too expensive and trying to beat others in the same position as there are too few rentals. Some of the properties are now holiday lets where the landlord commands so much more money. I feel so sorry for the young people with families. Living near the sea has its disadvantages as even small terrace houses are being turned into airbnb. During the winter months lots of properties stand empty while our young people cannot find a starter home.

JaneJudge

There are caps on income for council/HA housing now in most areas. Here it is @50k household income which is low for here and even on the upper ends of that it would be impossible to qualify as those in greater need quite rightly, get them first

Many/most young couples starting a family where one works full time and one part time would be below £50k combined income.

growstuff

I wish I saw stuff on the kerbside to be collected.

That’s Australia for you ! Change colours, change furniture. We can be very materialistic at times.

JaneJudge

Ercol furniture isn’t cheap 😂

Ercol is not necessarily cheap, however the older furniture at auction or on eBay is certainly reasonable. My point was - much of that older Ercol suits multiple purposes and moves easily round a home.

Ercol is easy to paint - modernising towards what is acceptable today.

Nooo- don’t paint that lovely,lovely furniture !

nanna8

Nooo- don’t paint that lovely,lovely furniture !

Opinions. Everyone has one.

Our daughters are not fans of brown furniture. Much has been passed to them, they've recently taken to painting old furniture - better than the skip!

norah Ercol is not cheap. DD has been an Ercol fan for over 25 years. Then she bought her furniture quite cheaply. Now a dining table and chairs often costs £1,000 if it is elm or beech, the dark wood fake medieval furniture goes much cheaper.

And no, do not paint the beech or elm Ercol furniture you will at least halve if not quarter its value. DD has a lovely Ercol 3 piece suite and has recovered the cushions several times as she changes her decor. very easy to do and much cheaper to do than fully upholstered furniture.

Norah

David49

We could build larger properties but they cost more to build and to run, there so much more other social spending that needs to be made. The quality of social housing is pretty good today, certainly better than private rentals of the same size. After WW2 a lot of prefabs were built, maybe a revival of that would help, as long as the quality was good.

Larger isn't always better.

I like usable space, fewer walls, rooms for many purpose.

I think Ercol furniture (50s-60s) might work well in smaller spaces. It's cheap (ebay, auctions, etc), much of it moves to suit purpose.

To quote myself ^

I was attempting to post larger homes are not always better. Small open rooms suit many purpose, especially with light weight easy to move furniture.

Ercol, especially the old mid century, has many pieces suited to porting about a room.

Whether or not people paint old furniture is surely up to them. That which is in style now will change again. I've old brown furniture - it's not coming back to style, I'll live with my ancestors old furniture - some people want stylish.

Painting older Ercol solves smaller and stylish for some.

My daughter and her family inherited Ercol dining furniture from the grandparents of their brother in law .
It looks good, is sturdy, and works well in their modest sized house.

Chocolatelovinggran

My daughter and her family inherited Ercol dining furniture from the grandparents of their brother in law .
It looks good, is sturdy, and works well in their modest sized house.

I have a fair bit of inherited Ercol furniture, bought by the family in the 60s. It does suit most interiors. The only bits I wouldn’t want are the upholstered sofas.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

@nanna8

As for tenant security, it is pretty secure over here, we don’t have many what you would call slums.

In UK, there are similar regulations about a set standard of safety in letting properties.

"Tenant security" is not about that, it refers to the tenants legal right to stay in the property despite the LL serving legal notice to end the tenancy at term. Aka a "no fault eviction".

Some Australian states are ending "no fault eviction" (so is UK) which potentially leaves excellent law abiding landlords unable to regain control/ occupation of their property. That risk is why LL's in Aus and UK are getting out of renting.

nanna8

That Thatcher woman had no idea of the long term results of selling off public housing. That, or she didn’t give a toss. Probably time to reinstate some of it and rebuild.

The money made from selling council houses to tenants, should have gone to the local council to be invested in building new council houses to let. Then the social rental market could have been sustained and protected .

Instead, the sales money went to the Treasury for other purposes. while the councils also lost their income from rents.

The stock of council houses to rent, rapidly declined.

I wonder why this thread was bumped by Sophie? I do hope she was deleted for suggesting people paint their furniture

NittWitt

^Is there someone you can contact to complain about the landlord because I am sure the young couple are afraid to do so in case he kicks them out. They are a lovely couple and the young man is on dialysis and we never see anyone visiting them, they seem to be on their own.^

Don't know about that BigMama but be careful as the LL might think a complaint came from the tenants even if it didn't.

Maybe you could contact the LL again to remind him of his promise & subtly suggest you're looking into regulations on repairing (even if you're not).

B ig Mamma has said, she has no idea what rent the couple pay. So, impossible to know if the LL is "taking advantage of them" or kindly charging a peppercorn rent.

Best not to interfere in other peoples business when facts are so thin on the ground.