Never had a problem with mould, to be honest.
Never had a problem with mould, to be honest.
By which I mean, having been a landlord in the past, greater regulation etc generally only drives up costs of responsible market participants, and doesn't help solve the actual problem. Driving up costs can drive out landlords, which reduces stock, thus further exacerbating the issue. I suppose the obvious end goal would be to somehow drive down property values to make ownership more viable [or have adequate stocks of social/government housing], but in reality as responsible, small landlords are driven out, they are replaced by Blackrock [or whoever] and nothing gets better, and mass house building to be owned by the public sector is a long lost fantasy. I've been thinking for a while as to how you could make changes to help the poorest renters. I reckon Council Tax, which I guess is our version of property tax, should be one of the main ways to do it. Back in lax tax fantasy land [Guernsey] it was broken down into 2 parts - a tax on the land/size of the property itself and a tax on the occupier for things like collecting the bins. The former was much larger, and swelled massively in recent times, and was always the responsibility of the landlord. In the UK all of the council tax, which goes to pay for all manner of things, is the responsibility of the tenant, which seems perverse to me, as it goes towards paying for all sorts of shit above and beyond collecting the bins. Yes, transferring liability would perhaps drive up rents, but I'm not sure, and even if they did, the occupier would likely not be any worse off.
We just basically need to build a fuckton of decent housing, but like everything the existing infrastructure has been sweated [?] with little investment and now it's all a bit falling apart.
Scumbag.
The conditions people live in.
In fairness I probably should have sold my flat in London as it basically saw very little gain in value after 2012. It actually lost value on the 2014 valuation I had when I sold it in 2022.Originally Posted by Magic
If I had sold it then and bought a house it probably would have tripled in value.
Flats are a mugs game.
Oh is a wickle baby upset at not making enough money at the proletariat's expense?
Not really, I think what it showed was the market essentially broke in early 2010s and there was a total disconnect at that point between property values and what you could get a mortgage for, which probably hasn't really changed all that much. Well, in Central London in my experience but probably more nationally now. One of the main drivers was the lack of credit availability for normal people, and the people that could get the credit, which was absurdly cheap, well, they probably bought a lot of the property.
Also, want to hear another mad thing? If you own a property in Guernsey as a non-resident, and rent it out, you get tax withheld at the maximum applicable rate [20%] by law. There may be some forms of double tax mitigation available, but I don't know. The tax gets collected and then you'd fight to get it back. If you own a property in the UK as a non-resident, you can apply to be a non-resident landlord, which requires you to complete a self-assessment form if you qualify [most would], for which you get given full personal allowances and all allowable deductions, and if you own the property jointly then you get both allowances. There are nuances to how it works and I don't think you can fully take the piss with it, but even as a basic thing it's fucking mental, in my mind.
Alright Peter Rachman.
The whole [tax] system is completely ballbagged, it's hard to know where you would start trying to fix it.
Mold is a tricky one, because atleast half the time it's caused by tenants not heating their homes (poverty). Which is obviously horrible, but not necessarily the landlords fault. If they're on Universal Credit, for example, their rent is often paid in full, but it doesn't stop them being skint.
It's usually pretty easy to tell though. If it's around the windows and doors, and in the corners, you need ventilation and heating. If it's covering the walls and ceilings, the property has a serious issue that the landlord has likely been painting over for years, evicting anyone who dares complain, because fixing it would be a more expensive pain in the arse.
Labour must be thick as fuck pushing all this 'we have got rid of more illegal immigrants than anyone since 2018' stuff as a flex, surely the main people who want that would never vote Labour anyway.
My friend bought a house in London for relatively cheap because they had to keep the previous tenant because of this reason. They built her a flat at the bottom of the house so that she can continue living there at a relatively low market rent. So if you want a cheaper house, find an immovable tenant is my advice.
The people in the street they talked to on Newsnight [in Spikey's endz] were funny about those videos.
Well, good, but it's not enough. Maybe if they put them out every day . . .
I can sort of understand why Starmer is pissed that using actual laws to make actual progress [as some would see it] doesn't get much, if any, recognition, but, as you say, who is this going to win over?
And then move them into a Fritzl dungeon?
Was that the one with the rogue tranny out of nowhere? If so, Basilslum is NOT my endz.
Yeah, the rogue tranny was certainly a surprise inclusion.
That's the price you pay if you want to live in London.
I for one welcome our new AI overlord.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8edn0n58gwo
All your data are belong to US.
Trust Sir Beer to cuck for the Trumpmeister. What a truly pathetic boy licking nation we are.
Sadly 50% of us will love it.
Edit: boot licking.
Freudian.
Trust Europeans to want to ban shit before they even understand what it is.
Freudian.
If France, China and India are on one side then Britain should be on the other. Excellent from Sir Keir.
Having worked in Property Management most of my life, mould is one of those contentious issues which is difficult to prove either way who's fault it is. To the outside world anyway.
The Landlord has to demonstrate that they are doing everything possible to give the tenant adequate ventilation. Trickle vents, etc.
I've managed properties privately for years and some flats have never had issues with mould, however suddenly it appears all over the place. When I walk past the flat, the windows are all closed in winter and if I ask to do a random check on the flat, the heating is on full blast with wet clothes being dried by the radiator. You tell them the reason why mould happens and they complain that they shouldn't have to open their windows, 'because it's sooooooooo cold.'
So the Landlord is then forced into installing an MVHR to assist the tenants. You're then relying on the tenants to switch on the MVHR. They say they are using it but it's not working, then complain about energy costs and that they shouldn't have to switch the MVHR on, or it's not really working and that they have it switched on all the time (although it's not on when I attend). Being difficult in every way.
Damp/rising damp is something different entirely, but tenants don't seem to understand that. They go to citizens advice or to solicitors and complain about health/breathing issues and it becomes a complete nightmare. So many opportunists out there who are trying to get money out of private Landlords from this.
Being someone in the middle, I've definitely experienced far worse from tenants than Landlords.
Last edited by AJ23; 12-02-2025 at 04:20 AM.
Of course, 'personal responsibility' is the answer.
Either that or get a PFI contractor in to manage the situation.
Goes nicely alongside that local council hitpiece I read the other day about how a lot of the swingeing cuts being made to budgets/services largely mirror in magnitude the [insane] pension contributions said councils are simultaneously making, which are being funded out of significant rises in council tax. No, you can't have your bin collected, but yes, you can pay for my final salary pension and yes, I did get bumped up several pay bands in my final years of working and no that has nothing to do with inflating my pension.
Havertz has torn his hammy in Dubai. Fucking hell.
Starmer in pieces.
Bedenoch going big on the UK immigration services commissioner doing his job working from home in Finland at PMQs, it does sound a bit odd.
Appointed in 2019.
Starmer could barely contain himself.
Is she/her staff actually retarded?
Yes.
Obviously a bit salty they weren't able to run the NO MORE FISCAL HEADROoM WHERE'S THE GROWTH!?!?!!! story they likely had tee'd up.
What a load of nothing.
This kind of microscopic scrutiny of all details of people in public life really needs to stop.
I see they also have an ancillary hit piece to go with that one with what I would call an interesting headline choice.
She's obviously pissed someone off somewhere. Christ knows how, she must be one of the most boring characters ever to grace the British political scene.
Thought this was quite interesting on the mould business:
Debate raging in the office at the moment. Gen Z Brit is passionately defending the NHS. Romanian and Algerian equally passionately telling him it's the worst health system in the world and a complete joke. Now the Indian has just arrived and weighed in on the side of the NHS. 2-2.
I'm staying quiet.
I know RL won't agree but I quite like Chippy Wes Streeting. He seems driven. No idea if he's any good but he has that slight air of the madman about him.
He speaks like Marjorie Dawes.
Just read a scorching new Cummings substack in which he advocates for 'regime change'. To this day, can't get enough of the man.
That Brewdog twat is trying to be a poundshop Elon Musk and proposing a 'Shadow Doge' initiative in which he encourages people to 'flood public institutions with FOIs' in the name of er, efficiency savings. Because no-one's ever thought of that before, local authorities are in a constant state of re-orging for cost purposes.
Last edited by Lofty; 14-02-2025 at 07:41 AM.
How is he regarded as an entrepreneur? Brewdog is absolutely loaded with debt and will probably fold. He's a mega cunt.
My experience with Romanians is they don't like the NHS because it won't just give them whatever random non-medically-indicated shit they want/their "doctor in Romania" has recommended.
Child presents with an obvious viral rash and it's all:
"Well I showed the rash to my doctor in Romania and they said they should be tested for all known allergens and it's ridiculous you aren't planning to do that".
I mean that is correct though.
I have a friend that broke his leg in Romania. He spent 4 days in Romanian hospital, with no painkillers beyond paracetamol and they botched his surgery so bad that he ended up with one leg significantly shorter than the other.
Not doing it is correct, yes.
Basically why we don't trust you lot.
I don't know if this should be in the DOGE discussion, the house thread, the news thread or here, but as someone currently going through the planning process with HDC [current update, application in for 2 weeks and not even yet validated, great work chaps, efficient] this sort of shit is both maddening and a bit terrifying.
CIL is going to end up as one of those many other national scandals we have. It's completely insane in its operation, like properly Kafkaesque.
The self-build exemption form is hereYou must apply for the reliefs or exemptions that apply to your development by submitting the correct form. You must also submit an Assumption of Liability form for all claims, apart from the self-build residential exemption, before we can grant the relief or exemption.
It literally says at the top of it that you have to do the assumption of liability form as part of this exemption process, even though the council guidance says you don't. If you get any minute aspect of the paperwork wrong you end up getting fucked. It is almost designed so you get it wrong. It is supposed to apply to large developers, but if you look at any local area planning map you will see that almost anywhere a big developer is developing stuff they are doing it on land that is designated as CIL exempt. If you look at pages 13 and 14 here you will see my local area. The zero rated/purple areas are where literally all of the new major housing schemes are/were [it is obviously a bit out of date now but don't think it has been updated]. It's just another one of those things where the headline is making big developers pay, but the detail is just fucking the little guy. Top work. Get Elon in to dissolve the cunts.
Last edited by niko_cee; 14-02-2025 at 11:38 AM.
It's like he's trying to ensure Reform win the next election.
I've seen far too many BBC breaking news alerts today about Starmer says this and Starmer says that about Ukraine. He should shut the fuck up. I'm not fucking dying for Ukraine.
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