The continued popularity of buy to let purchases shows that property investment is still strong in the UK but potential landlords need to be aware of what the downsides might be.
This comes after a London property management specialist revealed that 30% of landlords say that having a private rented property is causing them more stress than they had anticipated.
Indeed, 10% of landlords say that their tenant’s behaviour has caused them so much stress it led to them developing anxiety issues.
While the job of being a landlord brings with it a wide range of financial responsibilities, landlords are overlooking one potential area that may cause most stress – their tenants.
The research highlights the level of demand which is being placed on landlords with 76% saying that tenants do not understand their own responsibilities.
Landlords find they are on call 24/7
This lack of appreciation means that landlords find they are on call 24/7 and 34% say they have been called by their tenant in the middle of the night.
These calls are often for minor issues such as wanting the landlord to unblock a drain, for 23% of landlords, to help in finding lost keys, an issue for 19% of landlords.
Landlords also say they are being called to turn on the home‘s heating, for 14%, and for changing a light bulb or fuse, an issue for 13% of landlords.
However, for 24% of landlords the tenants have caused such severe issues that they have been served with an eviction notice.
In 69% of cases, these evictions were for rent arrears, 44% for property damage and 24% for inappropriate behaviour.
Landlords also evicted their tenants for subletting their property
Landlords also evicted their tenants for subletting their property without the landlord’s permission, in 18% of cases, and using the property for illegal means, for 11%.
The survey also highlights a number of worrying results too with 43% of landlords saying they are unclear of their responsibilities for repairing a rented property and only 24% of them are clear on what their legal responsibilities are for a house in multiple occupation (HMO).
Landlords have also revealed that they spend £5,000 on average every year to carry out property repairs which may be an issue when the tenant is in arrears.
On top of this, most landlords are now dependent on their rental income with 50% using the money to pay off the mortgage.
And talking of arrears, 40% of landlords say they receive late payments and 18% of them have been forced to default on their bills as a result.
With so many people enjoying pension freedoms to access their pension pot to purchase buy to let in the hunt for better returns, many would-be landlords should also undertake thorough research to ensure that their investment is going to be the success they hope it will be.
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