New research has found that landlords spend more than £3,000 each year looking after their rental properties.
Based on estimates of 1.5m landlords in the UK, the analysis by insurer LV= claims the sector spends £4.7bn cumulatively on looking after their rental properties.
This doesn’t include fees paid to agents.
A third of landlords said bad tenants are the most challenging aspect of the job.
Although nearly half (46%) have never experienced a tenant dispute, almost a quarter (23%) have disputes at least once a year, with 6% having them at least once a month.
The most common causes for tenant disputes are delayed rent (43%), damage to property (41%), cleanliness (33%), disputes over bills or deposits) (10%), pets (9%) and sub-letting (7%).
Two-thirds of landlords say the carpets in their property are most likely to be damaged by tenants (66%), with walls (45%), white goods (27%) and doors (24%) also high on the list.
Due to the actions of their tenants, landlords spend the most money on replacing or repairing flooring (£322), white goods (£298) or other items (£256), cleaning at the end of a tenancy (£178) and removing items that have been left behind by previous tenants (£149).
Other costs include renovations and refurbishments (£370), replacing or repairing the boiler (£370), fixing structural damage (£313), decorating (£265) and garden maintenance (£203).
Some 52% of the 755 landlords surveyed outsource management to a letting agent to take the pressure off them.
Heather Smith, managing director of the LV= GI Direct business, said: “Being a landlord is not without its challenges and it’s clear that many are feeling the strain due to tax and regulatory changes facing the industry.
Meera Chindooroy, policy and public affairs manager at the National Landlords Association (NLA), said: “Over recent years, landlords have faced a raft of haphazardly introduced new regulations which, compounded by tax changes, have increased the cost of letting.
“We have not seen any signs yet that the Government intends to pursue a more strategic approach to help landlords future-proof themselves.
“The Government’s proposal to abolish Section 21 will intensify the impact that rent arrears and damage to property has on landlords’ ability to run their businesses successfully.”
Comments (6)
Bit of a misleading headline. The vast majority of that stuff isn’t maintenance – it’s clearing up tenant damage. A decent agent would have mitigated a lot of those costs against the deposit (back when there was enough deposit money held to cover the damages).
The average rent in this area is £500-£600. If landlords were having to spend £3000 a year in maintenance, they’d be owing me money every month.
Very good point. As you say, it’s not ‘maintenance.’ It’s ‘damages’ from bad tenants. Eg my plumber is just going out to repair a leak on a washing machine. I call that ‘maintenance.’ When my handyman recently went to clear away disgusting settees piled up in a garden shed, and another went to professionally clean carpets which have been left in a foul state that’s ‘damages.’ And deposits rarely cover these situations.
I think many people agree the Conservative Government are off their tiny heads. They have lost it completely S21 abolition being the final straw.
Let’s hope the abolition of Section 21 will be the last straw! Although the so-called current Conservatives are appalling, I disagree about their heads – they may be tiny but they are not off them. They have calculated that there are more votes to be had in pandering to the huge and increasing army of mainly young tenants than to the relatively small army of mainly older landlords. At the same time they know that landlords have literally nowhere to run to – certainly not into the arms of the Idiot Labour Party!
And that is my query, as a letting agent, who is the best to vote for? Tories are vilifying me and my profession, Labour is run by a mad, xenophobic crackpot, I’m not even going to mention UKIP or whatever the new one calls itself and I haven’t heard anything of the others for ages!
I wonder how difficult it would be to put myself forward as a political party leader? Ok, I have the tact of a tank through the window but at least I have common sense and am willing to listen to all points of view before making a decision!
Correct but I still get pleading emails asking for donations from the conservative party!
I do wish MP’s had to prove they had a workable brain before they could be appointed