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Post by Clinton Cool on Apr 10, 2020 8:28:12 GMT
You spread yourself too thin. I'm struggling to believe you're on the breadline after a couple of months of just one of your three tenants not paying up. If that's really the case maybe you shouldn't have been going on surfing holidays. It's hard to be sympathetic TBH. I'm not on the breadline at the moment but if this continues for a number of months, and I still have to maintain the houses. My point is that other groups are all given assistance, those living off investment income are the only exception.
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Post by Clinton Cool on Apr 10, 2020 8:29:19 GMT
The government doesn't classify me as self employed; it's living off investments.
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Post by Telemachus on Apr 10, 2020 8:33:37 GMT
The houses are all paid for. I can't sell them at this time, the market is effectively closed. I wish I could. Because I don't personally live in them, they are counted as 'assets', this prevents me accessing any benefits at all. All other groups (employed, self employed, those on benefits) have been 'protected' by large government schemes. They are not expected to release equity from their assets in order to buy their food. The 'double whammy' as far as I'm concerned is that these groups, despite being 'protected' have been given carte blanche 'permission' from the government to stop paying their rents. "Nobody will lose their home because of the corona virus" said the government when they banned evictions but the reality is that folk can stop paying their rents with impunity, regardless of whether 'it's because of the corona virus', and regardless of the financial help the government is giving them. I suppose I could cut down on my weekly spending from 50 quid to 40 quid, if I tried really hard. Yes I (owning a flat that is let out) agree that there was too much emphasis on the “no-one will be evicted” thing. I think it is fair enough if people genuinely can’t pay the rent, although surely that is what housing benefit is for? But as you imply, it does open the door for the pisstakers to just stop paying the rent and spend the money on booze, fags and drugs instead, whilst having free rein to trash the place if they feel like it. Fortunately my tenant is still employed in the oil industry (for the time being!) and paying his rent. Definitely a really bad time to have an empty property or a difficult tenant.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2020 8:40:33 GMT
You spread yourself too thin. I'm struggling to believe you're on the breadline after a couple of months of just one of your three tenants not paying up. If that's really the case maybe you shouldn't have been going on surfing holidays. It's hard to be sympathetic TBH. I'm not on the breadline at the moment but if this continues for a number of months, and I still have to maintain the houses. My point is that other groups are all given assistance, those living off investment income are the only exception. Ever think it might be because you can help yourself? get a secured loan on one of the properties surely?
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Post by Clinton Cool on Apr 10, 2020 8:45:54 GMT
The houses are all paid for. I can't sell them at this time, the market is effectively closed. I wish I could. Because I don't personally live in them, they are counted as 'assets', this prevents me accessing any benefits at all. All other groups (employed, self employed, those on benefits) have been 'protected' by large government schemes. They are not expected to release equity from their assets in order to buy their food. The 'double whammy' as far as I'm concerned is that these groups, despite being 'protected' have been given carte blanche 'permission' from the government to stop paying their rents. "Nobody will lose their home because of the corona virus" said the government when they banned evictions but the reality is that folk can stop paying their rents with impunity, regardless of whether 'it's because of the corona virus', and regardless of the financial help the government is giving them. I suppose I could cut down on my weekly spending from 50 quid to 40 quid, if I tried really hard. Yes I (owning a flat that is let out) agree that there was too much emphasis on the “no-one will be evicted” thing. I think it is fair enough if people genuinely can’t pay the rent, although surely that is what housing benefit is for? But as you imply, it does open the door for the pisstakers to just stop paying the rent and spend the money on booze, fags and drugs instead, whilst having free rein to trash the place if they feel like it. Fortunately my tenant is still employed in the oil industry (for the time being!) and paying his rent. Definitely a really bad time to have an empty property or a difficult tenant. I agree that nobody who genuinely can't pay anything should be given slack. Almost everyone should be able to pay at least part of the rent though, they've been given government assistance, and what else is there to spend money on at the moment? If one or all my tenants asked me if they could defer half the rent for 3 months I'd happily agree. I might even reduce the rent by say 20% for that period, that would fit in with their loss of employment/ self employment assistance. But no, the rent stops, all communications are ignored, what can I do? I think the government got it wrong by announcing 'no evictions' before the financial packages. By the time the assistance was announced social media was alive with 'stop paying your rent, there's nothing the landlord can do about it'. The seed was already sown.
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Post by Clinton Cool on Apr 10, 2020 8:46:39 GMT
I'm not on the breadline at the moment but if this continues for a number of months, and I still have to maintain the houses. My point is that other groups are all given assistance, those living off investment income are the only exception. Ever think it might be because you can help yourself? get a secured loan on one of the properties surely? You need to have income to get a loan.
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Post by Telemachus on Apr 10, 2020 8:54:06 GMT
Yes I (owning a flat that is let out) agree that there was too much emphasis on the “no-one will be evicted” thing. I think it is fair enough if people genuinely can’t pay the rent, although surely that is what housing benefit is for? But as you imply, it does open the door for the pisstakers to just stop paying the rent and spend the money on booze, fags and drugs instead, whilst having free rein to trash the place if they feel like it. Fortunately my tenant is still employed in the oil industry (for the time being!) and paying his rent. Definitely a really bad time to have an empty property or a difficult tenant. I agree that nobody who genuinely can't pay anything should be given slack. Almost everyone should be able to pay at least part of the rent though, they've been given government assistance, and what else is there to spend money on at the moment? If one or all my tenants asked me if they could defer half the rent for 3 months I'd happily agree. I might even reduce the rent by say 20% for that period, that would fit in with their loss of employment/ self employment assistance. But no, the rent stops, all communications are ignored, what can I do? I think the government got it wrong by announcing 'no evictions' before the financial packages. By the time the assistance was announced social media was alive with 'stop paying your rent, there's nothing the landlord can do about it'. The seed was already sown. I haven’t checked the details, but can you not start the process for evicting for non payment of rent? It would previously have taken 3 months, now 6 months I think (but law is different in Scotland). Ok you won’t be able to secure the actual eviction for 6 months (by which time, surely the lockdown will be over!?) but if you wait until it is all over before starting the process, you will have a longer wait to get your property back. In scotland you can still evict after 3 months if the reason is that you need the property to live in. Not having a “proper” home to live in at the moment, it would perhaps be fairly easy for you to decide that you wanted to move into one of your houses during the pandemic? And change your mind a bit later...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2020 8:55:38 GMT
Ever think it might be because you can help yourself? get a secured loan on one of the properties surely? You need to have income to get a loan. You are right.
A year or two I was in a similar financial situation i.e. had property, no income, no help from state. Eventually found someone willing to give me a loan to tide me over for a year whilst I tried to sell the property (I had already tried selling by auction) - cost over a year was about 150% interest - thankfully bank of Mum & Dad came to my rescue and I was able to pay them back in 6 months when the house sold.
I do feel for you.
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Post by ianali on Apr 10, 2020 9:04:36 GMT
Cash, gold (within certain transaction limits), antiques, wine, art, for example. 1) Cash...think we r fast heading towards cashless society..it won't be worth the plastic its painted on 2) Gold..well maybe 3) to-days antiques are tomorrows clutter and car boot junk 4) Possibly I could store some wine for you 5)Art ..unless u can manage to buy original recognisable work of art to-days 'artists' may well prove to be tomorrows recycling.... This based on my perceptions which I'm happy to accept as wrong/flawed as I do realise as a mere female I couldn't possibly know I think there are many who are struggling now and its gonna get worse The next 2 weeks will be hell..I think... Cash is an interesting one. Like you, I’d assume from what I see and read that cash use is fading fast. However, my sons company produces cash counting machines. They have been busier than ever the last couple of years, and since the lockdown even busier.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2020 9:06:02 GMT
Supermarkets need workers at present ... every October we go home and work for three months in retail ... may give you some income, and at present some 'social life' too.
Rog
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Post by Clinton Cool on Apr 10, 2020 9:06:37 GMT
I agree that nobody who genuinely can't pay anything should be given slack. Almost everyone should be able to pay at least part of the rent though, they've been given government assistance, and what else is there to spend money on at the moment? If one or all my tenants asked me if they could defer half the rent for 3 months I'd happily agree. I might even reduce the rent by say 20% for that period, that would fit in with their loss of employment/ self employment assistance. But no, the rent stops, all communications are ignored, what can I do? I think the government got it wrong by announcing 'no evictions' before the financial packages. By the time the assistance was announced social media was alive with 'stop paying your rent, there's nothing the landlord can do about it'. The seed was already sown. I haven’t checked the details, but can you not start the process for evicting for non payment of rent? It would previously have taken 3 months, now 6 months I think (but law is different in Scotland). Ok you won’t be able to secure the actual eviction for 6 months (by which time, surely the lockdown will be over!?) but if you wait until it is all over before starting the process, you will have a longer wait to get your property back. I could send a section 21 notice. The way this 'no evictions' thing works in practice (in England) is that the normal notice period of 2 months has been extended to 3. This may be extended further, we don't know. I could issue a notice today but that would likely prompt outrage from the likes of Shelter, be all over social media, maybe even make the papers 'Evil buy to let landlord defies the law and evicts a vulnerable tenant' For now, rather than leaving it to the agent I've written to him personally, explained my situation, and suggested he contacts me directly so we can work out an arrangement that works for both of us. I've not heard back from him, it's been a couple of days. If I don't hear back from him I don't think I have any option but to issue a notice, what else can I do? Talking to my agent and going on property forums this problem is widespread. When things get better the courts are going to be inundated with hundreds of thousands of possession claims. It already takes 2 months to get a court hearing, how long will it take when 10 times the normal number of cases drop on their desks when the open for business?
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Post by ianali on Apr 10, 2020 10:10:13 GMT
It might be early days for some but this crisis has already prompted me to change my life plan. I stopped working a few years ago for various reasons. I was in the fortunate position to own a fairly valuable house. Rather than milk the situation and live off the state I sold it and bought 3 houses for investment. The idea was to live off the income these generated, have a simple life without burdening the state. I've never been comfortable with the idea of large state welfare programs. Anyway: I had a third of my normal income this month. Next month it's likely to be zero, by all accounts. There's no help available from the state, not even the most basic benefits. If the current situation continues until my savings dry up not only will I need to apply to food banks, I'll also need to make myself a criminal by not having gas safety checks carried out. I've done what I can to bring this situation into view including writing to my m.p. To no avail. I conclude: We now live in a society where those who make their own arrangements rather than turning to the state when they have some difficulties in life, get royally fucked over. Moving forward: I'll sell one house each year to avoid having to pay too much tax. I'll then remove the max cash I can every day and buy untraceable assets. Closer to retirement age I'll buy a small house to take my savings below the threshold for pension credit. I'll still have my untraceable assets of course. Then, the taxpayers can pay for my pension shortfall, my council tax, and other things. I'll not only be better off financially, I'll also propel myself from being one of the most unworthy types of people (buy to let landlord) to a highly worthy one (vulnerable benefit claimant.) Anyone else? Hard to know what to do. I have my wealth split between cash in bank. Our house. Boat, pension, motorbikes.. seemed a secure future a couple of months ago. Now who knows? Think it’s best to ride the wave and see if you come out above water. I really have no wish to work again☹️
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2020 10:12:10 GMT
I'm quite happy living a humble life on a boat. I've got food, water, shelter, reasonable health, good friends, a lovely wife (I was told to say that bit!), lots of beautiful countryside to cruise and walk in (normally) and music (although the band is on hold ATM). None of which require much money. Mind you I am still dependant on a very small pension and that may be affected by all this. I talk to the ducks you know, they taught me a lot.
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Post by ianali on Apr 10, 2020 10:18:18 GMT
I'm quite happy living a humble life on a boat. I've got food, water, shelter, reasonable health, good friends, a lovely wife (I was told to say that bit!), lots of beautiful countryside to cruise and walk in (normally) and music (although the band is on hold ATM). None of which require much money. Mind you I am still dependant on a very small pension and that may be affected by all this. I talk to the ducks you know, they taught me a lot. Sounds much like my life, though my guitar skills are not worthy of band status. Rereading my last post made me sound boastful perhaps. It wasn’t intended to be, was just pointing out that I’d split what I have to try and keep it as safe as possible. I do not have, nor want an expensive lifestyle.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2020 10:22:37 GMT
It does make you think about things. I'm going to get rid of all except one boat then bugger off on that and eat fresh line-caught mackerel. I can survive on oats and water for breakfast then a plate of pasta and mackerel as a main meal. And Rose's lime juice for the tea is a great alternative to milk, and adds a bit of vitamin C. And no beer. Life has to change for the better. Just migrate to warmer climate during winter, on the boat. Although I have always had enough ££ that won't last due to no investments and no pension. I've always been very intrigued about how little money I could survive on given basic shelter, which I have in the form of the boat, which is a go-anywhere sea or river luxury bunker. About a litre per mile travelled of diesel so that would be a noticeable cost. I reckon basic other spending could be cut right down. There are so many things one just doesn't need in life. All of my actual money is being swallowed up by housing for the children and woman. Which is fair enough. From riches to rags that's me happy with that as never made an effort so do not deserve anything at the end of the day...
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