Rosie and I are coming up on the time for us to move out of the flat, and this has reminded me of just how much I hate renting.
The first thing that irritates me is that I have to rent at all. I am fortunate in being better off than most people; I am a young professional earning a good wage that is already well above the national average, but it's just not enough. The problem is the way in which house prices in this country are simply sky high, they are just out of reach for any young person trying to get a first tenuous foot on the ladder. It's not even as though you get much for your money either; the first floor of a modern £180,000 house would probably fit into one of the bedrooms of my parents victorian-era home.
So there is no sensible choice available to me but to rent, especially as Rosie is now living with me.
The main reason I dislike renting is landlords.
This dislike isn't a personal dislike; indeed I've liked most of the individuals who have been my landlord or landlady in the past, but I really dislike the relationship with them.
One reason that it is so impossible to find housing that is within the range of affordablity to a well paid graduate engineer is the demand on housing, and in particular the buy-to-let phenomenon. This is a where the landlord, usually an older individual with enough clout to get a second mortgage, can buy a property and then sit back and relax whilst the tenant labours away paying off their mortgage for them. The tenant's crime, the thing that condemns them to rent and not own? Just not wealthy enough to begin with. It's as though the system is structured (through cock-up rather than conspiracy) to ensure that the underdog or newcomer has no chance, whilst the rich get richer.
Hooray for the free market. Nice to know that our supposedly Labour government is pushing the progressive agenda on which it is allegedly founded. A tax on buy-to-let properties to redress the balance and make it easier for newcomers to get on the ladder? Don't be silly!
All this leads to the worst thing about renting and landlords, which is this. Every Landlord has to have their own oddball fetish over something that needs to be cleaned beyond sensible possibility, and this becomes a particular sticking point when the time comes to move out.
My landlord in Southampton had a particular thing about the caulking around the shower and the fact that there was mould growing in it. This is what tends to happen with old bathroom caulking of course, but that wasn't good enough for him, we would have to get it out with bleach, or else pay for it to be re-caulked. Of course the bleach didn't make the blindest bit of difference, but at least in that instance the landlord seemed to forget and my housemates and I didn't end up pay for his caulking fetish.
The first flat I rented on my own after university was furnished. My landlord and landlady did an inspection and during this decided to inform me that the desk was showing signs that I'd put things on it. Apparently this was not on because it was an antique, and thus it needed professionally re-varnishing. I wasn't able to get out of meeting that particular whim.
Rosie holds the record for the best landlord's fetish anecdote though. She had a landlady who wanted to get the carpets professionally cleaned. Which was a bit of an odd priority to have considering there was a HOLE IN THE ROOF letting in water whenever it rained!
The latest gem that Rosie and I face, and what prompted this rant, is that our current landlady wants the cooker professionally cleaned, because it was apparently professionally cleaned before I moved in. Likewise the curtains, which were new when I moved in.
Did I mention,the bloody cooker IS clean, the bloody curtains ARE clean. The only difference if I got in a "professional" would be a little piece of paper saying how much of my money they've pocketed.
Landlords seem to like to string tenants up by the petard of their deposit and indulge themselves in a game of selective implausible perfectionism on a whim.
Leave me alone! It's partly due to speculators like you that I can't be putting my own money into a mortgage of my own! I've paid 21 months' worth of your mortgage and taken good care of your property, isn't that enough?!
