How Landlords Ruined Everything

A video about the housing crisis and how landlords ruined everything.

*Chapters*

00:00 1. The Room
05:26 A. A Guided Tour
07:05 2. Landlord Tetris
10:41 B. The Empty Building
12:47 3. Boiling Point
15:50 C. So, I'm Running the London Marathon
16:59 4. Shelter
19:33 D. 1,000 Miles

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Select footage courtesy of Getty

#HousingCrisis #Landlords #Rent

[Rhaifha]

In previous accommodation my landladies ex-husband was the one who advocated that I needed a functional kitchen. She was fully okay with me being unable to cook and store food for several months.

When I moved out she accused me of stealing the washing machine. That I owned.

Currently I'm living in a rental from a non-profit cooperation, and it's just a world of difference.

[chattychatotchannel]

I am disabled and live on disability pension. I was crushed to find out that disability housing takes half of your pension of $900 so I have $450 to make last a fortnight.
The house doesn’t even have differences that benefit me as someone with level 2 autism and it’s just that they give disabled people the opportunity to live somewhere in a housing drought at the expense of half of their income.

It gets worse. I cannot work because then they will cut my pension if I earn more than $170 per fortnight and it ends up meaning I have less money overall. I want to work and get the skills that come with that but we are literally worse off for it.

Society punishes you for being disabled leaving you to suffer in a poverty trap. Being disabled is expensive too

[ecyor]

People will always parrot the "there's no such thing as a free lunch" line, and yet when you point out how it's not sustainable for landlords to get upwards of a third of a typical workers paycheck as a reward for already having more money than them... Somehow you're the one who doesn't understand economics.

[johannageisel]

I'm thanking the heavens on knees for housing cooperatives!
I live in a 45m² flat in a minor major city in Germany, and I pay something around 380€ warm. That means including heating, (warm) water, trash collection and the cleaning of the shared hallway.
That's because there is no landlord. You buy 600€ of shares when you become a member of the cooperative and this money is being invested into acquiring more housing, or just making sure the existing properties are well cared for. Your rent goes to covering the costs of that too. If you want to move into another property of the coop, you can do that without further payments, and if you want to leave the coop altogether, you get your 600€ back (unless you trashed the place).
In theory, we could even receive dividents from the revenue, but since the rents are low and haven't risen for at last 12 years, there is no big profit.

[Giraffegirl]

I had a miserable experience with landlords. We used to rent out a plot of land where we would do charity work with disabled people around the community. the place we managed to get was horrible when we first got it, it was run down, there were no windows, the roof was in disrepair, and it was seriously overgrown. We had to pay out of pocket to do repairs on the whole thing and bring it up to a standard for the charity. The more we did repairs the more the landlord raised the rent, mind you he didn't pay anything for the repairs and simply raised rent each month. the more we fixed up the place the more expensive it got to stay there, and sometimes he would just raise rent "because economy" or whatever bullshit. it got so bad we couldn't afford to do our work there and had to leave. we left the landlord a place that was incredibly well built, repaired, and in great condition, all paid for by us while we had to pay rent and run a charity. what did the landlord do with the place? he turned it into a motel. landlords are literal vampires.

[Grev]

When I was renting I had multiple landlords steal from me, even though I did free work to fix leaks, mold, and even rescued a cat from inside a railing system. I started billing my labour properly in the last house.

[Linkous]

We have utterly failed as a society when affordable housing is not obtainable for people.

[Yongi]

I was involved in organising the Plymouth rent strikes, some of the shit we saw was absolutely shocking... Not only have people lowered their expectations, landlords and agencies keep shifting the goalposts of what is considered acceptable - a lot of complaints (some quite serious ones like flooding and broken toilets) were just laughed off as "that's what renting is like"...

Rent striking was a good way to secure some immediate wins and some minor changes to the way student accommodation is run in the city but I think 2 years later a lot of the stuff we did is being swept under the carpet or forgotten about completely. We need a tenants union in the city

[ijustfelldown]

Landlords are a massive burden on any economy given most of them are either massive companies with shady deals or private owners who prefer living off the property income without actually producing any "new" money to put it back into circulation.

Edit: some people have taken my comment as an attack on landlords - and getting quite defensive for no reason - but I'm merely stating how "idle" properties are bad for economy.
Rent for living quarters comes from the tenants' pockets, reducing their spending power which in turn slows down currency circulation.
However, rent for commercial spaces comes from the profits for the tenant business or a company. These profits are accounted for after all the employee salaries and business expenses are already met. Which doesn't hit the currency flow as hard.

If I wanted to bad mouth landlords I'd say so quite literally because I've had more than a fair share of bad experience with them. Though looking at the problem from systemic perspective is more helpful than a personal one.

[ramonacalvin]

“The housing crisis is simply the logical outcome of our economy working as intended” bro EXACTLY. Why uphold a system that Directly and Intentionally causes all of these problems

[okay]

I have been homeless since the tail end of august due to price hikes and overly-rigorous qualification processes. I’ve always prided myself on being able to ‘figure it out.’ This year confirmed, to me at least, that this is getting so much more out of control than I realized. Good luck out there everyone

[captain_context]

Having spent 8 years in the UK... As a poor uni student AND as a highly paid professional, I got to say.... British housing standards are terrible across the board. I lived last in the ultra posh villages down the Thames and even there, same thing. Mold and rot underneath every carpet. Money saved and skimpered on materials everywhere. The washing machine rattles the entire house to its very core. Brittle surfaces rather than proper materials. Its a complete nightmare.

British housing is on par with things you see in ex Soviet countries. --Or America... Terrible houses there too. But at least they tend to have a nicer weather so you dont really need insulation or weather proofing. Britain does, but doesnt have it. Its completely normal to wear a jacket INDOORS in the UK. The building itself, offering zero protection against the elements.

I used to say Britain build houses the way Americans build cars. It looks like the real thing from a distance. But the closer you get, you realise they arent.

[captain_context]

Traditionally what British builders do, Build to standards FAR below government regulations, sell all the flats, run themselves bankrupt. And start up another building company under a different name the following month. Thereby escaping all the repercussions and responsibility.

This was a huge issue a couple of years ago when the government came and inspected a whole bunch of homes. Uncovering a long list of required imporovements to make the property comply with the law. Most families cannot afford to be slapped with a 20-30-50 grand bill just like that.

[sleepinbelle]

the creeping realisation of what The Room truly was and how it came to be was genuinely a little terrifying.

[BreakingStubad]

Mexico City is currently on the verge of a different kind of housing crisis. Because of all the “global northerners” who’ve decided to come pay ridiculous rent prices, the local population is being priced out of living in our home town

[deckie_]

What I really love about your videos is how unapologetic they are. You're not here to have a pleasant discussion and conversation on the merits and demerits, you're here to lay down the facts. No retreading old ground; just the points.

[idontwantahandlethough]

My biggest worry surrounding this issue is how scary quickly we're barreling towards the point where you couldn't buy a house even if you wanted to. As we all know, it becomes easier and easier to make money as the amount of money (or rather, capital) you have continues to grow. This applies to homes too. Giant companies are buying up ALL the houses and apartments they can and either selling them, turning them into apartments, flipping them, or JUST SITTING ON THEM FOR YEARS AT A TIME WITH NOBODY IN THEM (because it's worth it financially to do so. That's how ya know things are broken). This isn't going to magically start getting better, it's going to get worse faster and faster. This is the kind of issue that *NEEDS* regulation. "The Invisible Hand of the Market" is not going to fix this one. The Hand _created_ this problem, it cannot also solve it.

(And to be entirely straightforward, the dystopia where *everyone* is forced to rent from them and has no other options is a landlords wet dream.. make no mistake on that one)

[dinnerwithfranklin]

I read somewhere that Landlords provide housing in much the same way as a ticket reseller is responsible for event tickets

[syncout]

Radical idea: No one should make any profit from buying and selling houses. Houses should be treated just like any other property. Like selling a used car, which will always be at a lower price than its initial price

[Myname-cbru]

Adam smith himself thought landlords were just parasites