Landlord declares “I’m out” “Never again will I be letting another property in the UK” as others follow suit

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Property118

Landlord declares “I’m out” “Never again will I be letting another property in the UK” as others follow suit

As we entered boldly into 2026, many landlords started the year with a clear message about the state of the sector. The government’s newly published civil penalty tables, which showed fines of up to £35,000 for breaches under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 was just the tip of the iceberg in a nationwide “crackdown” on landlords.

The fact of the matter is, the regulatory environment has changed, and whilst our end of 2025 mission was to try and deliver more positive news to landlords, there comes a time when we have to be frank and honest about the state of the current climate.

Enforcement has become sharper, faster and more financially damaging. A simple oversight that once might have resulted in a warning can now produce a penalty larger than a year’s rental income. In the most serious cases, councils can apply for a banning order that prevents a landlord from letting or managing any property at all.

These risks are not theoretical. They are written into government guidance and will be used by councils in determining penalties. A missed licence renewal, a possession notice served on the wrong ground or a documentation error can now escalate into a £12,000 fine, a £25,000 penalty or a £30,000 claim relating to possession misuse. For some landlords, a single mistake could wipe out an entire year’s profit or trigger a forced sale under pressure.

It’s why more landlords than ever before are making the choice to sell, before enforcement activity reaches them.

If you’re an avid reader of Property118, no doubt you saw the comments of Mark Alexander, an incredibly well known and respected landlord of over 20 years who shared his thoughts, stating “I wish I could be more positive, but the news is what it is and I cannot change the facts or put any gloss on the situation this time,” he went on to say “As they would say on Dragons Den; and for those reasons, I’m out!” Never again will I be letting another property in the UK.”

His sentiments, and those of the landlords who joined in following the comments, reflect a wider trend we’ve been seeing at Landlord Sales Agency for landlords contacting us to get out of the sector, and it’ll pay to act fast.

At Landlord Sales Agency, we specialise in fast, efficient sales that achieve strong prices driven up by bidding wars. Working with over 30,000 active buyers, portfolio investors and cash purchasers who are ready to proceed, many sellers receive serious offers within days. Our maximum average time to sell is just 28 days.

The process is straightforward, confidential and designed to protect the landlord’s financial position. For some landlords, their decision to get out is one of risk management, for others, it’s the final push they needed towards an end goal they’d already been planning for retirement. Ultimately, it all comes down to control, and selling ensures you’re calling the shots, not the council.

With just 4 months to go until the Renters’ Rights Act becomes fully operational, the time to act is now. Sell, while the choice is still yours, or hold on and risk it all.

For the most entrepreneurial landlords, that choice is obvious. It’s time to get out.

So if you’re a landlord who wants to explore a fast and safe exit, contact us at Landlord Sales Agency using the form below for a confidential discussion, and let’s get you the highest price for your properties. 

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When will landlord rights be finally recognised?

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Property118

When will landlord rights be finally recognised?

Well, colour me shocked but the Guardian newspaper has managed to impress me. Sort of. It published an interesting article, called ‘Are UK buy-to-let landlords dying out – and should we care?’ and it takes a fair and balanced view of what’s happening in the PRS.

The comments were turned off, naturally, but it highlights the issues that landlords face with tighter regulations and higher taxes which have already led to ‘tens of thousands’ of rented homes disappearing from the market.

Yes, the Bible of the Left has interviewed landlords and explained what the issues in the sector are. The overheads, increasing tax burdens and an acknowledgement that being a landlord isn’t as lucrative as it once was.

There are 170 regulations that landlords must abide by, and the newspaper gives a tacit nod to the potential impact that the EPC debacle will deliver to the country’s ageing housing stock to make rents more expensive and lead to more homes leaving the PRS.

Tenants’ union is wrong

The fact that the story came out a week after news that a new national tenants union is being launched did not pass me by.

Relying on the old trope that every landlord is a bad landlord, the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) says it wants to ‘reshape the landscape’.

To what exactly? More landlords selling up? More landlords being punished with fines so large they are bankrupted?

The housing crisis is one of affordability, they say, and high rents are the reason. There’s never any joining of the dots is there? None of these people ever considers why rents are going up.

More landlord licences, more financial obligations and the result will always be an increase in rent. Crikey, even the Guardian article highlights that most landlords barely make a profit.

So, it looks like we will have yet more mouthy, know-nothing busy bodies offering solutions to problems that either don’t exist or aren’t the fault of landlords.

The only silver lining here is the intention of the union to tackle poor council and social housing. Let’s see how this pans out when the penny drops that councils, who will be the gatekeepers to improved housing conditions and enforcers of those bankrupting fines, are delivering even worse conditions.

But no one gets to fine them or turn up unannounced for an ‘inspection’.

Fixing the housing crisis

I no longer read these stories and declarations with a shake of the head, because beneath the righteous rhetoric lies an inconvenient truth that many in the housing debate still refuse to acknowledge – you cannot fix our housing crisis by hounding the very people who supply the homes that millions depend on.

In reality, if you push landlords out of the market, there will be fewer properties, higher rents, tougher tenant screening, and even less affordable housing for exactly the people the union claims to champion.

Almost every week brings another story of landlords exiting the PRS, not because they want to, but because their margins have been squeezed to the bone.

Combine that with Renters’ Rights Act which fundamentally changes tenancies and possession rights, and the sector is already being challenged, if not fundamentally reshaped.

Yet tenants’ unions and housing campaigners are blissfully unaware of the situation landlords are facing.

Unfortunately, policymakers seem intent on doubling down on policies that have already done more harm to the private rented sector than almost anything else.

The decades-long decline in rental stock has not been caused by landlords’ greed. It was exacerbated by regulatory uncertainty, punitive tax rises and a failure to address underlying supply issues.

Understanding PRS dynamics

Perhaps this year will see a change of opinion when renters and campaigners finally understand the market dynamics that sustain their homes. Landlords are not a charity. You cannot legislate investment or the building of new homes into existence.

Let’s see what happens should landlords continue to exit en masse, rent controls be introduced and supply collapse further because the tenor of public debate will be very different.

It won’t be calls for more rights for tenants, it will be pleas for some rental properties at all.

And at that point, the tenants’ union may discover that socialism, in practice, tends to disappoint its supporters – particularly when it collides with the hard realities of supply economics.

That will also mean that the rights of landlords to offer a quality, safe home will be appreciated.

The narrative that landlords are the enemies of housing affordability is simplistic and, increasingly, demonstrably wrong.

Something has changed

That message from The Guardian, a paper not known for defending the PRS, should signal that something fundamental is shifting.

So yes, tenants deserve fairness and safe housing, and all decent landlords will agree.

But fairness isn’t achieved by draining this market of its suppliers.

The solution isn’t more action against landlords. It’s having a smarter policy that invites investment instead of penalising it, creates incentives for people to buy and rent out properties, cut back punitive tax and regulatory overreach, and watch as the supply increases and rents ease. That’s basic economics, isn’t it?

Until we see that, we’re simply rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship, and when the water gets higher, tenants will learn the hard way that you can’t build a functional housing market by burning its builders.

Until next time,

The Landlord Crusader

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