Smaller landlords are being forced out of the private rental sector in favour of corporate limited companies – and tenants will be the losers, according to one landlord who’s quitting.

Brian Bosomworth owns five properties in Exeter and Devon but has decided to sell up due to rising costs and the expected impact of the upcoming Renters’ Rights Bill, he tells The i newspaper.

And he believes people would be shocked at how many other landlords are selling up; in and around Exeter, Rightmove is filled with empty properties that were previously buy-to-lets, he explains: “I had a property go on for let last year and 45 people looked at it.”

His profit for 2023/2024 was about £22,575 but this will drop in the current year due to mortgage interest rates tripling in April after his two-year fixed term deals ended on his portfolio.

Alarmed

Bosomworth is alarmed at news that Lloyds Bank wants to be the biggest landlord in the UK. “That’s not progress,” he says. “They are trying to force us smaller landlords out of the market and want big corporate limited companies to run the private rental sector. It’s gauged for bigger landlords now. If they have two or three void periods, they can swallow the cost, but we have mortgages.”

Bosomworth prides himself on being a small-scale landlord and on the relationships he has with his tenants, two of whom are on universal credit with young children. “This is something we have always supported but feel this government just don’t acknowledge the support landlords like us give them,” he explains.

“My tenants will WhatsApp me at 11.30pm at night; I’m always on call. My tenants say it’s great dealing with the landlord directly as the problems get solved quickly,” he adds. “This government doesn’t get it, and it will be up to future governments to pick up the pieces.”

Pic credits: Shutterstock/Instagram/Brian Bossomworth