[user104658]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Its a good thing they are protected in that way really though. God, dealing with landlords is stressful enough nevermind some guy down the road owning my house off a bloody tiny payment..

To be fair, the two best landlords I've had were both "small" landlords with one property. One was a guy who had basically done what is being described here, but with a view to actually living in the place eventually - he had bought but was still living at home, renting it out to get it paid off fast, with his plan being to then live there himself. It meant that if anything broke or needed replaced, it was done to a really high standard. Generally landlords who are simply renting out multiple properties for profit will go with the cheapest option/fix.

e.g. I've never actually met my current landlord. We've lived here for 7 years! All we see of them is whatever dodgy cowboy they send round to deal with any issues. Though to be fair the plus side of that is getting to treat it not like a rental at all - within the first year they gave us a carte blanche "Whatevz" in terms of redecorating and even major changes (we had an old fireplace ripped out, lol) because I think they frankly don't care much about the property and are just using it as an easy extra income. I suspect they'll sell when we leave.