Landlords – they really get a raw deal, don’t they? That’s certainly what the landlord lobby would have you think. From being forced “to house millions more pets” to not being allowed to simply text tenants to inform them that their rent is going up, there are few people as mugged off as the humble private “housing provider”.
Adding insult to injury, two weeks ago, a leak from the Treasury suggested that chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering forcing landlords to pay national insurance on their rental income in the autumn budget, bringing them unjustly in line with the rest of the population that actually works for a living. Labour expects that taxing this “unearned income” (which 44 Labour MPs and four frontbenchers currently enjoy, more than the Tories) could raise £2bn for the public purse. Which I suppose means that landlords are currently pocketing £2bn from the public purse in tax they’re not paying. And that’s not all.
Rumours of Reeves’ “tax raid” – the “final nail in the coffin for landlords”, claims landlord forum Property118 in an article illustrated with an image of an enormous nail entering a coffin presumably encasing a dead landlord – prompted Novara Media to ask an important question: how else does the government give people who live off the sweat of others’ brows favourable treatment? Here’s a list of the ten weirdest, most unjustifiable benefits landlords get.
1. No national insurance.
National insurance is already a regressive tax, with the highest earners paying less of it as a proportion of their income than the lowest – or, in the case of landlords, not at all. As the recent Treasury leak handily reminded everyone, landlords don’t currently pay NI on their rental income – only income tax. That’s unless their landlordism isn’t a side-hustle (in which case it’s property income, which is NI-exempt) but an actual property business (in which case it’s business income, which isn’t). In practice, however, HMRC defines property income very generously. You can rent out several properties, and live entirely on the income you make from them, and still not be classified as receiving business income. In other words, there are thousands of people out there paying no NI whatsoever on their income, as the rest of us slave away to pay ours.
2. No license? No problem!
In recent years, several councils in the UK have created licensing schemes designed to avoid slum housing in houses where multiple non-related people live together (called “houses in multiple occupation” or HMOs). The licenses vary in cost, but are around £1,000-1,500 and last between three and five years – in other words, about a single month’s rental income (landlords pocket roughly £1,300 a month, on average). Fines for unlicensed landlords are hefty – renters have the right to apply for a rent repayment order (RRO) of up to 12 months’ rent.
But there’s a catch. The HMO system relies almost entirely on renters applying for RROs, a bureaucratic, time-consuming and laborious process (and good luck getting your landlord to cough up even if the court grants you your RRO). What’s worse, councils won’t notify tenants if their landlord doesn’t have a license – even though renters have a time limit to apply for an RRO (within 12 months of when the landlord first applied for a license). This means the clock has likely already run down on thousands, if not millions, of renters.
Several councils produce public lists of landlords with a license. So, if you have housemates and rent from a private landlord, check if your council has a list right now and, if you’re within the time limit, consider applying for an RRO.
3. ‘Property allowance.’
The first £1,000 landlords make, they don’t have to pay any tax on at all. That’s what’s called a “property allowance” – a name that would make you think it’s for tenants, exempting them from paying tax on a proportion of their rent, but no. Tenants are taxed on every penny of their rental expenditure – unless they use their home as an office, for example, in which case some of their rent may be tax-deductible – while their landlords get to keep a grand for doing basically nothing. Tax allowances for landlords, no equivalent for tenants.
4. Taking your benefits.
If someone on universal credit (UC) is in over two months of rent arrears – or if they have an addiction, poor mental health, are the victim of domestic abuse, have learning difficulties, or simply don’t speak English as their first language – the landlord can request that their tenant’s housing benefit be sent to them directly, via what’s called an alternative payment arrangement. That might sound fair enough – you are awarded the housing benefit part of UC based on having rent to pay for a landlord – but think about the equivalent for those of us lucky enough not to rely on benefits.
Those of us who aren’t on UC get our income paid into our bank accounts, and are contractually bound to pay our landlord rent. But if we don’t, for whatever reason, our landlord can’t simply go to our bank and ask to be paid directly – they have to go through the courts. If you’re poor, however, a landlord can effectively reach into your UC account and withdraw the cash. Landlords are some of the biggest benefit recipients in the country: last year, the New Economics Foundation estimated that landlords will receive over £70bn in their tenants’ housing support from 2024-2029, more than six times the government’s budget on affordable housing (£11.5bn).
5. £7.5k tax-free if you Airbnb your house.
The “rent a room” scheme allows landlords to rent out a furnished room in their home and pocket £7,500 a year in rental income. Given that they’re utilising extra space in their homes, you might think that’s fair enough – until you realise that lodgers have pitifully few rights, and short-term holiday letting is driving up rents for people needing to rent their actual homes.
6. No tax returns for landlords earning sub-£10k.
If a landlord earns less than £10,000 a year before allowable expenses, they don’t even have to report it to HMRC. Given most people who aren’t landlords spend several hours, if not days, filling out their self-assessments, and time is money, that’s a hell of a lot of money they’re saving.
7. About those ‘allowable expenses’.
There are dozens of things landlords can claim as allowable expenses, from installing new windows to upgrading the bathroom. Though the repairs aren’t technically allowed to improve the property beyond its original condition (known as a “capital enhancement”), they may nevertheless increase its value – and even if repairs/redecoration are done shortly before you evict your tenants, they’re still tax deductible.
8. Rent too high? Too bad.
It will come as news to most renters that they are in fact able to challenge an unfairly high rent increase in the courts, via a property tribunal. While landlord industry outlets scaremonger using proprietary polling about the number of tenants supposedly willing to do this – and why wouldn’t they, private rents went up by 9.1% in the 12 months to November 2024 – in practice, nobody ever does. In 2023, just 921 people took their landlord to court over rent increases. Again, why would they: a 2018 report from Shelter estimated that 141,000 tenants had been evicted for complaining about their living conditions since 2015, roughly half of those who complained.
The Tories’ renters’ rights bill, now passed on to Labour and still sluggishly making its way through the Commons, promises to restrict rent increases to one per year. But it doesn’t cap how much that increase can be.
9. No minimum tenancy.
The UK has some of the laxest rules around leases in the world, with no minimum lease length, and fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) that mean you’re on the hook for rent even if you need to leave midway through your lease (again, the renters’ rights bill promises to scrap fixed-term ASTs, but the proof will be in the pudding). Which of us hasn’t waited anxiously at the end of our (generally) 12-month lease to see whether we’re going to be out on our ear or not? Contrast this with France, where tenants get a minimum of three years with automatic right of renewal; Spain, where residential leases have a minimum term of five years (seven if you’re a corporate landlord); or Germany, where fixed-term contracts are mostly banned and residential leases must be indefinite.
10. Your property back – for any reason!
Finally, the infamous Section 21 – the provision in housing law that allows landlords to reclaim their property for any reason they goddamn like (in other countries – Germany, France, Spain and many US states – landlords need a specific reason to evict tenants, such as rent arrears or serious property damage). The renters’ rights bill pledges to scrap this: over 30,000 households in England received these “no-fault” eviction notices in the 12 months to August 2025. Even if passed, the renters’ bill would still give landlords no fewer than 36 other grounds for repossession, including moving themselves in or selling the property – grounds we’re absolutely certain they won’t deploy fraudulently.
Rivkah Brown is a commissioning editor and reporter for Novara Media.
