Around 25% of new landlords say the business is brought more stress than they had been led to expect and two thirds of landlords said their lives were more stressful than a year ago.
The survey by UK Landlord Tax also revealed that more than half of landlords will use up to a fifth of their holidays to resolve problems with tenants and properties.
Landlords worry about tax and repairs
Another 46% of landlords claim they spend up to 20 hours every year just on making phone calls to negotiate with tenants, letting agents as well as resolving maintenance, repairs and insurance issues.
Other factors contributing to the levels of stress of landlords include tax worries, having to pay for property repairs and late rent payments.
Landlords also admitted to worrying about void periods and not having time to deal with property issues. Around 15% of landlords said expensive agency fees made them stressed.
Simon Thandi, a director at UK Landlord Tax, said: “It is not a surprise that landlords are becoming increasingly stressed following the dramatic rise in the number of landlords.
“Property letting is a business and with ‘accidental landlords’ increasing significantly landlords will feel increasingly under pressure.”
Landlords have a ‘pet hate’ for stress
Another major source of stress for landlords was the issue of tenants keeping pets in their property.
When questioned, 60% of landlords said they did not allow pets but more than 5% discovered that a pet had been kept in a property when the tenancy came to an end. Most of these landlords experienced damage to their property that needed repairing.
Despite the levels of stress and inconvenience being suffered by landlords, 74% said they had no plan to stop letting their property in the coming year though 51% admitted that they did not expect to make any money in the next 12 months either.
Future rent increases will be lower
Meanwhile, landlords believe that rent increases will be less than the inflation rate over the coming year.
That's the verdict from research carried out by the Reeds Rains and Your Move estate and letting agents’ network with the average rent rise being predicted at just 1.8%.
The Bank of England is predicting that inflation next year will run at around 2% and rents are currently increasing at 2.4% in the UK.
David Newnes is a director of the firm and he said that demand for rental property was still increasing but the supply to meet that the band was also growing.
He added: “This demand is encouraging buy to let investors and existing landlords to add to the number of rentable homes available and tenants will feel the benefit.”
