Stigma against people who rent?

Today we were supposed to have a new washing machine installed in our house, but the delivery man couldn't do it because it turns out that there is a problem with our plumbing that needs to be fixed first.

So I casually mentioned something about contacting our letting agent so that I could have the problem fixed.

No big deal, right?

Later on, long after the deliveryman had left, DH said to me that I shouldn't have mentioned anything about a letting agent, and that I should have just said that I'd call a plumber. He said that I shouldn't have let him know that we were renting the house, and didn't own it, and that in the future it could hurt us if people know that we are renting and don't own the house.

Is this true? Do people who rent in the UK really get treated worse than people who own their own homes? 

We live in a large house in a very good area (within York City Walls) and our rent is not cheap.  (I hope I didn't sound too snobby there, myself.)

When I lived in New York City, probably most of the people I knew rented, and it wasn't a big deal.

I think a lot of it depends on the area.  Where I lived in the US, most people owned their homes and renting was a sign that you couldn't afford to buy a house (and thus a lot of people were "looked down on" for renting - something I never agreed with btw, but a common thing nonetheless).  Most of the people I know in the UK rent or live in council houses and it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

DH said to me that I shouldn't have mentioned anything about a letting agent

I don't agree with him; as (Im)Patiently Waiting... says, plenty of people in the UK rent. Around one third of all homes are rented. Some of them might be saving for a deposit, others might be content to rent indefinitely. I especially wouldn't worry what a delivery man thinks. (There's me being snobby?) In many ways renting has advantages - a person paying an affordable rent would be assessed more favourably for credit than someone with a mortgage that they can barely afford.

I especially wouldn't worry what a delivery man thinks.

I think that DH was saying that, in general, I shouldn't let people know that we're renting.

He prefaced it with the statement that sometimes I'm too open and I reveal things that people don't need to know. (Which might be true sometimes.)

Our neighbours are very old and if they own their homes, they would have bought them when house prices were much cheaper so the fact that they are homeowners is no indication of how much money they were earning - for the type of people who think that people who don't earn a lot of money are lazier than people who earn more.

I would have said something about contacting the letting agent to the delivery guy too. You're basically telling him that someone else needs to be involved in this and that could potentially hold things up. No big deal.

Is there a stigma against renting? I mentioned this to my DH and he said, 'Yes, that's why people were anxious to buy property they couldn't afford, thus leading to the property crash with people losing their homes'. So, yeah, there's a stigma, but probably not in the way your husband has implied.

Personally, I would rather rent a nice, spacious house in a good location than spend all my savings on a small, crowded house in a crappy area far from everything just so that I can say I own my own home.

But that's just me.

IMO no one really cares if you rent or you own...it sounds like your husband may have the problem and has a stigma about renting, not other people.

I don't think people give a sh*te here, most people I know seem to rent. I was totally judged in the US though for not owning. While most of my friends bought houses, I moved to Europe and blew a ton of money on a Masters Degree - so reckless

I think its more normal in the US for people to own. Whatevs.

I don't think there is the same stigma with renting as there is in the US.  Plus saying you rent your house is a great way to instantly get rid of telemarketers trying to sell new kitchens or windows.

I don't think there is the same stigma with renting as there is in the US.

I agree - house prices are so high in the UK that it's not easy to buy anything, so many people don't have any other choice but to rent. I know when the house prices sky-rocketed recently, my parents were doubting whether my brothers and I would ever get the chance to become home-owners (e.g. in 1999, they bought their house for £135,000... now it's probably worth around £250,000) - as it is, two of the three of us are living back at home again now because we can't even afford to rent, let alone buy a house!

I've definitely gotten comments in the US about renting.

Whether it was the people I've spoken to, or the area I live in, but people I've talked to seem to believe that renting means you're not well off and/or you should own a house for an investment.  Personally, I think it's rubbish.  People should do what is best for them.  For some, it's owning and for some, it's renting.  My mother owns her place, and she wishes she could go back to renting.

So what if someone believes X or Y about you because you rent?  Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.  They may believe they're so much better because they own their home, but if they have a major problem with their house, they may be cursing that they aren't renting and can't just call their landlord to fix it - and instead have to spend massive amounts of money to fix the problem themselves.

IMO, there are advantages and disadvantages with both.  You do what's best for you, and disregard what anyone else thinks.

I've certainly been aware of a stigma against renters in the US. I lived in a condo complex for a while and on the first day I was there, the neighbours asked me if I owned or rented. As it happened, I owned, but it was none of their business!

I think the feeling is that if you own, you're more likely to put money into maintaining the property well. If you rent, you won't. I'm not saying there's any validity to that, but I think that's what some people think.

There used to exist, among certain people. mainly "respectable working class", a petty snobbery that says owning=good, renting=bad, council tenant=worse, You used to hear people saying that council tenants kept coal in the bath. I thought it was dying out, but evidently not.

I think in the US it depends on where you live.  NYC is definitely one of those places where you'd be less likely to find it, although it might have changed a bit since I lived there. Here, as others have said, there seems to be less, but I've run into a bit of pride in some people here as well.  Our upstairs neighbour went out of his way in a conversation to let me know that he owned his flat (referring to our land lords, the couple who lives above him, and himself as "the owners").

Tremula, that's surprising you have observed that about the working class as they probably were one of the lowest home owning groups before the great council property sell off, and probably still are.  I'd not be surprised if middle England ("Pardonia" and slightly beyond) had that opinion.  I've not encountered it at all in the working class, and while some aspire to own their own homes if they don't already, it seems less about snobbery and more about being secure or those stupid property shows which have finally seemed to go away a bit.  Maybe I just haven't met any "respectable" ones? I've met lower middle class/white collar workers with that attitude, but not working class.

Anyway, one of the problems with renting is security, and I hope that some of this will be addressed by one government or another in the coming years.  Renting should be a viable option for people, and while there should be benefits for home ownership, it should be largely monetary and not around the feeling that you need to buy in order to avoid being at the whim of landlords.  We're going to see an even tighter squeeze on renters as the investment in both property for sale and for rent dissipates.  I heard a radio programme on this about a week or so ago, and a lot of people called in with concerns about people not being able to get on the property ladder at all, and the problems with renting (which may or may not be something that legislation or investment might fix).

in the states my university friends rushed out and bought as soon as they had jobs, those that didn't rent until they convinced their boyfriends to let them move in. I was only 1 of 2 of my friends that rented, and yes I would definitely say there was a bit of a stigma there. Why wouldn't I want to buy? Um because I didn't plan on staying in the same place for long and didn't want the hassle? That wasn't viewed as a good enough answer.

Here there seems to be a much more relaxed view to living accommodation, atleast amongst the people I know. Renting a room seems to be much more acceptable than it was in Minnesota, in fact when I rented a room just before moving over here it was like I was one step from being a vagrant. Here there are constantly posts on work's notice board for people looking for rooms, or wanting to fill rooms, and these are professionals, not students.

My husband talks about us buying, but in all honesty I'm not bothered. I've seen too many people pushed or pressured to buy and them either being stuck with a house they can't sell or lose the house to the bank because they can't keep up on payments.