Was I an evil landlord?

[PiesAreGood]

It is an impossible situation to "feel good" about either way. I like the old adage of a bad decision made well is better than making a good decision too late. Which more or less boils down to the same sage advice from Mossdog.

If you want to feel better about your decision. It could be argued that the prospective tenants did not help themselves by leaving their previous place messy (assuming that the agent is being truthful). Whenever I have rented I have always made sure to leave the place as I would like to find it if it were mine when moving out.

[mr brightside]

Maybe they are great folks and I put them in difficulty?
Was I naughty?

Naughty is a judgement, don't impose judgement on the situation or yourself. You assessed risk.

[Graham Breeze]

I've had two times as an accidental landlord.

First time we had a tenant who was recommended by a family friend, but after around 15 months of paying the rent suddenly stooped and after about 10 weeks we started action at which point they left.

So nearly a £1000 down, but also £2000 of damage to the property that had been decorated and renewed to sell (we let it because we couldn't sell)
So we sold. We were lucky that house prices had risen over the two years so we more than recouped our shortfall.

Second time was Mrs WP. She became part responsible for a property with a tenant from her mother. After a few years of £400/month rent(the tenant had been in around 10 years total) the tenant had to move out for a couple of weeks to deal with some maintenance.
It ended up being far worse.
The £2k job ended up being around £10k because of extensive damp caused by the tenant.
We sold, and got out of it more or less break even.

I would not let again, especially with the way the laws are heading, which is increasingly stacked against small landlords.

My advise is sell, although you might be a few months late to catch the market at it's best.

If you work out the rent will only get you around 5% of the property value gross assuming around £1250/month for a £300k property.
Strip out your costs, and you may as well have the money, especially as I can see a flat property market now for the rest of this decade, so you can't expect any capital gain.
After the 2008 crash, our house took around 10 years to recover to the value it was in 2007. I can see that happening again.

Perhaps the owner/landlord renting an apartment in my building is a philanthropist but 5% seems a bit high to me?

There is a phrase "cash in king" which often makes sense. Property, in the long term, generally provides a good return but as an asset it is also a liability and one which is inflexible.

But investing in the stock market, taking a medium-long term view, works pretty well as well and you can always get you money out within days (assuming you don't invest your money in snake oil).

[Witton Park]

Perhaps the owner/landlord renting an apartment in my building

Surely he's letting an apartment

[Graham Breeze]

Surely he's letting an apartment

Renting was not incorrect but I accept letting is the more usual expression to avoid confusion.

And I am sure the owner - a local ex-football player and ex-manager of many clubs, and some reputation - would agree with you.

[Witton Park]

Renting was not incorrect but I accept letting is the more usual expression to avoid confusion.

And I am sure the owner - a local ex-football player and ex-manager of many clubs, and some reputation - would agree with you.

It was more like me than you. Your English, even written is usually cut glass, so I couldn't resist

[Graham Breeze]

It was more like me than you. Your English, even written is usually cut glass, so I couldn't resist

Oh yes. I sensed your pleasure from here.