'AITA for calling out my parents for being greedy landlords? It was my sister's birthday.'

"AITA for calling out my parents for being greedy landlords?"

My parents own a number of rental properties in my town and essentially don't work. They call it a business, but maybe once or twice a year they will buy a small house to flip, most of the work they subcontract out. They are incredibly well off, but are also very frugal with their money.

They still shop in LIDL and the most you will get on your birthday is £15 in sweets. They eat out maybe 2-4 times per year for birthdays and the like. At the same time they have several homes worth well over £1M with pools and huge gardens which they move between.

I usually bite my tongue and don't say anything about their business dealings, but recently they have had several tenants lose their jobs and fail to make rent. Rather than supporting the people who have been paying for their lifestyle they instead chose to attack them, calling them lazy.

They have been in the process of evicting two sets of tenants and keep talking about how the system is rigged against them and how tenants have too many rights. Recently I have been noticing their hypocrisy more and more and it has really started to bother me. I spoke up against them last evening when I was over for my sisters birthday, and they both blew up at me.

They claimed that they worked hard, saved up and can now live well due to their smart decisions, but to me this seems unfair because in the current economy it would be impossible to do what they did. They take real pride in spending as little money as physically possible and called me stupid for not doing what they are doing. So AITA for speaking up and risking my relationship with them?

The internet did not hold back one bit.

Memes_Deus wrote:

ESH why would bring this up at your sister's birthday of all places instead of in a seperate time and place where you could talk through your concerns. while they do sound like they are shitty landlords it is very presumable that you have grown up through their wealth and you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Kimbob1234 wrote:

YTA. Why shouldn't they shop at Lidl? Why should they go out to eat? How do you think they survived when they were younger? They probably just learned how to budget & got into the habit of being frugal. You see it as being mean. Try learning from them instead of moaning.

Fresh_Traffic_8186 wrote:

Why bring this up at your sister’s birthday FFS? That makes you a massive AH. If you had have shown your sister some respect and brought it up at a different time you would not be an AH, you are entitled to your opinion. Personally, your parents are running a business, not a charity.

They have obviously sacrificed to be in a good financial position, that doesn’t make them responsible for their tenants situation. The tenant signs a contract, whether you or I agree they have a right to run their business how they see fit.

Where I live, a holiday destination, many people I know have pulled their investment properties off the rental market due to tenant behaviours of and only rent over the holiday period. We have a massive housing shortage here, at the end of the day it is their property that they own and it’s none of anyone’s business what they choose to do with what they own.

UglySock wrote:

YTA for turning your sister's birthday into this argument. It was not the time and place for it. You are entitled to your opinions but you have no right to dictate how other people(your parents included) live or spend their money.

They are not running a charity, they are running a business which is why, presumably, you are now, in your words very well off. The hypocrisy is also with you. You condemn their business but at the same time you are in your thirties and own a 4 bedroom house in an economy that you yourself admit is pretty much impossible for young people to buy houses.

Edit: In another post you say you refused to let your girlfriend's sister move in when you own a 4 bedroom house. You girlfriend's sister has rent issues, so here is your chance to do better than your parents and help someone who is struggling with rent and you flat out refuse. Can you see the similarity?

Leigofgoblins wrote:

I'd say mainly NTA but a soft YTA for doing it on your sister's birthday.

If they think things are "bad" for landlords now (lol) they're going to have a nasty shock when the renter's rights bill comes in force.

FamiliarFamiliar wrote:

You haven't actually said anything about your parents that is...bad.

I mean, there is nothing wrong with being a landlord or flipping houses. Those things are actually more labor than you think, and risky.

And of course you eventually evict someone who isn't paying the rent. If you don't, you lose big. You probably don't know the whole story of those tenants. Could your parents be TA? Possible. Are you TA? Possible, I don't feel like I know enough to make a judgement. But I'm not going to judge people just because they own properties they rent out and flip. And being frugal isn't a sin.