"There is no way I would want to be a landlord these days!"
Why not? Property constantly going up in price, if you're lucky to be a land lord you may own 3+ homes, each raking in over half a grand each month in rent not to mention the actual property price increasing. If you can't keep these properties up to living conditions then you aught to be penalised.
Why would you support landlords who don't provide adequate conditions?
The majority of landlords that I have experienced have been more than adequate. However, I have had one landlord who did everything he could to be cheap and awkward. It can make life frustrating, one situation I was in, I replaced a door because it needed replacing. A paint job wouldn't have done the trick. I replaced this door and the landlord charged me for the door, despite informing him that I had no intentions of taking the replacement door with me when I left.
The guy was a nightmare.