Facepalm

You're blaming landlords/homeowners? Just blame lazy humans as a given and be done.

I've bought a house nearly 80 years old and the poor girl has had so much paint put on it, if it was makeup, it would be a rubber mask.

And it was done by tennants! Not the landlords, not the owners, the tennants! The answer was putting on a fresh coat of paint every year. And preferably in different colour from the previous.

The result was a mess of a house I bought for a really low price but needing a ton of love and maintenance. With 80 years old prime woods covered with paint that never belonged there to begin with.