Tenants of Buy to let mortgage lenders must have more protection says Assembly Member

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 28th Jun 2008

Welsh Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson, Peter Black has called for more protection from buy to let mortgage lenders to make sure that tenants are not the last to find out when their landlord is in trouble over mortgage payments.

Mr. Black was commenting in the light of recent information from both Shelter and the Citizen's Advice Bureau that suggests there is a growing problem of tenants being evicted at very short notice when their landlord falls so far behind with his or her payments as to cause the mortgage lender to repossess.

Mr. Black said: "When a mortgage lender repossesses a property from a buy-to-let landlord all too often the tenant is the last to know. There have been cases where the tenant has been given just 10 days to get out by the mortgage company.

"This is unacceptable behaviour. Where a tenant is paying rent to the landlord in all good faith, it is hardly their fault if the landlord is unable to keep up their own payments to the mortgage lender. Lenders must do more to help these tenants by telling them early on if there is a chance that they will be repossessing their home.

"They should also be thinking seriously about not booting out tenants who are paying rent. It is far better to have the tenant paying the rent to them. Surely, some money coming in is better than none at all? In the present housing climate, lenders have no guarantee that they would be able to re-sell these houses anyway. Lenders try and hide behind the fact that they do not have a direct relationship with the tenant. That is all very well, but they do have a moral obligation to ensure that people who have done them no harm do not suffer unduly through their action or lack of it."