A buy to let landlord who could only remortgage a rented home if she evicted her tenant has started a petition protest calling for the government to outlaw lenders with a ‘no benefits’ policy.
NatWest told the landlord, Helen McAteer, that she could only increase her loan if she found another tenant, even though the woman in her 50s renting the flat had no arrears and had lived in the property for two years.
The bank – part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group – bans landlords letting to tenants on benefits and refused to increase the landlord’s borrowing while the tenant stays in the flat.
McAteer ignored the bank and remortgaged her flat with a more liberal lender happy to allow the tenant to stay.
Now, McAteer has organised an online petition demanding mortgage lenders stop forcing landlords to discriminate against tenants on benefits.
She says a housing charity survey in 2017 revealed 43% of landlords have loans banning them from letting to tenants on benefits.
“Some banks refuse mortgages to buy to let landlords who let to welfare recipients. My bank instructed me to seek an alternative tenant if I wished to keep my mortgage because my tenant was a welfare recipient,” said McAteer.
“The government must close these loopholes, as they are a breach of basic human rights
“This isn’t only because landlords are discriminatory, many banks prohibit landlords from renting to reliable tenants just because of their circumstances. Welfare recipients are not second class citizens they deserve access to safe, secure, habitable, and affordable homes as is their human right.”
So far, around 3,800 people have signed up to the petition protest – and if the tally hits 10,000, the government must give a written response.
The RBS are not known for being socially responsible in any way, this is bad news that banks can force landlords to make someone homeless. How do I get to the petition?
There is a link within the article copied here
Playing devils advocate here firstly I find it hard to believe the bank wanted the tenant evicted, they are within their rights to refuse further borrowings if a tenant is benefited but I don’t believe they could or want the tenant evicted due to her being on benefits as the wording suggests
The banks look at various reports and statistics and conclude that those who are on benefits are more likely to have rent arrears and will be higher maintenance and wear and tear on the property as they use it more often than those who go to work (borne out by recent reports on this website)
At the end of the day it is THEIR property (the bank)until the mortgage is paid off so why shouldn’t these banks have a say in how they protect THEIR asset that they have lent money against
The banks have many faults but Ms McAteer would not even have that property to let out if it were not for them lending their money against it so why shouldn’t they have the right to impose their individual rules which is something she should have known about when taking out the mortgage It seems to me that Ms McAteer should have chosen her mortgage provider more carefully especially with lenders out there who will accommodate her requirements
I wont be signing her petition
I work as phone advisor for another landlord organisation. A large proportion of the landlords who need to evict are evicting tenants on benefits.
These landlords are either inexperienced or otherwise fail to carry out proper referencing, but unfortunately several have relied on agents who have neglected proper referencing or failed to advise the landlord when a check has thrown up red flags. Many landlords believe that if a prospective tenant is on benefits, there is no point in carrying out a reference…
We have the phenomenon of the property investor – people who rent out property but don’t identify as landlords because they don’t have the time to self manage and learn about housing legislation and are often not interested as they have another full time career.
Coupled with this, we have an extremely overworked and inefficient court system.
While most tenants on benefits are decent people who don’t deserve to be barred from renting, can we blame mortgage providers when they are up against a system that allows irresponsible letting on the one hand and fails to provide an efficient remedy when things (inevitably) go wrong on the other? Unless mortgage providers take the situation into their own hands and insist on checking or even carrying out tenant references themselves (not a bad idea IMHO)…
What we really need is a mandatory national landlord accreditation scheme for England that ensures landlords who self manage know what they’re doing, or they use an agent, which is in turn properly regulated with properly trained staffed, then there will be no justification to discriminate against tenants on benefits.