Landlords relax rules to keep tenants

Buy-to-let landlords are so anxious to keep hold of their existing tenants that they are showing far more leniency when it comes to the late payment of rent.

A survey carried out by easyroom mate.co.uk revealed a significant drop in tenant evictions since the middle of 2008, despite a substantial increase in the level of payment arrears.

Between 2004 and mid-2008, the number of tenants thrown out of their rental properties rose by 8%, peaking in Q3 2007 at nearly 15,000. The number then declined steadily from mid-2008, to 12,300 in Q3 2009.

Over the same period, redundancy and pay cuts have caused a surge in tenant arrears. According to the National Landlords Association (NLA), 43% of buy-to-let landlords interviewed in October 2009 had experienced tenant arrears in the previous 12 months.

Jonathan Moore of easyroommate.co.uk said:

“In the boom years, when house prices and rents were rising, many landlords were keen to kick out tenants who were late with the rent.

“They’d take cases to the courts as soon they could to remove a tenant in arrears because they knew that would mean increasing the rent when they got a new tenant in, or selling the place to capitalise on inflated house prices.

“But in 2008, house prices stopped rising, and an empty property became a landlord’s worst nightmare. In the current housing market, landlords are doing all they can to keep tenants in their properties - even if it involves more leniency towards late rent payments.”

Moore concluded: “The recession has caused misery for thousands in the UK – but thousands of tenants have benefitted as the rules of the game have changed. A couple of years’ ago they’d have been out on their ears if they fell behind with the rent.

“But now that landlords are keen to avoid long void periods, rents have become more flexible and tenants have found it a lot easier to keep a roof over their heads.”