Aug

SURVEY: Landlords report 87% of tenants paying rent and only 3% in arrears

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Landlords have reported that over 95% of private tenants are paying their rent OR have made arrangements with their landlord to lower or defer payments during the pandemic.

The independent poll commissioned by the NRLA found that among the landlords canvassed, 87% of their tenants have paid their rent as normal throughout the pandemic.

A further 8% said had agreed a reduced rent, a rent-free period or made some other agreement with their landlord or letting agent.

And only 3% of tenants are building up arrears and are unable or unwilling to repay them – with less than a third of those in arrears or two percent of tenants, being served with a possession notice.

Further evidence that landlords are working to keep tenants in their homes comes from a separate survey which shows that 55 per cent of landlords who have granted at least one tenant a deferred rent or rent free period plan to absorb the losses from their own savings.

The NRLA is also calling on calling for the Government to introduce guaranteed hardship loans to help tenants in England who are in arrears due to the pandemic.

Ahead of the winding down of the furlough scheme, it argues that – similar to the Tenant Saver Loan Scheme launched yesterday by the Welsh Government – such loans should be provided to eligible tenants, interest-free and ring-fenced solely to cover rent payments.

Chief executive Ben Beadle says eviction isn’t inevitable where people have struggled to pay their rent due to COVID-19. “Those who argue otherwise are stoking needless anxiety for tenants,” he says.

“To offer security to tenants and landlords badly hit during the lockdown we are calling on the Government to introduce a tenant loan scheme to help pay off arrears built due to the coronavirus.”

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