The Council of Mortgage Lenders has denied claims made by politicians that it has been a “stumbling block” to longer tenancies.
The organisation, which represents UK mortgage lenders, said it is not opposed to longer tenancy agreements and that an increasing number of lenders were now willing to offer mortgages to landlords who wanted them.
Speaking in a debate in the House of Commons on reducing homelessness this week, Conservative MP for Colchester, Will Quince, said the CML did not permit tenancies of more than one year in case the mortgage holder defaulted.
He said: “The stumbling block here is in fact the Council of Mortgage Lenders and insurers, which say that a tenancy of more than one year is not permissible in case the mortgage holder defaults and they need therefore to sell the property as quickly as possible to recover their losses.
“It is actually those two different groups that prohibit leases or assured shorthold tenancies of more than one year.”
Supporting him was local government minister Marcus Jones, who said: “My honourable friend has considerable experience in this area and is absolutely right. That was one of the challenges for residential landlords, particularly buy-to-let landlords, who are restricted by the terms of a particular mortgage product they take.
“Mandating landlords to take a longer tenancy than either a mortgage lender or an insurance company may desire would cause a significant conflict and might mean that tenants are not able to secure a tenancy.”
The CML has written to MPs involved in the debate on the homelessness reduction bill to explain that its members lend to landlords who want to offer longer tenancies.
The letter stated: “Our letter points out that, when a tenancy agreement comes to an end, the lender does not require a landlord to change their tenant. Many landlords simply continue to rent to the existing tenant, and there is no limit to how long this may continue.
“So, lenders’ terms do not preclude tenants from occupying a rental property for many years in practice, if both landlord and tenant are happy with the arrangement.”
Housing charity Shelter has published a non-exhaustive list of more than a dozen lenders who are prepared to lend to landlords who would like to offer longer tenancies.
Lenders responsible for more than half of England’s buy-to-let loan book now allow landlords to offer contracts of at least 24 months, with most permitting up to three years, the charity said. Some had no maximum tenancy period at all.
The CML pointed out that over the last two decades the number of households renting privately has more than doubled to 5.3 million. Alongside this growth, there has been a growing acknowledgement of the wishes of some of those renting privately to have greater security of tenure, with the option to sign up to longer agreements with their landlords.
The CML said in a statement: “The assertion that lenders are a barrier to longer tenancies is a myth. While it is for individual firms to determine their lending policies, our own survey and the list of lenders published by Shelter show that there is a significant number of lenders that are prepared to advance mortgages to landlords who want to offer tenancies for two or three years – or even longer.”
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