Include Rent Payments in Credit Scores say Residential Landlords Association
Rent payments, say Residential Landlords Association, should be included when calculating credit scores to support tenants wanting to buy a home of their own.
That’s the call being made following a survey of almost 3,000 landlords carried out by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), which found that 61 per cent of landlords would support such a move.
At present, credit rating agencies do not routinely include rent payment history when calculating credit scores. This means a tenant can find it difficult to access a mortgage, even if they have a long history of rent being paid in full and on time.
Including rent payment in this way would also support landlords, providing them with a more accurate assessment of a prospective tenant’s credit and rent payment history.
The RLA is writing to the Government calling on it to work with the industry to include rent payment history as a standard feature when calculating credit scores.
The RLA’s Chairman, Alan Ward, said: “With many tenants wanting to buy a house of their own, it is absurd rent payment is not routinely included when undertaking credit checks for mortgage applications.
“Moving to such a scheme would help not just tenants, but also landlords by giving them a clearer sense of whether a prospective tenant has historically paid their rent in full and on time.”
Read the RLA’s Senior Researcher, Tom Simcock’s blog post on the findings here.
Read the full report from the RLA’s Private renting Evidence, Analysis and Research Lab (PEARL) here.
Written by Tom Simcock
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