x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Paying rent ‘in full and on time’ should boost a tenant’s credit score, says RLA

Private tenants who pay their rent on time should see their credit rating boosted in order to make it easier for them to gain a foot on the housing ladder.

That is the call being made following a survey of almost 3,000 buy-to-let landlords carried out by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), which found that 61% of landlords would support such a move.

 Credit rating agencies do not currently 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.

Advertisement

The RLA believes that including rent payment in this way would also make it easier for landlords to make a more accurate assessment of a prospective tenant’s credit and rent payment history, and that is why the trade body 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, commented: “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.”

Want to comment on this story? If so...if any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on any basis, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.

Tags:

  • Asa Bentley

    This research is interesting at a time when so many changes are imminent in the lettings industry impacting agents, landlords and tenants.

    Tenants can already register their rent payments and have them reported to Experian through CreditLadder. We've already processed over £7.5m rents to date and want to help as many tenants as possible.

  • Mike Georgeson

    Our tenants can already have their rent payments notified to Experian through our site, https://www.rentalstep.co.

icon

Please login to comment

MovePal MovePal MovePal
sign up