NatWest to review lending practices towards benefit claimants

Helena McAleer, a landlord from Northern Ireland, said she had the mortgage on a property revoked because she is renting to a benefit claimant.

McAleer has since established a campaign page on Facebook in which she writes: “I was beyond disgusted by the statement. Actually more than that I cried my eyes out for hours, how could a bank, a person at a bank make the decision that I had to kick someone out of their home simply because of their circumstances, because fundamentally that’s what they are asking me to do.”

Research carried out in 2017 by the The Residential Landlords Association's mortgage consultants, 3mc, found that 66% of lenders representing approximately 90% of the buy-to-let market do not allow properties to be rented out to those in receipt of housing benefit.

The RLA believes such practices breach a number of principles within the FCA’s ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ agenda and also wants the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to review whether such practices breach equalities law.

David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords Association, said: “With increasing numbers of benefit claimants now reliant on the private rented sector for a home we welcome NatWest’s decision to review its lending practices.

“The RLA continues to urge the rest of the industry to do likewise so that private landlords are better supported to house vulnerable tenants.”