Rent payments must be maintained where possible, say landlords
Tenants must continue to pay their rent where possible, landlords have said, citing concerns about a lack of clarity over rent holidays.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) today said an increasing number of tenants believed they no longer had to pay rent due to the pandemic.
But the trade body insisted residential rent should be maintained where possible, and urged the government to clarify its guidance.
Groups including the National Union of Students have called for rent breaks for tenants as millions of people face salary cuts and redundancies as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
The NRLA said it encouraged flexibility from landlords, but denied there was a “green light” to tenants to stop paying rent.
The lack of clarity comes in part because some lenders have granted three-month mortgage payment holidays to landlords. Some tenants believe they should not pay rent for this period as a result, the trade body said.
“The mortgage repayment holiday is only available for landlords who are struggling to make their payments because their tenants are unable to pay part or all of their rent as a direct result of the coronavirus and through no fault of their own,” said NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle.
“It is not an automatic payment holiday and landlords who successfully apply still have to make these payments later on. It is not a grant.”
The NRLA said many landlords depended on rental income for their livelihood and warned that non-payment of rent could lead to a housing supply crisis.
The government has introduced emergency legislation to ban evictions private and social rented accommodation during the crisis.