Ringley: Eviction restrictions will encourage landlords to engage with tenants

Government restrictions mean that landlords will have to carry out additional processes before enacting eviction proceedings against tenants, which is a fair method of encouraging landlords to engage when the eviction ban is lifted, according to Ringley.

Mary-Anne Bowring, group managing director at Ringley and creator of automated lettings platform, PlanetRent, said: “The new measures announced by the government are fair, as they will encourage landlords to engage with their tenants, as any business would with a customer to agree credit terms.”

However, Bowring added that the fairness of these measures is contingent on how these additional restrictions are implemented, and whether they take into account the additional financial pressures on landlords who have had to take mortgage payment holidays during the crisis.

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She said: “The way this is carried out all depends on if it’s just a way for the government to expect buy-to-let investors to subsidise the lives of people in the pandemic.

“While landlords have been able to get mortgage repayment holidays, these are only a postponement of interest and capital repayments and nothing like the benefits of the furlough scheme that some employees have received.

“Landlords will have to pay higher interest and repayments as soon as their repayment holiday ends.”