UK Landlord Forum / Life

Bradford and Bingley are apparently offering a new service of collecting rents directly from tenants of properties on which it has lent buy-to-let mortgages. Why? Well, apparently it's a way of keeping its arrears and possessions under control.

B&B revealed that 2.3% of its mortgages are now three months or more in arrears, up from 1.48 per cent in 2007, sending its provision for bad debts soaring to £75m in the first half of the year, more than 14 times the level in the same period of 2006.

Sounds like a neat idea, but there isn't any mention of cost...Will this service cost the borrower more money for this service? Hmmm.

More here

Do you think they'll fix all those broken toilets while they're round there? 

Of course, according to MEx lending criteria the rent should be 125% of the mortgage payment, so what happens to the surplus.  Fine, put it towards arrears, but what happens when the account is up to date again?

And, if there are already problems getting the rent, why do MEx think they are going to have any more success in getting the tenant to cough up?