Tenant rent payment recognition is likely to become standard after the matter was raised in Parliament this week.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, former cabinet minister Justine Greening raised the Creditworthiness Bill – due to be read in the Commons today.
Greening noted that MPs across the political spectrum want to see rental payments contribute towards credit worthiness, just as prompt mortgage payments do.
Experian, which issues credit reports, said that it is now taking into account the rent payment habits of over 1.2m tenants.
It also said that rental data is appearing on tenants’ statutory credit reports and that 79% of tenants who report their rental income to Experian see a noticeable improvement in their credit scores.
CreditLadder works with over 2,500 letting agent branches to report verified rent payments to Experian.
CreditLadder CEO Sheraz Dar said: As the first and largest of the players offering rent recognition to people who rent, we are proud to play our part in helping responsible tenants gain equal access to affordable credit both now and increasingly so in the future.”
Lord Bird’s Creditworthiness Assessment Bill is due to be read in the Commons after it passed through the House of Lords with no amendments.
The Bill aims to make it a requirement for credit providers to take into account of both rental and council tax payment history.
Good idea but what happens to a tenant where there is genuine disrepair issue?
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Hi Darrel,
Excellent question. At CreditLadder we have a dispute resolution service where we can hold evidence on file e.g. communication between landlord and tenant and adjust reporting accordingly but remaining objective. There is also the ability for a tenant to request an amend should there ever be a dispute on the rental data through Experian and managed by Experian. The process is robust and well thought out building on the success and learnings from the very successful Experian Rent Bureau in the US.
Kind regards,
Asa Bentley
Operations Director
CreditLadder
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I would be interested to know what reporting burden this would put on letting agents. Bearing in mind it is for the sole benefit of the tenant, we would want to apply a charge to the tenant for upgrading our systems and admin time. No, wait, the tenant fee ban. Oh well, will have to apply for charity status!
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Hi Peter,
All that is required is to direct the tenant to sign up to the CreditLadder service. As an ex-letting agent myself this has been built with the agent in mind to make it as easy as possible to introduce to your tenants. There is no technology integration or admin required. Please contact me on asa@creditladder.co.uk and I can help.
Kind regards,
Asa Bentley
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In fairness, paying rent is the same as paying a mortgage, so Lenders should look at that, possibly more than income multipliers. Some people will mortgage themselves to the hilt, regardless of their ability to repay it. I know someone who did that, and spent a week each month basically living off bread and handouts. If their affordability had been worked out in conjunction of what they paid in rent, then hopefully there would have been a smaller mortgage amount offered, and I wouldn’t have felt a bit guilty eating my lunch in front of her…
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