Mortgage lenders concerned over tenants' rights

Banks and building societies are attempting to block proposals by government legal experts to give housing association tenants more rights.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says that if introduced the proposals, which were announced yesterday, would impose greater risks on around ?25bn of loans that its members have invested in the housing sector since 1988.

Lender's concerns centre on proposals published by the law commission, the government's legal reform agency, which would weaken the power of housing associations to tackle rent arrears.

At the moment, under assured tenancies used by housing associations, serious rent arrears are a mandatory ground for repossession. This means that, unlike councils, housing associations can evict tenants with serious rent arrears without a full court hearing.

The commission wants to increase the rights of housing association tenants to the level of council tenants in a new single long-term agreement.

Under this agreement arrears would only be a discretionary ground for repossession making it much more difficult and time consuming for housing associations to evict tenants that don't pay their rent.

The commission's paper said mandatory grounds for repossession were "incompatible with the aims of the provision of housing on a long-term basis".

Lenders fear that the plans, which are set to be included in a housing bill next year, would seriously effect housing association's cash flows and therefore increase the risk of them defaulting on their loans.

CML deputy director general Peter Williams said: "We are concerned about anything that varies the agreements that have already been made. Changing rules on rents begins to expose those loans, that is a serious issue for lenders."

He said that the CML supported the idea of a single tenancy for future social housing tenants. But he was worried by the commission's plans to apply the new tenancy retrospectively, because lenders had lent ?25bn on the understanding that housing associations would be able to summarily evict tenants with serious rent arrears.

"We would be concerned about anything that changes the grounds for possession," he said.

He stressed that rented housing was not just about tenants rights but also responsibilities, particularly paying rent. Mr Williams also confirmed that the CML would negotiate for a change to the proposals.

Around 70% of the proposals put forward by the law commission have been introduced by the government in the past.

The law commission is understood to be concerned that the government may bow to pressure from lenders and water down its desire to increase tenant's rights.

The government was forced to rewrite a large section of the 1996 Housing Act after similar concerns from lenders.