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Is ‘No DSS’ Finally Becoming a Thing of the Past in the Lettings Industry?
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
Buy-to-let landlords will no longer have to agree to a ‘No DSS’ term, when taking out a mortgage with The Co-operative Bank.
Platform, the intermediary lender for The Co-operative Bank, has removed this restriction from its lending criteria. Landlords taking out a buy-to-let mortgage with them will no longer have to worry about letting to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.
With the recent call from the Government to end ‘No DSS’ adverts, led by MP Heather Wheeler, the Minister for Housing and Homelessness, we have seen a trickle of change.
In March, Zoopla announced its plan to ban the phrase ‘No DSS’ from being used in any housing advertisements on its website, in line with Heather Wheeler’s movement.
During the same month, NatWest and Nationwide also removed restrictions from its terms and conditions that prevented buy-to-let landlords from letting to tenants in receipt of housing benefit.
NatWest specifically was highlighted in the media for previously having a ‘No DSS’ term, as last October news spread that the lender had informed a landlord that it would no longer continue her buy-to-let mortgage, as it was the bank’s policy not to allow rentals to benefit claimants.
Gordon Soutar, managing director of mortgages at The Co-operative, commented: “We are glad to be able to remove this condition to the benefit or our landlords and prospective tenants who previously may have been restricted from taking up tenancy due to the inclusion of this letting condition in our mortgage terms and conditions.
“Our charity partner, Centrepoint, has raised this issue and the potential impact that this condition of let could have on the young people they work with. This is not a condition that we want to continue to include in the mortgages that we offer and we will no longer enforce these clauses in our mortgage terms and conditions from Monday 1st April and we will completely remove this condition from our processes and systems with a completion date of 19 May 2019.”
