Speaking at the Mortgage Business Expo in the Barbican Centre today, Darwin pledged to merge the application process for consumer and commercial buy-to-let with a decision tree to determine which route the client should go down.
Darwin said: “I hope the industry does not go down the route of different products with consumer buy-to-let because potentially it could encourage gaming if that pricing was lower than ordinary buy-to-let.
“Consumer buy-to-let also adds consumer protections which the investment buy-to-let landlord doesn’t have.”
When determining whether a transaction is a ‘consumer’ buy-to-let, key factors will be whether the client has ever, or plans to, live in the property and if they are already a buy-to-let landlord.
Consumer buy-to-let clients will gain protections from the Financial Ombudsman Service.
