At the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, homeowners in the UK were able to request a 3 month payment holiday from their commitments, if the lockdown measures had adversely affected their income.

They could do so without any impact on their credit score, which applied to both residential mortgages as well as Buy To Lets. The Treasury have now extended the payment holidays by a further 3 months for those who’ve not yet sought assistance, in fear that if the provisions ended too soon families could find themselves in financial difficulty as we’re still in lockdown.

Whilst the measures provide temporary assistance, this isn’t free money and interest will be still charged on the missed payments which need to be paid back at some point. Additionally some Banks may start taking a firmer stance on providing these as we start to exit the lockdown.