While many landlords continue to get to grips with the daily reality of life such as searching for the best deals on let properties insurance, big things are afoot in high places.

For some years the UK treasury has been considering extending the financial services authority’s (FSA) regulations and rules further into the consumer mortgage market. This would govern a number of aspects of mortgage lending including what would happen when one lender sold their mortgage books to another.

Few mainstream lenders are against this in principle and the Council of Mortgage lenders has offered its broad support to further legislation*.

Far more controversial, however, is the proposal to write and construct new legislation for the buy to let mortgage (BTL) marketplace.

The origins of the perceived requirements here are not entirely clear but are broadly discussed under the auspices of increased consumer protection.

Many lenders and buy to let borrowers are confused and fear a new raft of expensive and complicated rules and regulations covering BTL mortgages – this at a time when the BTL market is still trying to make up ground lost during the recession years of 2008/9.

Some have even compared the projected rules as being a rather sad throwback to the thinking of the 1970s and the pointless and restrictive legislation that stifled so much enterprise of the period.

There is a view that some BTL borrowers have suffered not because of the mortgages they were sold but because of poor investment analysis and advice. In other words, choosing to buy the wrong property in the wrong location is a far bigger problem for naïve BTL borrowers than not getting the very best mortgage deal possible.

In other words, the treasury is being accused of trying to deal with a BTL problem that doesn’t actually exist*.

Of course, the pros and cons are debateable. What everyone agrees, hopefully including the treasury, is that the last thing the BTL market needs in a fragile economic revival is the addition of a large layer of non value-adding administrative bureaucracy.

The debate continues in the corridors of power and one can only hope that common sense will prevail.

All those landlords trying to drive a profit in lean times will be watching developments here with interest!

* Source – Council of Mortgage Lenders press release 15 February 2010.