From its latest research carried out by a tenant deposit replacement scheme, the company claims that the Coronavirus pandemic could cost landlords a staggering £14.9bn, this is if tenants are unable or refuses to pay rent during the three month support period announced by the government.

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The government is stopping all evictions during the next three months as well as suspending possession proceedings in court.

The research has calculated the worst case scenario on the basis that there are 5.2 million rental households. If they are unable to pay rent then landlords could lose £4.97bn each month, based on the average monthly rent of £955.

England’s landlords could suffer the most as there could be a potential three month loss of £11.6bn, with London alone potentially losing £4.9bn over this period.

Across the UK there are around 2.6 million landlords in the buy to let industry sector who have an average of two properties to let. Over this period each landlord could lose £5,730 with an average monthly rental income of £955.

In Scotland the average properties per landlord is slightly higher at 2.1 and a calculated loss of £6,146 over the same period, with Northern Ireland at £6,083.

Co-founder of the tenant deposit replacement scheme, Matthew Hooker, said: “It’s great news that the government are providing some financial respite for the nation’s landlords, however, it’s more of a weekend away than a holiday and once expired, UK landlords are still facing the cost of a buy to let mortgage without the rental income to pay it.

“It’s by no means the fault of the tenant if they are unable to pay but there is a very real chance that landlords will turn to the rental deposits at the end of a tenancy in order to recoup this lost rent. While this would be unfair on a tenant who has otherwise kept the property in good order, it may well be the case that landlords are simply left with no choice.

“The silver lining at least is that hopefully, not all tenants will be unable to pay their rent and so this sum of lost rental income should reduce, but whichever way you look at it, the UK rental sector is in for a tough few months.”