Ms Kathryn Ward:

Part of the difficulty with a buy-to-let is that our legislation, as it stands, tells us that we cannot look at title. Therefore, when somebody wants to take a case to us, we cannot ask somebody to have a look at the title deeds so we do not know. Somebody may say that it is a buy-to-let but we would not necessarily know if it was a principal private residence that somebody had let. As we know, that, in itself, can pose problems. Pre-2009, if someone wanted to let his or her principal private residence, he or she had to have written permission from the bank in order to do so. That can cause difficulties for tenants as well. It is an issue of clarity around that. We would have to be careful how we word that. We do not necessarily want to be looking at title.