The bank had previously only offered payment holidays to its residential borrowers because it did not have the systems in place to process a buy-to-let payment break.

The three-month payment holiday initiative was launched by the government in mid-March to support homeowners facing financial distress because of the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Days later, chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the scheme to cover landlords with buy-to-let mortgages.

However, banks that had never offered a payment break before struggled to get systems up and running to cope with demand for the holiday from their borrowers.

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Anxious homeowners have flooded banks’ phone lines to ask for the payment freeze causing call waiting times to last for up to ten hours in the most severe cases.

Most banks and building societies now have an online form that borrowers can complete to request a payment break.

Interest still accrues while the payment holiday is in place.