Dealing with rent arrears and the eviction process

The first late payment is almost always a one-off. A direct debit fails, payday lands on a Monday after the rent date, a tenant's overtime is delayed. Eighty per cent of single missed payments resolve within ten days of a polite reminder. Pick up the phone before sending a letter. A quick call — "We noticed the rent hasn't landed this month, is everything OK?" — surfaces problems early and signals you're paying attention without being heavy-handed. If the tenant is in temporary difficulty (a sick week, a delayed payment) a one-off payment plan over the next month usually clears it. Write down everything from the very first missed payment. Date and time of every call, what was said, what was agreed. If the situation escalates to a Section 8 notice and a court hearing, a contemporaneous log is worth more than reconstructed memory. If the tenant claims Universal Credit and the housing element has been delayed, this is a known issue — under the Renters' Rights Act it must be disregarded for Ground 8 arrears calculations. Help the tenant by writing to the DWP yourself; in most cases the back-payment lands within a fortnight. Don't withhold maintenance because of arrears, and don't change the locks. Both are illegal and both make any subsequent possession application much harder.

If informal contact hasn't resolved the situation by the time the second month's rent is also late, move to a written process. Send a recorded-delivery letter (or signed-for email) setting out: the amount outstanding, the dates of each missed payment, your willingness to discuss a payment plan, and a clear request that the arrears be cleared by a specific date — typically 14 days from the letter. If the tenant has a guarantor, write to them at the same time. Most guarantors don't know the tenant has fallen behind; an early letter often produces immediate payment. Refer the matter to your letting agent if you have one — most managed services include arrears handling up to the point of court action. If you self-manage, this is the point at which it's worth getting a fixed-fee quote from a housing solicitor; many offer the whole Section 8 process for £500–£800 plus court fees. Mediation services (Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes, or charity-backed mediators) can sometimes broker a payment plan that avoids court entirely — usually a better outcome for both sides if the underlying issue is short-term.

Since 1 May 2026 there is no no-fault route to possession in England. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 closed it, and every notice the landlord serves to end a tenancy now has to specify a statutory ground under Section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 — and stand up to scrutiny on the evidence behind that ground. For most landlords, in practical day-to-day terms, this matters most for arrears. The grounds the courts will accept, the notice periods they require, and the documentation you need to bring to a hearing have all been overhauled. Possession applications are more procedural, take longer to reach a hearing, and require evidence behind whichever ground you're relying on — but the system isn't unworkable. For arrears specifically, which remains the most common reason landlords seek possession, the changes are mechanical rather than catastrophic. The detailed walk-through of all the new and amended grounds — for selling, moving in, redevelopment, and the rest — is in our [Renters' Rights Act guide for landlords](/guides/renters-rights-act-for-landlords). This section focuses on the arrears route.

For rent arrears, the most-used mandatory ground remains Ground 8, but the threshold has moved. Under the Renters' Rights Act, Ground 8 now requires at least three months' rent arrears at both the date the notice is served and the date of the hearing — or thirteen weeks' arrears if rent is paid weekly or fortnightly. That's a meaningful change from the old two-month threshold, and it's intended to make sure the mandatory route catches genuine non-payment rather than short-term wobbles. The notice period has doubled from two weeks to four. The notice itself is Form 6A, which has to set out the ground you're relying on, the arrears as at the notice date, and the earliest date you can begin proceedings. The single most important strategic point is this. If the tenant clears the arrears below the three-month threshold before the hearing, Ground 8 fails — even if the arrears were well above the threshold when the notice went out. The court can still consider Ground 10 (any arrears) and Ground 11 (persistent late payment), but those are discretionary, which means the outcome moves from automatic to the judge's view of the facts. Two further grounds are worth knowing about for severe or repeat cases. Ground 14, anti-social behaviour, has been strengthened under the Act and can be pleaded alongside an arrears ground if both apply. Ground 8A is new under the Act and addresses the pay-down-on-the-hearing-morning problem directly: it allows mandatory possession where the tenant has had at least two months' arrears on three separate occasions within a three-year period, even if they're currently up to date. The practical advice on a serious arrears case is straightforward. Pair Ground 8 with Grounds 10 and 11 on the same notice. That way if Ground 8 fails at the hearing because the tenant has dropped just under the threshold, the court can still consider discretionary possession on the spot.

Once Form 6A expires unmet, the next step is to apply to the county court using Form N5. The accelerated no-fault possession track is gone; standard track is the only route now. Timelines in 2026 look roughly like this. From issuing the claim to the first hearing typically takes eight to twelve weeks. The hearing-to-possession-order step is usually a same-day affair if the ground is mandatory and the paperwork is clean, two to four weeks if the case is adjourned. From the possession order to actual enforcement, if the tenant doesn't leave on the order date you apply for a bailiff's warrant — and county court bailiffs have a backlog. Six to twelve weeks is typical, occasionally longer in busy listings. There's a faster route through High Court enforcement, by transferring the order up under Section 42 of the County Courts Act 1984, but it requires the court's permission and costs more. Total elapsed time, from a clean Ground 8 notice to vacant possession, is typically four to seven months. Longer if the tenant defends, if the court adjourns for any reason, or if the local bailiff diary is heavy. Both Worthing County Court and Brighton County Court are currently running near the top of the national range. Costs add up. A court fee of around £400. Solicitor's fees in the £600 to £1,500 bracket for a straightforward Ground 8. A bailiff warrant at around £130. Most of it is recoverable from the tenant as part of the judgment in principle; in practice, the recovery rate on a tenant who has already defaulted is low.

The best evictions are the ones that don't happen. Rent Guarantee Insurance (often bundled with legal expenses cover) pays the rent if the tenant defaults and funds the eviction process. Premiums are typically £150–£300 per tenancy per year. The policy will only respond if the tenant was thoroughly referenced at the start (income at the standard 30 times monthly rent on an annual basis, no adverse credit, satisfactory previous landlord reference) — which is the same threshold a thorough agent would apply anyway. Tenant screening matters more than it used to. With no-fault eviction off the table, the cost of taking on a marginal tenant is higher: if they default in month four, you're now looking at a five-month-minimum possession process, with no easy fallback. Spend the extra ten minutes on referencing. Keep current on compliance. Courts now check the deposit registration, gas safety certificate, EICR and EPC before granting possession on most grounds. A missed certificate doesn't just risk a fine — it can block your possession application entirely. Finally: keep the relationship working. The vast majority of tenancies that end in arrears started with a tenant who could pay the rent and ended with one who couldn't — through job loss, illness, relationship breakdown. A landlord (or agent) who's reachable, reasonable, and quick to suggest a payment plan resolves more situations earlier than one who only writes letters at month two. For the broader changes the Renters' Rights Act has made to your position, see our [Renters' Rights Act guide for landlords](/guides/renters-rights-act-for-landlords).