What to do if you're struggling to pay the rent
Rent arrears could put you at risk of losing your home so if you're having problems paying, take action early.
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The power of negotiation
If you’re having trouble meeting the cost of bills and rent, discuss the situation with your landlord before you end up skipping a payment.
It’s not an easy conversation to start but an honest and upfront approach is likely to go down better than a halt on rent and no communication. Don’t kid yourself the problem will go away and don’t turn to expensive debt or payday loans as a way out.
Your landlord might consider reducing your monthly rent or agreeing on a new repayment plan until you’re back on your feet. Also, if you’re a reliable tenant, the landlord won’t necessarily want the hassle of finding someone new.
Make simple changes
If you’ve only missed one payment because of a bad month or if you’re coming up short each month by a few pounds here and there, some simple changes could make a meaningful difference.
For example, ask your landlord to switch energy suppliers, or if you’re in charge of household bills you can easily do this yourself. If you’re paying interest on a credit card bill, consider switching to a 0% balance transfer deal to help pay down the debt. Use our comparison tool to find credit card deals. But don’t use a credit card to pay your rent, as the debt will only spiral.
There are lots of cunning ways to keep living costs to a minimum. For example, read about how to save money on your food shopping or find more tips in our weekly Frugal Food blog.
You can use our MoneyTrack service for extra help – it gives a clear picture of incomings and outgoings and helps you to budget effectively.
If your debts are more serious...
Get expert help straight away. Visit your local Citizens Advice Bureau or contact the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. They will be able to advise you on how to best manage your debt.
You might have to consider moving to an area where rents are cheaper – never an easy change if you have lived in your home for a long time.
If you need to end a tenancy early on a fixed-term contract, your landlord might accept a briefer notice period. You don’t want to fall further into debt and your landlord won’t want to wait longer for payment.
Know your rights
If your circumstances have changed suddenly, perhaps because of redundancy or a relationship breakdown, The National Landlords Association recommends seeking advice about potential benefit entitlement, such as Local Housing Allowance.
However, the group warns that if you fall into severe arrears and haven’t communicated with your landlord, they are entitled to issue a notice and initiate possession proceedings.
Basically this means they can start taking steps to have you legally evicted from your home. After two months you can be ordered by the courts to leave the property.
The exact process for how this happens can depend on what type of tenancy agreement you have.
Many private renters have an assured shorthold tenancy, alternatively you could be an excluded occupier (a lodger living with your landlord) or occupier with basic protection (living in student halls of residence, for example).
You can find more information about contract types, arrears, eviction and your rights on the Shelter website.
More on renting:
Ask these questions before you rent!
Most Recent
Comments
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And a comment from the other side... My tenant is an entrepreneur in the catering field. He runs restaurants, writes cookery books, occasionally gets a biscuit recipe adopted by a manufacturer... Unfortunately, he is still several months behind with his rent. I keep writing to him asking for a payment plan that he can stick to - since I haven't (yet) exercised my right to charge him interest, this is more important than paying off the arrears as quickly as possible. During the Credit Crunch recession, he tried a number of payment schemes to try and put things back into line - not one did he stick to for more than two months. He paid it off eventually, but soon started to fall behind again. Last month he made an extra payment, so he seems to be dealing with it. But I wish he'd come up with a plan he can stick to! Fortunately my biggest cost associated with the property is the mortgage - a lifetime tracker at base rate + 0.49% - so I have no need to increase the rent. I fear that if I did, it would give him more stress, but me no more money...
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Just to say that I think the article is very good regarding for facing problems now whereas my first comment, from a soap box, relates more to the underlying ongoing causes of debt. I am using the advice to help my 28 year old daughter who is almost always visiting the bank of mum and dad. My older son will also be benefiting from the advice although he needs less help.
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All these problems and solutions are necessitated by successive UK governments, since 1950s and probably earlier, playing party politics for the short term. The shame is that nothing has changed and we will be struggling to survive for years whilst HMG "fiddles about". It has taken decades to create the current mess which politicians seem to promise will be sorted in years. Arrears, dishonesty cases apart, can only be sorted by keeping people employed. For years jobs have been exported without any provision for the economic deficits being thought of except for short term retraining schemes. The banks, at last, are being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office and I hope the culprits for libor rate fixing are caught and their assets, under proceeds of crime, seized. HMG could reduce direct taxation if 20% VAT is to stay and banks and mortgage holders should be empowered not to repossess. There was a tv program "The Day Money Went Mad" about Germany's economic upset pre WW2. People who sold their homes for food eventually had their property restored by the German government of the day. We must learn from history or we will repeat errors.
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09 July 2012