Does the following plea for help sound familiar?
“One of my tenants has been with me for 10 months, the last four months has been late paying her rent. Between 5-10 days late and makes payment in dribs and drabs. She never contacts me to say it will be late I always text her.
What timescale would be fair to send a letter out regarding her rent arrears? In the past I have waited 3-4 days before texting, but feel I am being taken advantage of for not chasing the rent sooner.”
In fact, figures released by the National Landlords Association reveal that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in rent arrears, with an estimated 840,000 private renters in England in arrears in 2021
The NLA research also shows that a typical landlord faces £1,649 of outstanding rent, which if accurate totals around £850m worth of rent arrears across the UK.
In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to eviction. But there are steps you can take to avoid this costly and time-consuming process.
Prior to starting an eviction, communicating with your tenant by sending them a letter, or even a series of letters, may be enough to resolve the issue. Letters are also an effective paper trail and will help your case in court, if it was to go that far.
When do rent arrears occur
Rent arrears occur when tenants fall behind on their rental payments, which can be a challenging issue for both landlords and tenants. There are several reasons why rent arrears may occur, including financial difficulties, job loss, illness or injury, unexpected expenses, or changes in personal circumstances.
For example, a tenant may have lost their job or experienced a reduction in income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to keep up with rent payments. Alternatively, unexpected expenses such as medical bills or car repairs may put a strain on a tenant’s finances, making it harder to afford rent.
Landlords may also contribute to rent arrears by failing to maintain the property or by being unresponsive to tenant complaints, which can lead to tenants withholding rent. Whatever the cause, it is essential for landlords and tenants to communicate and work together to find a solution that works for both parties, such as setting up a payment plan or seeking financial assistance.
Landlord Letter To Tenant Late Payment – Rent Arrears Letter
Here we have two rent arrears letter templates, which you can download completely free, to help you communicate with tenants who fail to pay their rent on time.
All you have to do is click on the links below to download them, personalise them for your tenant and put them in the post:
Download Late Rent Chase Up Letter 1
Deal with non-payment of rent issues immediately. If rent is more than 3 days overdue, then send out this first letter. (Always take into account bank holidays, Christmas and Easter breaks because banks do not process any payments at these times).
The final sentence of the letter talks about imposing an administration charge for late payment. You can only include this if you have given details of the administration charge in your tenancy agreement. All content on this form and other forms for landlords published by Property Division are provided “as is”, with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy or timeliness, and without representations, warranties or other contractual terms of any kind, express or implied. Property Division does not represent or warrant that this letter or other material supplied by Property Division will be accurate, current, uninterrupted, error-free or omission-free.
Download Late Rent Chase Up Letter 2
This letter is sent out only if you have received no response 4 days after you sent out the first rent chase up letter. This clearly gets across your no-nonsense approach to resolving this situation quickly and most tenants will respond to this letter. All content on this form and other forms for landlords published by Property Division are provided “as is”, with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy or timeliness, and without representations, warranties or other contractual terms of any kind, express or implied. Property Division does not represent or warrant that this letter or other material supplied by Property Division will be accurate, current, uninterrupted, error-free or omission-free.
