Tenancy & deposits
What is rent arrears?
Rent arrears are unpaid rent owed under a tenancy. The arrears figure and the dates it accrued are what a possession claim on rent grounds stands or falls on.
The rent account is the evidence. It needs to show what was due, what was paid and when, from the start of the tenancy, and it needs to be consistent with what the tenant has been told.
Errors in the account are more damaging than the arrears themselves. A landlord whose figures move between the notice, the claim and the hearing has undermined the ground they are relying on.
Where housing benefit or universal credit is involved, payment timing frequently creates apparent arrears that are administrative rather than real, and treating those the same way is both unfair and ineffective.
What goes wrong in practice
- Rent accounts reconstructed from bank statements at the point of claim.
- Charges other than rent included in the arrears figure, which weakens the ground.
- Benefit payment cycles not accounted for, producing arrears that resolve themselves.