Do you have a tenant who is behind on their rent? Rent arrears is a common issue amongst landlords and one which can be costly to remedy. Learn how to reduce your risk of rent arrears, plus what steps to take if your rent is late now.
Is your tenant late with the rent? Rent arrears is one of the most common complaints landlords have. Today we discuss what you can do to if your tenant is behind on their rent, plus tips on how to reduce it happening to you.
What Can You Do When Facing Rent Arrears?
By law, when a tenant signs a tenancy agreement, they agree to pay the rent on time. When they fail to do so, they breach the tenancy agreement, and this is when as a landlord, need to know what you can do about it.
When a tenant is late with their rent, you can issue a 14-day notice to remedy, via a Notice to Remedy letter. This letter states how much they owe, when the last payment was and when the late rent is due. It also states when the current rent is due too. If your tenant does not pay their rent arrears after the 14-day notice has expired, then you can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to fix the problem. This may mean evicting the tenant and forcing them to pay the rent, or to just pay the rent if you still want them as a tenant.
If the rent is 21 days or longer overdue, as a landlord you can apply for a termination of the tenancy without having to have needed to give a 14-day notice to remedy. The key though, is to have good systems in place to reduce the chance of this happening in the first place.
Best Ways to Prevent Rent Arrears from Occurring
It makes sense that good tenants look after your rental property and pay their rent on time, while bad tenants don’t. The key to choosing good tenants is through the vetting process we put all prospective tenants through before offering them one of our rentals. All prospective tenants with us are required to complete an application form and provide references for us to check. If we feel a prospective tenant is not suitable, we won’t offer them a property!
As part of our property management services, we check daily for rent payments which means if one is missed, we action it immediately. This means visiting or calling the tenant to ask for immediate payment. If you’d like more information on our tenant vetting process and residential property management services, please contact our team today. We’d love to help!
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