Rent arrears. Get help if you can’t pay your rent

If you don’t deal with your arrears, your landlord or letting agency could take steps to evict you, but you do have the chance to avoid this happening.

If you haven’t contacted your landlord about your arrears you need to do this straight away. Contact them with a plan to repay what you owe. They’re not obliged to agree, but many will accept a reasonable offer. It can help to explain that you’re dealing with your money problems or give a reason why you’re not being able to pay the full amount immediately.

1. Look at your budget and work out how much you can afford to pay
2. Contact your landlord and tell them you’d like to make a new payment arrangement. Send them a copy of your budget to show you’re offering to pay the most you can manage
3. If agreed, keep to this new payment arrangement

If your landlord refuses your offer of payment to the arrears, or if they don’t reply, it’s very important you make the payments anyway.

Your landlord can take steps to evict you.

Your rights as a tenant are complex and depend on where in the UK you live and the type of tenancy you have. If you’re worried about being evicted we strongly recommend you contact Shelter, or Housing Rights if you live in Northern Ireland.

Yes, but this doesn’t happen as often as for other types of debt.

If you do get a claim letter for a County Court judgment (CCJ), you have the opportunity to pay it off, or make a payment arrangement to avoid it being recorded on your credit history.

Read our guide to dealing with County Court judgments.

The council’s housing department can advise you about applying for social housing or emergency accommodation, and help you deal with the risk of homelessness.

Find contact details for your local authority.

Your local council should process your housing benefit claim within 14 days. Contact the housing benefit department if you don’t get your payment. It helps to keep a copy of your original claim, to help them locate your record. If you claimed online you should have had an email receipt.

Make sure your landlord is aware and ask them to agree to a temporary payment arrangement.

Whether your Universal Credit payments have been delayed or you’re struggling to make all your essential payments, you should contact the Universal Credit helpline. They can advise on:

• Changing how they make payments to you
• Paying you an advance
• Paying your rent directly to the landlord

You should treat rent arrears from a previous property the same as you should do with other non-priority unsecured debts, unless the landlord has taken court action to recover the money you owe them.

Find out more about which debts to pay first.

However, these arrears may be shown on your credit file and may affect your ability to take out more credit. As your credit file is checked when you apply for a tenancy, you may find that landlords will refuse to rent to you while you have unpaid rent arrears.

Some local authorities won’t allow you to apply for council housing if you have rent arrears for a council house you’ve previously lived at. This means you may need to clear the arrears quickly if you want to get rehoused with them.

If you’re able to pay off the arrears, either by negotiating a payment arrangement or as part of a debt management plan, your payments will be noted on your credit file. This shows that you’re dealing with your debt problems.