Question

Landlord Wants Tenant to Leave (England) | Preventing Controlling and Recovering Rent Arrears (England)

6 month rent in advance, when to serve notice

8 Sep 2017 | 1 comment

when can a s8 be served when paid first 6 months and have not paid the second 6 month instalment?

Answer

1 Comment

  1. guildy

    It may be the case that a six monthly rent is not available via section 8. This is because the grounds list specific rents namely:

    • weekly
    • fortnightly
    • monthly
    • quarterly, or
    • yearly

    (As a point of note, for the same reason, it may be possible four weekly may not be available either).

    Both the quarterly and yearly rents shown in the grounds must be at least three months’ rent is more than three months in arrears. Therefore, arguably, with a six monthly rent, the same rule would apply – at least three months rent must be unpaid.

    You could therefore wait for three months plus one day from when the rent became due and serve it then.

    Also, a section 21 can be served if the term has expired or expiring soon. Since October 2015 in England, the expiry date no longer matters so a six monthly rent won’t affect the expiry date.

    Anybody wanting to take six months in advance should always use our replacement front page for this purpose. After the initial six monthly payment, the rent becomes monthly avoiding this problem.

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