Question

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

s8 and rent arrears where rent is paid 6 monthly

29 Oct 2016 | 5 comments

Rent is paid 6 months in advance as per AST, their last rent payment covered the rent up until the last day of the fixed term (16/09/16). they are now 2 months in arrears, can i serve S8?

Answer

5 Comments

  1. guildy

    Is the rent definitely “6 monthly” or was that just the first payment under the tenancy and thereafter calendar monthly? If it is now calendar monthly then you can serve a section 8.

    However, if it is a true 6 monthly periodic rent, then that could be a problem. Ground 8 does not mention 6 monthly rent but the nearest one is yearly which says:

    if rent is payable yearly, at least three months’ rent is more than three months in arrears;

    And quarterly is the same level of arrears:

    if rent is payable quarterly, at least one quarter’s rent is more than three months in arrears;

    I therefore suggest that they would need to be “more than three months in arrears” before serving a section 8 under the ground 8. Of course, a section 8 could be served now using ground 10 (any arrears) but that’s a discretionary ground so you wouldn’t be guaranteed possession.

    • eden2011

      Here is the precise wording from the agreement

      The Rent –

      The Landlord lets to the Tenant the Premises for a period of Ten months. The Tenancy shall start on and include 17th November 2015 and shall end on and include 16th September 2016 but subject to the Break Clause set out on page 22 of this document.

      The Tenant shall pay to the Landlord £1,100.00 (“the Rent”) per month for the duration of the tenancy. The first payment of (£1,100.00 x 6) = £6,600.00 shall be made on 17th November 2015. The second payment of (£1,100.00 x 4) = £4,400.00 shall be made on 17th May 2016.

      1.Break Clause

      The Landlord and the Tenant have the right to terminate the Tenancy by 􀀎iving no less than 60 days advance written notice. The notice is not to be given before 17′ March 2016 and will not expire prior to 161h May 2016. Such notice is to be served by hand, first class post or recorded delivery to U,e other party to determine the tenancy. The Tenant is to send their notice to 12 Peakhill Gardens, Sydenham, London, SE26 4LE. The Landlord is to send their notice to the address of the Property. The Notice shall be deemed to have been duly served and received three Working days after posting.

      • guildy

        I’m assuming therefore that the two bulk payments were made and it’s the payments from September onwards that have been missed. Although not entirely clear, I think the rent is now at the rate of £1100 per month. As such, assuming 17 September and 17 October has been missed, they are two months in arrears.

        It is possible that the tenancy is rolling on as a statutory periodic tenancy every four months (because 4 months rent was the “last rent payable under the fixed term”) but I don’t think it really matters whether it’s rolling on 4 monthly or monthly. Since October 2015, serving the section 21 notice on periodic is easier and it no longer needs to expire on the last day of a period. Therefore, section 21 is also available and will just be 2 months plus four days.

        In our view therefore, both section 8 and 21 notices are available (and both should be served).

  2. eden2011

    can i liaise via email on this one, ill send you the exact wording? how do i do this via email? what email should i use?

Submit a Comment

View your previously asked questions. (Will only show questions from August 2020)

(Link above back to topic only works for questions added after end of August 2020)