Rent arrears recovery: what a landlord can actually do in 2026
To recover rent arrears in 2026 a landlord demands payment, instructs a specialist recovery agency, and issues a county court money claim if ignored - with six years to act from each missed payment in England and Wales. Possession is a separate legal track, and it moved a long way on 1 May 2026: Section 21 is gone in England, and the mandatory arrears ground now needs three months’ arrears, not two.
- Ground 8 threshold
- Three months’ arrears, or 13 weeks
- Section 21
- Abolished in England from 1 May 2026
- Time limit on the money
- 6 years, whether or not the tenant has gone
Start here: which track are you on?
Recovering the money and getting the property back are two separate processes with different rules. Pick the one that matches your situation.
What changed for landlords in 2026
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received royal assent on 27 October 2025, and its main tenancy reforms took effect in England on 1 May 2026. If your sense of how arrears cases work dates from before then, most of it needs updating.
| Rule | Before 1 May 2026 | Now |
|---|---|---|
| No-fault possession | Section 21 available | Gone. Every claim needs a legal ground, and for arrears that means Section 8. |
| Tenancy type | Assured shorthold, fixed terms | Almost all converted automatically to open-ended assured periodic tenancies. The only holdouts are tenancies already in possession proceedings begun under the old rules, which convert when those end. |
| Ground 8 threshold | Two months’ arrears | Three months’ arrears, or 13 weeks where rent is weekly or fortnightly. Must be met when the notice is served and at the hearing. |
| Ground 8 notice | Two weeks | Four weeks. |
| Universal Credit delays | Counted toward arrears | Arrears that exist only because a Universal Credit housing payment has not arrived yet are disregarded. |
| Discretionary grounds | Grounds 10 and 11 available | Unchanged and still available below the Ground 8 threshold, with the court deciding whether eviction is reasonable. The mandatory repeat-arrears ground once proposed never made it into the Act. |
| Deposit compliance | Blocked Section 21 only | Gates every possession route. No possession order on any ground, including arrears, unless the deposit is properly protected. Only two anti-social behaviour grounds are excepted. |
| Rent in advance | Uncapped | Capped at one month for new tenancies, which shrinks the buffer you hold when payments stop. |
| CRAR notice (commercial) | 7 clear days | 14 clear days in England and Wales. |
These tenancy reforms apply to England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own regimes, set out further down.
Are the arrears above the Ground 8 threshold?
Ground 8 is the mandatory arrears ground in England. This works out the threshold for your rent. It is arithmetic, not legal advice, and it is only one of several conditions.
Covers weekly, fortnightly and monthly rent, which is nearly all residential tenancies. Quarterly and annual rents work differently. General information, not legal advice.
The recovery sequence
Chasing the money follows the same four steps whether the tenant is still in the property or long gone. Most cases stop at step two.
- Quantify and demand. Work out exactly what is owed from the date each payment fell due, and put it in writing. Plenty of arrears are paid at this point.
- Instruct a recovery agency. A neutral third party chasing professionally gets engagement that your own reminders did not, and it does not end the tenancy. Tracing comes as standard if the tenant has moved on.
- County court money claim. If it is ignored, issue. The fee is banded by claim value on a published court scale. Winning gives you a judgment, not the cash.
- Enforcement. If the judgment is ignored, enforcement turns it into money, matched to what the debtor actually has.
Commercial vs residential: the routes at a glance
| Commercial premises | Residential tenancy (England) | |
|---|---|---|
| Recover the money | Demand, then agency collection, then a county court claim. Six years from each missed payment. | The same, and it works against former tenants too, with tracing if they have moved on. |
| Enforce without a court order | CRAR: written lease, purely commercial premises, at least seven days’ rent owed, 14 clear days’ notice, certificated enforcement agents only. Principal rent plus VAT and interest, never service charges. | Not available. CRAR cannot be used where any part of the premises is let as a dwelling. |
| Possession for arrears | A separate process, and the routes interact, so sequencing matters before you instruct anyone. | Section 8, Ground 8: three months’ arrears and four weeks’ notice, or the discretionary grounds below that threshold. |
| Deposit rules that bite | Not applicable. | Deposit must be protected and the paperwork served. Non-compliance now blocks possession on the arrears grounds. |
For the recovery detail on each, see the specialist pages: commercial rent arrears and residential rent arrears.
When a recovery agency is the answer, and when it is a possession matter
If the tenant has already left, this is purely a money job: trace them if needed, demand, and escalate to a county court claim if ignored. That is exactly what rent-arrears agencies do, and former tenants are the debtors most likely to need tracing first.
If the tenancy is continuing and you would rather keep the tenant than lose them, a neutral third party chasing the arrears professionally often resolves things that your own reminders did not, without ending the relationship. Collection is not eviction, and instructing an agency does not commit you to either.
If what you actually want is the property back, that is a legal process, not a collection job: Section 8 in England, on the grounds above. Even then, the arrears themselves remain a debt worth pursuing in parallel, which is why many landlords run both tracks with different help.
Collect Compare shows you vetted agencies that genuinely take rent arrears cases, commercial, residential and former-tenant tracing, compared blind on fees, specialisms and verified track record. It is free for landlords: the agency you choose pays us for the introduction, and no agency can pay to rank.
Does a possession order recover the rent?
No. A possession order ends the tenancy; it does not put the missed rent back in your account. Landlords are routinely left holding arrears after the tenant has gone, and the debt survives the tenancy, recoverable for six years from the date each payment fell due.
If the deposit was not protected or the prescribed information was not served, a tenant can claim one to three times the deposit. Tenants routinely raise exactly that as a counterclaim in arrears proceedings, where it can be set off against the debt and even pull the arrears below the Ground 8 threshold.
If the property is in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
The Renters’ Rights Act reforms apply in England only. The other three nations run their own regimes.
Welsh lettings run on the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which uses occupation contracts rather than tenancies. A no-fault route still exists there: a section 173 notice, with six months’ notice.
The serious rent arrears ground needs two months’ arrears where rent is monthly, or eight weeks where it is weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly, after which the landlord can issue a claim on 14 days’ notice. CRAR applies in Wales exactly as in England, including the new 14-day notice.
Scotland is further apart again. Private residential tenancies have had no no-fault ground since 2017, and the arrears ground is discretionary: three consecutive months in arrears, with the First-tier Tribunal deciding whether eviction is reasonable, including looking at benefit delays and the landlord’s pre-action steps.
CRAR does not extend to Scotland at all. Money claims there run to a five-year time limit rather than six, and once it passes the debt is extinguished entirely rather than merely unenforceable.
Northern Ireland has its own tenancy law and its own courts, and the Renters’ Rights Act reforms do not apply there.
The money side works on the familiar six-year limit, with judgments enforced through the Enforcement of Judgments Office rather than by bailiffs or High Court Enforcement Officers. See our Northern Ireland page.
General information, not legal advice. Tenancy and possession law changed substantially on 1 May 2026 and differs across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A specialist agency or solicitor will advise on the right sequence for your situation.
Common questions
Can I still evict a tenant for rent arrears in 2026?
Yes - but the bar is higher in England. Ground 8, the mandatory arrears ground, now needs three months’ arrears (13 weeks if rent is weekly or fortnightly), both when the notice is served and at the hearing, with four weeks’ notice. Below that, the discretionary grounds are still available, but the court decides. And no possession order can be made on an arrears ground unless the tenancy deposit is properly protected.
Is Section 21 really gone?
In England, yes - no new Section 21 notices from 1 May 2026, and every possession claim now needs a legal ground. Wales still has a no-fault route (section 173, with six months’ notice), and Scotland hasn’t had one since 2017.
How do I recover rent arrears from a former tenant?
Arrears left behind by a tenant who has moved out are an ordinary civil debt: trace them if needed, demand payment, and issue a county court money claim if that’s ignored. You have six years from the date each payment fell due in England and Wales, five in Scotland. Agencies that combine tracing with collection are the usual route.
How long do I have to recover unpaid rent?
Six years from the date each instalment fell due in England and Wales - a limit that also caps CRAR to arrears no more than six years old. In Scotland it’s five years, and once that passes the debt is extinguished entirely, not just harder to sue on. Recovery gets harder with age either way - so the sooner it’s chased, the better it tends to end.
Has CRAR changed in 2026?
One important change: for enforcement from 1 May 2026, the notice of enforcement period doubled from 7 to 14 clear days (clear days exclude Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day). The rest stands - written commercial leases only, at least seven days’ rent owed, certificated enforcement agents, and principal rent plus VAT and interest, never service charges.
The deposit wasn’t protected - can I still recover the arrears?
You can still pursue the money - an unprotected deposit doesn’t stop a debt claim. But two things bite. From 1 May 2026 a court can’t grant possession on the arrears grounds until the deposit position is put right. And the tenant can counterclaim one to three times the deposit for the failure, which can be set off against - and sometimes wipe out - the arrears. Check deposit compliance before starting either track.
Chasing rent arrears?
Compare vetted agencies that specialise in commercial and residential rent arrears, free, impartial, and blind until you choose.
Rent arrears are a specialism, so compare on it
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