Rent arrears recovery: what a landlord can actually do in 2026

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:

• Section 21 is gone. No new “no-fault” notices can be served in England from 1 May 2026 - every possession claim now needs a legal ground, and for arrears that means Section 8.
• ASTs are all but gone. Almost all existing assured shorthold tenancies converted automatically to open-ended assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026 - fixed terms ended with no new agreement needed; the only holdouts are tenancies already in possession proceedings begun under the old rules, which convert when those proceedings end.
• The mandatory arrears ground got harder. Ground 8 now requires three months’ arrears (13 weeks where rent is weekly or fortnightly), up from two - and the threshold must be met both when the notice is served and at the hearing. The notice period doubled from two weeks to four. Arrears that exist only because a Universal Credit housing payment hasn’t arrived yet are disregarded.
• The discretionary grounds survive. Grounds 10 (some arrears) and 11 (persistent delay) remain available below the Ground 8 threshold, but the court decides whether eviction is reasonable. The mandatory “repeat arrears” ground once proposed never made it into the Act.
• Deposit compliance now gates every possession route. Under the old law an unprotected deposit blocked only Section 21. From 1 May 2026 a court cannot make a possession order on any ground - including the arrears grounds - unless the deposit is properly protected, with only two anti-social behaviour grounds excepted. Non-compliance can be put right, but take advice on when it has to be done by.
• Rent in advance is capped at one month for new tenancies - which shrinks the buffer you hold when payments stop.
• On the commercial side, CRAR notice doubled. From 1 May 2026 the notice of enforcement runs 14 clear days, not seven, in England and Wales.

These tenancy reforms apply to England only - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own regimes (see below).

Commercial vs residential: the routes at a glance

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’s 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’s 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’d rather keep the tenant than lose them, a neutral third party chasing the arrears professionally often resolves things that your own reminders didn’t - without ending the relationship. Collection isn’t eviction, and instructing an agency doesn’t commit you to either.

If what you actually want is the property back, that’s 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’s 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 doesn’t 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.

Run the tracks in the right order, though. If the deposit wasn’t protected or the prescribed information wasn’t served, a tenant can claim one to three times the deposit - and 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. Check your deposit compliance before starting either track; it now underpins both.

If the property is in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland

The Renters’ Rights Act reforms don’t apply in Wales. Welsh lettings run on the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 - occupation contracts rather than tenancies - and 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 (eight weeks where it’s 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, 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 - and CRAR doesn’t extend to Scotland at all. Money claims there run to a five-year time limit rather than six.

Northern Ireland has its own tenancy law and its own courts - the Renters’ Rights Act reforms don’t 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.

Related: debt recovery options explained · tenant left owing rent? - the landlord’s guide · chasing a commercial invoice instead? Try the late-payment calculator.

Common questions