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A Final Rent Demand Letter is a final request for immediate payment of outstanding rent, which is used after sending a first notice. Final Rent Demand Letters notify tenants (or ‘contract holders’ in Wales) that they are still in arrears and that the landlord will now issue a notice to repossess the property. This is the last step to recover overdue rent in an amicable way.
Use this Final Rent Demand Letter:
if your tenant has not paid their rent on time
if the property is let on a residential tenancy
if you have already sent a Rent demand letter and you requested immediate payment of the overdue rent
if the rent remains unpaid
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Dear ,
Re: ,
DEMAND FOR OVERDUE RENT - IMPORTANT
wrote to you on and have not received a response.
As the rent arrears have not been paid we will now be issuing a . This Notice informs you that we require possession of the property.
It is also our policy to take action to recover any arrears of rent through the Court. This will incur additional expense.
To avoid further action you must contact us immediately to arrange payment of the arrears of rent.
Yours sincerely,
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This Final Rent Demand Letter:
covers the final request for payment of the outstanding rent
informs your tenant that you will now be issuing an Eviction notice, seeking to obtain possession of the property
You need a Final Rent Demand Letter if, after sending a Rent demand letter, rent remains outstanding.
Issuing a Final Rent Demand Letter provides a last reminder to a tenant that rent is due and informs them that you’ll seek to evict them from the property if rent is not paid immediately. Communicating with your tenant by sending them a Letter may be enough to solve the issue and avoid eviction.
You could also discuss the rent arrears with your tenant and consider creating a Rent repayment plan to set out a formal plan for your tenant to follow to repay the rent that they owe.
For more information, read Managing residential rent arrears.
A rent payment is considered overdue as soon as a tenant has not paid the rent on the date specified in their tenancy agreement.
The amount of notice a Final Rent Demand Letter gives a tenant will generally be for the landlord to decide. This Final Rent Demand Letter indicates that payment of overdue rent must be made immediately. For more information, read Managing residential rent arrears.
An agent can sometimes serve a Final Rent Demand Letter on behalf of a landlord. This will generally be the case if the relevant tenancy agreement is signed through an agency and an agent typically manages the tenancy for the landlord.
A Final Rent Demand Letter is the final step of amicably recovering overdue rent. This means that, if the tenant does not pay the overdue rent (or otherwise comes to an agreement with the landlord), the landlord can seek to evict the tenant and repossess the property. You can do this by issuing an Eviction notice.
The most appropriate type of eviction notice to serve will usually be a Section 21 (Form 6A) notice (in England) or a Section 173 notice (in Wales). These are ‘no-fault’ eviction notices, which means that you don’t have to prove that your tenant did something wrong (eg by being in significant rent arrears) to use them. However, these no-fault eviction notices cannot be used in some situations. For example, if a tenant has lived in a property for less than 6 months if it’s in Wales. In these situations, you may be able to use other eviction notices, such as:
a Section 8 notice in England, if the tenant has not paid rent for a certain length of time
a Serious rent arrears eviction notice for Wales, if the tenant is in ‘serious’ rent arrears
No-fault eviction is not an option In Scotland. In Scotland, a section 33 notice may be appropriate. For more information, read Tenant eviction in Scotland FAQs and Grounds for eviction in Scotland. For help evicting a tenant in Scotland, Ask a lawyer.
For more information on eviction notices in England and Wales, read Repossessing property - section 8 notices, Repossessing property - section 21 notices and Repossessing property in Wales.
Any rent arrears owed by a tenant after their eviction will need to be recovered separately through the courts.
If a tenant refuses to respond to a Final Rent Demand Letter, their landlord may need to bring a court claim to recover the rent arrears. Once a court case is brought, it is for the court to decide whether the landlord is entitled to receive the rent owed. Certain factors that may indicate that a landlord cannot recover the overdue rent include:
the landlord having acted dishonestly or unscrupulously (eg if they were aggressive when requesting the overdue rent and/or during the eviction process)
the landlord being partly responsible for the rent arrears (eg if the property was in disrepair, the landlord didn’t carry out repairs that were their responsibility, or the landlord failed to carry out reasonable repairs requested by the tenant)
the landlord not having attempted to settle the dispute informally first (eg using Rent Demand Letters or mediation)
For more information, read Managing residential rent arrears.
Making a Final Rent Demand Letter online is simple. Just answer a few questions and Rocket Lawyer will build your document for you. When you have all of the details prepared in advance, making your document is a quick and easy process.
To make your Final Rent Demand Letter you will need the following information:
Party details
What are the landlord’s details (eg legal structure and name)?
If the landlord is a business:
Will the Letter be printed on headed paper that includes the business’ name and address?
If not, what is the landlord’s address?
What is the tenant’s name?
Is an agent sending the Final Rent Demand Letter on the landlord’s behalf?
If so, what is their name?
If not, if the landlord is a company, LLP or partnership, who will sign the Rent Demand Letter on behalf of the landlord’s business?
Property and rent demand
What is the address of the property in relation to which this Letter is being sent?
What was the date of the First rent demand letter?
Letter
On what date will the Final Rent Demand Letter be sent to the tenant?
A Final Rent Demand Letter is used by a private residential landlord, after having sent a First rent demand, to request that a tenant pays outstanding rent. To do this, the Final Rent Demand Letter covers:
Sender and recipient's details
The start of the Final Rent Demand Letter provides details of the landlord and tenant and identifies the property to which the rent request applies.
Demand for overdue rent - important
The body of the Final Rent Demand Letter explains that, despite having sent a Rent demand letter, the landlord has not yet heard back from the tenant. As a result, the Letter sets out that the landlord will be seeking to repossess the property by issuing a relevant Eviction notice.
The Letter also informs the tenant that it is the landlord’s standard policy to recover rent arrears through the courts. It explains that this may result in additional costs for the tenant and, therefore, requests that the tenant make immediate payment of the overdue rent.
If you want your Final Rent Demand Letter to include further or more detailed provisions, you can edit your document. However, if you do this, you may want a lawyer to review or change the Final Rent Demand Letter for you, to make sure it complies with all relevant laws and meets your specific needs. Ask a lawyer for assistance.
Consider agreeing to a repayment plan
A Rent repayment plan is a short-term, temporary measure designed to help a tenant in financial difficulties to get back on their feet. Generally, you should consider using a rent repayment plan if you have a good relationship with your tenant and believe that they will be able to repay the rent arrears in time. By entering into a repayment arrangement, you temporarily adjust the rent and/or spread out the repayment of any accrued overdue rent. For more information, read Managing residential rent arrears.
Understand when to seek advice from a lawyer
Ask a lawyer for advice:
if a tenant has informed you that they cannot pay their rent
to end a tenant's occupation of a property
if your commercial tenant has not paid their rent
if this Final Rent Demand Letter does not meet your needs
