If you fail to pay your rent at a regular basis consider the following tips that might help you:

• make a list of your debts and try to arrange them in an order of priority
  
  
• work out how much your incomes and expenses are in each month and draw up a repayment plan, with strict budget guidelines
  
  
• don’t wait until your debts build up, contact your landlord or agent immediately and discuss with him/her that you have difficulties, and you have problems paying the rent. Try to come to an arrangement to get some more time to pay, or to pay a reduced amount of money.
  
  
• keep a rent book, and introduce all the figures in it. In this way you can monitor the numbers and see if all the rent payments are recorded and added up correctly. That is you have to check your landlord’s figures against yours, and discuss any difference that shows up.
  
  
• consider seeking professional advice. There are many organizations and social assistance institutions which help you to get out of your financial problems. Housing benefits and council tax benefits are available to anybody who applies for them. If you are on a low income, or you lost your job, contact your local council to see what are your possibilities. After completing some forms, you can receive housing benefit (an extra amount of money), which partly covers your rents.
  
  
• if your landlord wants to evict you, he/she has to have a legal court decision to do so. However, before that the landlord must provide at least two written notices to the tenant. If you get a first written warning contact your landlord and try to reach an agreement
  
  
• when you negotiate with your landlord, try to suggest him/her that you will pay back the money you owe in certain installments (weekely, or twice a month). In this way both of you can escape the costly legal processes.
  
  
• whatever might be the reason of your getting into rent arrears don’t let yourself be ovewhelmed by depression. With a healthy optimism and commons sense you can surely get out of the problem. Try to find a new job, try to work extra hours in order to ameliorate this difficult situation.

What the landlords can do:

• landlords should always keep a rent book and check our regularly if their figures correspond with those of the tenants
  
  
• when there is a late payment, the landlord should warn the tenant and put it in writing (this is called the statutory demand)
  
  
• offer help if possible, that is to assist the tenant get housing benefits or other institutionalized help. After all, it’s also the landlord’s interest to get paid.


• check out the current laws and regulations before engaging in court actions


• landlords must never launch eviction on their own, only on the basis of a legal court decision


• it is also important to notice that problems are not solved through the tenant’s harrassement: threatening, disconnecting supplies (gas, electricity etc), since it is considered a criminal offence.

Conclusively, if you are a tenant getting into rent arrears the best you can do is to try to avoid eviction by any means. Even before renting out an appartment check out what type of tenancy agreement you are signing, since rules regarding eviction greatly depend on the type of the tenancy agreement. The final step landlors can take is to hand in a lawsuit against you, which can have serious consequences: deducing the money you owe from your earnings, or even bringng you into bankruptcy. If eviction finally occurs, you should apply for rehousing help at your local council.