Rent arrears can have a serious impact on both landlords and tenants and can leave both parties feeling helpless. There are ways in which tenants can start to deal with these issues for the benefit of all concerned and other methods landlords can use to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place.
Take Responsibility
One of the first positive steps tenants can make is accepting that the arrears are their responsibility and committing to work towards reducing them. It doesn’t matter if there were ‘good’ reasons why they didn’t pass on their housing benefit to their landlord, for example. What matters is that they accept that they have had a hand in creating the issues and genuinely want to find a resolution.
Pre-tenancy Checks
As well as tackling such practical issues by using Property Inventory Software to produce a comprehensive inventory and ensuring a property meets legal standards, landlords can also help to reduce potential rent arrears issues. There may be pressures to minimise void times for landlords, but this should not be at the expense of carrying out basic checks and making sure that tenants have the means to pay their rent and do not have a reputation for withholding the money that is owed.
Set Up Tenancies Correctly
Carrying out good pre-tenancy checks, ensuring that tenants understand their obligations and responsibilities and sorting out practicalities properly, from using https://inventorybase.co.uk/ software to ensure good rent collection practices, can substantially reduce issues with problem tenancies.
Understand the Facts
One of the best ways of working towards solving arrears issues is accepting that having this unpaid rent is in nobody’s best interest. This should prompt both landlords and tenants to want to work together to solve the issue. Help with solving the problems can be found at https://nationaldebtadvice.org.uk/?keyword=rent%20arrears&ref=adwords&matchtype=e&device=c&adposition=1t1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwLOI9aPY2gIVYrftCh1eGw-HEAAYASAAEgJOsPD_BwE.
Issue Rewards
Larger social landlords may see results from offering rewards for tenants who consistently pay their rent on time. There are also ways to incentivise payments by direct debits, such as offering a minor rent reduction or entering qualifying tenants into regular prize draws.
Giving tenants a reason to pay by direct debit can help them to better manage their money and reduce the likelihood of rent arrears occurring. This, in turn, can prevent landlords having to waste time, money and effort on chasing unpaid rent.