UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello. I wonder if anybody can help please as we've been struggling to find a definite answer to this one...
We're private landlords in Scotland. Since moving in last year we have a tenant who has consistently paid their rent late. We've had to chase and chase it each month and so far although late, they've always paid in the end, before the next rent is due. This month they have only paid part of the rent (late again).
Does late payment or part payment count as rent arrears? Or does the tenant have to have not paid at all for it to be counted as arrears? We'd really appreciate advice on this one - thank you!

Quote from: Scot123 on April 09, 2019, 07:59:46 PMDoes late payment or part payment count as rent arrears?

Yes.

I had a discussion with a Tenant once whereby we ended up changing the payment date (it was seriously as simple as moving from the 28th of a month to the 1st of a month) and the problem went away. Can you have that kind of discussion with your Tenant... what both sides should, ideally, want to get to is entirely predictable payments. What's happening now is no good for either party, really... it's just an increased admin. burden.

Thank you very much for your answer. That's very helpful to get a definitive 'yes'. As I say, I just couldn't seem to get a firm answer from the official help guides etc. We'd be happy to try and offer the tenant alternative options like a different payment date as you suggest, or fortnightly payments - but at the moment just trying to get hold of them is nearly impossible and there are so many excuses being given that it's driving me potty. But at least we now know the answer to the arrears question which gives us something to fall back on if we need to. Thank you very much.