Rent arrears: where to get help

If you are behind with the rent, the first call is MABS on 0818 07 2000, Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service is free, confidential and independent, and it is the service the RTB's own arrears process points tenants to. An adviser will look at your whole budget, deal with other creditors, and help you put a plan to the landlord that you can keep.

The second thing to know is a number: 28 days. A landlord who wants to end a tenancy for arrears must first serve a warning notice giving you 28 days to pay in full. Pay everything owed inside those days and no termination notice can follow for those arrears. The arrears planner sets the dates against your own notice and builds a payment plan around them.

This guide lists where the money can come from, in the order to try them, and what to say to the landlord while you do.

MABS first

Ring MABS before you ring anyone else. The adviser will ask for your income, your rent, your other debts and what has changed. From that they build a budget, work out what you can pay each week, and help you write to the landlord with a figure and a date. MABS can also contact creditors on your behalf and can refer you to the Abhaile scheme or a personal insolvency practitioner where debts are larger than rent.

Arrears usually follow lost income. If you have been made redundant, or are off sick, check what you are owed before you agree a plan. EmploymentWise's redundancy calculator works out the statutory lump sum, and its sick-pay guide explains the statutory sick leave days and Illness Benefit. An employer who owes you notice pay or holiday pay owes it even after the job ends.

Apply for the social welfare payment that fits your situation on the same day: Jobseeker's Benefit or Allowance, Illness Benefit, or the Working Family Payment. The Community Welfare Service can pay Supplementary Welfare Allowance while a claim is decided.

The Additional Needs Payment

The Additional Needs Payment is a once-off payment from the Department of Social Protection for an essential cost you cannot meet from your weekly income. Rent arrears are one of the costs it is made for, alongside a deposit and the cost of a move. It is means-tested, there is no fixed amount, and the Community Welfare Service decides each application on its facts.

Apply through the Community Welfare Service at your Intreo centre, online through MyWelfare, or by post. Bring the landlord's statement of the arrears, your tenancy agreement or rent book, proof of income for the household, and bank statements. The Additional Needs Payment for a rent shortfall sets out what to bring and how the decision is made.

A HAP review, or a Rent Supplement claim

If you are on HAP, tell the council about the drop in your income at once. The differential rent you pay the council is worked out from your income, and a review can lower it. Ask in writing for a review and for the council to look again at the discretion above the limit, since a smaller council payment means a larger top-up to the landlord. Missing the differential rent is the one thing to avoid: the council may suspend the payment to the landlord, and the arrears then run under the Act.

If you are not on HAP and were able to afford the rent when the tenancy began, Rent Supplement from the Department of Social Protection may bridge the gap. Rent Supplement: who still gets it sets out the conditions. If your need looks long-term, apply to the council for social housing support, which opens HAP.

Talking to the landlord, in writing

Write to the landlord before the rent day you are going to miss, not after. Say what has happened, what you can pay and when, and when you expect to be back to the full rent. Offer a figure you can keep rather than one that sounds good. Send it by email or by hand and keep a copy; the letter builder has a plain arrears letter you can adapt.

Keep paying whatever you can on the rent day. A partial payment is not a breach in itself, and it reduces the arrears the landlord can rely on. A landlord who accepts a written plan and the payments under it has, in practice, agreed a variation, and the RTB will see the correspondence if it comes to a dispute.

Do not agree to anything that breaks the Act to make up the arrears: not a deposit above one month, not a rent above the cap, not a promise to leave by a date. If the landlord suggests you move out quietly, ring Threshold on 1800 454 454 before you answer.

The 28 days that stop a termination

A landlord may end a tenancy for rent arrears only in two steps. First, a written warning notice that states the arrears and gives you 28 days to pay them in full, with a copy to the RTB. Second, if the arrears are still unpaid when the 28 days run out, a notice of termination giving a further 28 days.

Pay the full amount inside the warning period and the landlord cannot proceed to a termination notice for those arrears. Pay part of it and the landlord can, though the RTB looks at what was paid and what was agreed. A termination notice for arrears must meet every requirement of section 62 like any other notice, and you may refer it to the RTB within 28 days of service, not 90.

Rent arrears warning notices and the 28 days goes through both notices line by line. Run any notice through the notice checker, and ring Threshold with it in front of you. An arrears termination notice that fails section 62 may be invalid, and an invalid notice does not end the tenancy.

If you are in cost rental or an approved housing body home

The same two-step process applies, because those tenancies are under the Act. Approved housing bodies have their own arrears and welfare officers, and most will agree a plan before any notice. Ask for the housing officer by name and put the plan in writing.

Where this leaves you

Arrears are a money problem before they are a tenancy problem, and MABS on 0818 07 2000 is the free, confidential first call. The money can come from a social welfare claim, the Additional Needs Payment, a HAP review or Rent Supplement, and from wages or a redundancy sum you are still owed. Write to the landlord before the missed rent day with a figure you can keep, and keep paying what you can. If a warning notice arrives, you have 28 days to clear the arrears and stop a termination notice. Set the dates in the arrears planner, and ring Threshold on 1800 454 454 the day any notice arrives.