What To Do When a Tenant Has Stopped Paying Rent
As a Landlord/Property Manager, you’ll probably, at some point, come across a tenant who’s behind on paying rent. There are several ways you can go about this to avoid any conflict as well as to follow proper legal solutions.
According to the State of Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), if a tenant does not pay all the rent on the day it is due, they are one day in arrears the following day. If the tenant is more than 7 days behind in rent, you can issue a Notice to remedy breach (Form 11), giving them 7 days to pay the outstanding amount. If the breach notice expires and rent is still unpaid, you can either continue or end the tenancy.
If you want to continue the tenancy, speak to your tenant to sort out the issue. Be sure to issue the correct notices as per the legislation. If these notices are not issued then this could affect your Landlord Insurance policy if you needed to make a claim in regards to this issue in the future.
If you decide to end the tenancy, you can move on to issuing a Notice to leave (Form 12), giving them a minimum of 7 days to vacate the property. Should the tenant not move out within the agreed upon number of days, you can lodge an urgent application directly with QCAT (Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal) for an order to end the tenancy. You should file the application within 14 days of issuing the Notice to leave.
If you simply do not want to deal face to face with a tenant who stops paying rent, this where an effective Property Manager can step in. They can act as a neutral third-party with their own systems in place for such situations.
