Ground 8 of Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988 currently requires a court to award possession if a monthly tenant owes over two months’ rent at the time the landlord initiates possession proceedings and at the time of the court hearing (or eight weeks in the case of a weekly or fortnightly tenancy).The universal credit condition will protect benefit claimants who have met the threshold for the mandatory ground only due to the gap between their entitlement being established at the end of their assessment period and their benefits payment arriving. This may happen on a recurring basis if the timing of their payment does not align with the date rent is due.
Example: Missing rent due to the wait for Universal Credit payments
A tenant with a small amount of existing arrears loses their job and applies for Universal Credit (UC). It will not be established if the claimant will receive an award of UC until the end of their monthly assessment period. Any award will then take up to seven days to be paid. It is feasible that in this period they could miss two monthly rent payments, becoming at risk of eviction through no fault of their own. This provision means that the rent missed because of the seven day wait for the UC payment at the end of the monthly assessment period will not be counted when calculating how much arrears the tenant owes, protecting the tenant in this example from mandatory eviction.
Schedules Schedule 1: Changes to grounds for possession Amendments of Ground 8: rent arrears Background