The Good News and The Bad News.............The Tenant Gets One and The Landlord Gets The Other

From the 4th May 2021, debt recovery looks set to become even more difficult than it has been in this most difficult of years.

Why?

Well, the The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 have a lot to do with.

Set on the 17th November 2020, these regulations stand debtors and tenants in good stead to be able to keep the wolf from their door for even longer than they can right now.

But what does it mean for landlords and claimants? It’s not such good news for them, sadly.

The gist of the regulation is that it allows the debtor to enter an advice period, which then effectively becomes a moratorium on the debt, for no fixed time period as far as we can tell, granting them to relative immunity from proceedings. During this time, no steps can be taken to enforce the debt, which is a bit of a nightmare if you’re owed money, obviously.

The regulation applies to most types of debts, including rent arrears, making it particularly bad news for the already black and blue landlord industry.

The following actions, including private contact, are ruled out when a debtor takes out this moratorium:

• Commencing court action

• Seeking to applies interest, fees, penalties and charges

• Serving a Section 8 Notice under Grounds 8, 10 or 11

There seem to be a lot of loopholes and red tape surrounding this regulation, and the finer details are well worth exploring, but the take home message is pretty clear to us…

...good news for tenants and debtors, bad news for landlords and claimants…

...again!

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