Warning Notice Before Possession Claim for Serious Rent Arrears RHW20

This Warning Notice Before Possession Claim for Serious Rent Arrears RHW20 is prescribed by the Welsh Government. The form should be used by private residential landlords where a contract-holder has run up serious rent arrears. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 defines serious rent arrears as: 

• at least two months’ rent unpaid (if the rent is paid monthly).
• at least 8 weeks’ rent is unpaid (if the rent is paid weekly, fortnightly or four weekly);
• at least one quarter’s rent is unpaid for more than three months (if the rent is paid quarterly); or
• at least 25% of the rent is unpaid for more than three months (if the rent is paid annually). 

This is a mandatory ground for possession provided there are serious rent arrears at the time the Notice RHW20 is issued and also at the time of the subsequent court hearing.

Landlords should consider issuing two notices in respect of rent arrears:

• RHW20 – serious rent arrears
• RHW23 – breach of contract for non-payment of rent on time

to cover the eventuality of a tenant clearing sufficient arrears by the time of the court hearing and rendering the “serious rent arrears” ground as no longer applicable.

The landlord can commence court proceedings 14 days after service of the Notice RHW20 to the contract-holder. The cut-off for commencing court proceedings is 6 months from the day the Notice RHW20 is served on the contract-holder.

More information can be found in the Guidance on Terminating Standard Occupation Contracts.

The prescribed forms should be used to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.

This form and others referred to are available from the Welsh Government’s website.

Crown copyright in this prescribed form is acknowledged and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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