Income Ally
Platform
What the product is, and what it costs
The product Overview Stay human. Stay compliant. The queue Built overnight, and it explains itself. Rules and thresholds Readable, and yours to change. The empathy agent It drafts for a person. It decides nothing. Former tenants The six-year clock, enforced not reported.
Commercial Pricing On the size of the book, not per seat. Security and data Isolation in the database, not a WHERE clause. About Who builds it, and the rules we write by.
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Roles
Arrears software is bought by a committee
Finance and leadership CFO Can you break the arrears figure down? Chief Executive The regulator’s questions, answered first.
Income and service Head of Income A worklist that says why. Income Officer Without the cases that fix themselves. CX Director Nobody chased down a channel they cannot use.
Assurance and technical Regulatory Compliance Where the law says stop, it stops. IT & Data Lead Readable rules, a human in every decision.
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Answers
Arrears and the law, answered with the statute named
Holds and the clock Chasing former tenants Six years. What restarts it, and what doesn’t. Breathing Space Contact, interest and enforcement all stop. Mental health moratorium No 60-day cap, and usually no end date.
Possession and duties Pre-Action Protocol Judged when the claim is issued. Ground 8 It does not exist against a secure tenant. The equality duty Due regard, at the time, recorded.
Reporting and benefits Tenant Satisfaction Measures Which ones an income team moves. Universal Credit payments Managed payment and deduction are not the same.
Reference Glossary Twenty-two terms, statute named. Buyer’s guide Twelve questions for any vendor, us included.
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Legal spine
Every duty, and where it stops
What it does On screen, today Eight duties wired into what it will and won’t do. Evidenced, not certified It holds the record. A court decides if it is enough.
Where it stops What it does not do Nine of them, including a gap we would rather you read. Words you won’t find “Compliant”. “Approved”. “Guaranteed”.
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Arrears and the law

Does Breathing Space stop rent arrears recovery?

Yes — contact, interest, charges and enforcement all stop.

Yes. Under the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020, a creditor must not contact the debtor about a protected debt, must not apply interest, fees or charges to it, and must not take enforcement action, for the duration of the moratorium. Rent arrears are a qualifying debt.

The short version
Length60 days for a standard Breathing Space
StatuteDebt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020
StopsContact about the debt, interest, fees and charges, and enforcement action including possession proceedings for that debt
Does not stopRent falling due during the moratorium — ongoing liability still has to be paid
Does not pauseThe six-year limitation period

What is protected, and what is not

The moratorium attaches to the qualifying debt as it stood when the moratorium started. Rent arrears accrued up to that point are protected. Rent that falls due during the moratorium is an ongoing liability, and the debtor is expected to keep paying it; a failure to do so can be a ground for the moratorium to be cancelled at review.

That distinction is the one most often missed operationally, because a single arrears balance in a housing management system usually does not separate the two.

Contact means contact

The prohibition is broader than stopping legal action. A creditor must not contact the debtor about the protected debt at all — no letters, no statements, no calls chasing it. Communication has to go through the debt adviser.

A held account being left on an officer’s worklist is therefore a risk in itself, because the account looks exactly like every other account in arrears.

Interest and charges must be frozen

Interest, fees, penalties and charges cannot be applied to the protected debt during the moratorium. In most housing organisations that is a finance-system action rather than an income-system one, which is why it is a common gap: the chase stops and the charges carry on.

The clock that does not stop

A moratorium does not extend the six-year limitation period. An account can be simultaneously protected from all contact and approaching the date after which its arrears can no longer be enforced. Both facts are true and they need to be visible at the same time.

In the product

What Income Ally does about it

A recorded Breathing Space suppresses the account at the queue itself rather than rule by rule, so a held account cannot be recommended whatever fired. It blocks the overnight automation and makes the send button refuse — enforced at the API, not hidden on screen.

Recording one is a single action that sets the hold, its duration and what happens on expiry. The limitation clock keeps reporting throughout, for the reason above.

Where this stops

What it does not do

Also asked

Related questions

How long does a Breathing Space last?

A standard Breathing Space moratorium lasts 60 days. A mental health crisis moratorium is different: it lasts for as long as the person's crisis treatment continues, plus 30 days, with no 60-day cap.

Can you start possession proceedings during Breathing Space?

Not for the protected debt. Enforcement action on a qualifying debt is prohibited for the duration of the moratorium.

Does the tenant still have to pay rent during Breathing Space?

Yes. Rent falling due during the moratorium is an ongoing liability and is not protected. Only the arrears that existed when the moratorium began are covered.

Does Breathing Space stop the six-year limitation clock?

No. The moratorium stops contact and enforcement but does not extend the limitation period under the Limitation Act 1980.

Last reviewed 17 September 2026. General information on the law in England and Wales, not legal advice on a particular case.

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How is a mental health crisis moratorium different from Breathing Space?

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How long can a landlord chase former tenant rent arrears?

 Answer

What is the Pre-Action Protocol for rent arrears?

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Every duty it enforces