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

Can you use Ground 8 against a secure tenant?

No. Ground 8 does not exist against a secure tenant, at any arrears level.

No. Ground 8 sits in Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 and applies only to assured tenancies. A secure tenancy is governed by the Housing Act 1985, which contains no mandatory ground for rent arrears at all. However high the balance, Ground 8 is not available against a secure tenant.

The short version
Ground 8 applies toAssured tenancies — Housing Act 1988, Sch 2, Ground 8
Secure tenanciesHousing Act 1985. Arrears fall under Sch 2 Ground 1, which is discretionary
Ground 8 thresholdAt least 8 weeks (weekly rent), 2 months (monthly), one quarter more than 3 months in arrears (quarterly), or 3 months (yearly)
When the threshold must be metBoth at the date the notice is served and at the date of the hearing
EffectMandatory. If the ground is proved the court must order possession
Discretionary alternativesHousing Act 1988 Sch 2 Grounds 10 and 11

The tenancy regime decides before the balance does

The first question in any possession route is not how much is owed but what kind of tenancy it is. Local authority tenancies are typically secure; housing association tenancies granted since 1989 are typically assured or assured shorthold. A system that reports “accounts over the Ground 8 threshold” without reading the tenancy regime is producing a list that is partly meaningless.

Where the regime is not recorded, the only safe output is to say the grounds cannot be stated. Guessing one produces a possession route that reads as authoritative and is wrong.

Mandatory does not mean automatic

Ground 8 is mandatory in the sense that the court has no discretion to refuse if the ground is made out. But the threshold must be satisfied twice — when the notice is served and again at the hearing — so a payment before the hearing that takes the balance under the threshold defeats it.

Why many social landlords do not use it

Regulatory expectations, and the Pre-Action Protocol, point a social landlord towards the route that lets a court consider reasonableness and make a suspended order on affordable terms. Ground 8 by design removes that. Some landlords have policies against using it at all.

Grounds 10 and 11

Ground 10 covers rent unpaid when the notice is served and when proceedings begin. Ground 11 covers persistent delay in paying rent and reaches tenants who are clear today but have repeatedly paid late — accounts a threshold-based report cannot see at all.

Neither has a statutory arrears threshold. Any number your organisation uses to decide when these are in play is a policy setting, not law.

In the product

What Income Ally does about it

Income Ally reports, across the whole book, which ground is open per account and which notice it needs. The tenancy regime is a recorded column, never inferred, and where it is missing the product says the grounds cannot be stated rather than guessing.

Grounds 10 and 11 get their own page, because they behave differently and Ground 11 reaches accounts the Ground 8 view cannot.

Where this stops

What it does not do

Also asked

Related questions

What is the arrears threshold for Ground 8?

At least eight weeks' arrears where rent is paid weekly or fortnightly, two months where it is paid monthly, one quarter more than three months in arrears where quarterly, or three months where yearly. The threshold must be met both when the notice is served and at the hearing.

Is there a mandatory rent arrears ground for secure tenancies?

No. The Housing Act 1985 contains no mandatory arrears ground. Rent arrears fall under Schedule 2 Ground 1, which is discretionary, so the court decides whether it is reasonable to make an order.

Can a tenant defeat Ground 8 by paying before the hearing?

Yes. The threshold must be satisfied at the date of the hearing as well as at the date the notice was served, so a payment that takes the balance below it before the hearing defeats the ground.

What is the difference between Ground 10 and Ground 11?

Ground 10 concerns rent unpaid when the notice is served and when proceedings begin. Ground 11 concerns persistent delay in paying rent, and applies even where the tenant is not in arrears at the time. Both are discretionary.

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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What does the public sector equality duty mean for rent arrears?

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How long can a landlord chase former tenant rent arrears?

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Every duty it enforces