The 28-day arrears warning explained.

Before a tenancy can be terminated for rent arrears, the law inserts a deliberate pause: a written warning, and 28 days to pay. It is not a courtesy — it is a statutory precondition, and a termination that skips or fumbles it fails however real the arrears are. This guide explains what the warning must be, how the 28 days actually run, and what each side should do while the clock ticks.

1. What the warning is

The warning is a written notification that the rent is in arrears, stating the amount. It must be given to two recipients: the tenant and the RTB. Both matter — the process has not validly begun until both have it. It is separate from, and earlier than, any Notice of Termination: the warning says pay; only a later notice says go.

Because everything that follows is built on the warning, its accuracy matters more than its tone. The figure stated is the figure the tenant is entitled to answer — and it follows the landlord through every later document. A warning with the wrong amount is a weak foundation for everything built on it.

2. How the 28 days actually run

The 28 days do not run from the day the warning was written, or posted, or from whichever receipt came first. They run from the later of the two receipts — the tenant's or the RTB's. A landlord who counts from the earlier date, and serves a termination notice even a day inside the true window, has served it too early — and decided cases treat that as a validity problem, not a technicality. When the exact receipt dates are uncertain, the safe course for a landlord is to wait beyond any arguable count; for a tenant, the same uncertainty is worth checking closely, because it may mean the window was still open when the notice arrived.

3. What payment inside the window does

Arrears cleared in full inside the window stop a termination on this ground — that is the entire point of the warning. Cleared after the window closes, the payment generally comes too late to save the tenancy, even though the money remains owed and paid. The window is therefore the single most consequential 28 days in the whole arrears process. For a tenant who can pay, it is the moment to pay; for a tenant who cannot pay in full, it is the moment to engage — check the figure line by line, raise any dispute about it in writing, and take advice. MABS (0818 07 2000) exists for exactly this situation, and Threshold (1800 454 454) advises tenants free of charge.

4. What happens after the window

Only if the stated arrears remain unpaid when the window closes may a Notice of Termination be served — giving 28 days' notice whatever the length of the tenancy, meeting every formal requirement the Act imposes on termination notices, with a copy to the RTB on the same day as service on the tenant. Those requirements have their own traps — service by post, in particular — covered in our guide Is this Notice of Termination valid?. And a tenant who means to dispute the notice has a short window to refer it: 28 days from receipt.

5. Proof, at every step

The process is only as strong as its paper trail. For the landlord that means proof of what was sent, to whom, how, and when it was received — for both the warning and any later notice, for both the tenant and the RTB. For the tenant it means date-stamping everything that arrives, keeping the envelope, and recording how it came. In decided cases, arrears terminations fail on the sequence and its proof, whatever the money position — and both sides should prepare on that basis.

The practical point

For landlords: the warning is not a formality on the way to a notice — it is the foundation the notice stands on. Get the figure exact, serve both recipients, and wait out the full window from the later receipt. For tenants: the warning is the law handing you 28 days of control. Use them — to pay if you can, to check and challenge the figure if it is wrong, and to get advice either way.