You are a few months behind on rent. The card bills and the council tax have piled up too, and every envelope from your landlord makes your chest tighten. Someone told you about "Breathing Space" and said it can stop an eviction. You want to know whether that is true, and how fast you can get it.
It is partly true. Breathing Space is the government's Debt Respite Scheme, set out in the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020. While it runs, your landlord cannot serve an eviction notice based on the rent arrears it covers, cannot start a court claim over them, and cannot evict you on a notice already served. It is a pause, usually of 60 days, and you are expected to keep paying the rent that falls due while it lasts. If you do not, your adviser can cancel it.
How to get Breathing Space for rent arrears
You cannot apply on your own. Only a debt adviser can start Breathing Space for you, and under regulation 3 that means an adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to give debt counselling, or a local council. Your council may run its own debt advice service, so that is a good first call. If it does not, the government's own Breathing Space page points to MoneyHelper's debt adviser locator as the way to find an adviser who can start one.
Tell the adviser about every debt, and make sure the rent arrears and your landlord's details are on the list. The adviser has to be satisfied that you cannot, or are unlikely to, repay some or all of your debts as they fall due. Once they start it, regulation 25 requires the government's Breathing Space service to register it and notify each creditor listed, your landlord included, by the end of the next working day. Your protection starts the day after it is registered.
Under regulation 6, only the arrears you already owed when you made your application to the adviser are protected. Rent that falls due after that is not covered, so your landlord can still act on new arrears while the Breathing Space runs.
Does Breathing Space stop a Section 8 notice?
For rent arrears, yes. Regulation 7(7)(j) stops your landlord serving a notice seeking possession on Ground 8, 10 or 11 of the Housing Act 1988 for the protected arrears. Those are the three rent grounds. Ground 8 is the mandatory one, which in England now needs 3 months' arrears. Grounds 10 and 11 are discretionary and cover any unpaid rent and persistent late payment.
The same regulation stops the landlord starting court proceedings over the debt or even contacting you to chase it. Wales has the same protection for the equivalent possession routes under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.
What it does not stop is a notice on any other ground. A landlord who wants to sell, move back in, or evict for anti-social behaviour can still serve a Section 8 notice on those grounds. Our guide to Section 8 notice grounds sets them all out.
If a notice arrived before your Breathing Space started, it is paused rather than cancelled. Your landlord cannot go to court on it while the protection lasts. Normally a landlord has 12 months from serving a Section 8 notice to start a claim. If those 12 months would run out during your Breathing Space, or within 8 weeks of it ending, regulation 9 moves the deadline to 8 weeks after it ends. The government's tenant guide to possession notices covers this too. Once the protection ends, your landlord can go to court on that notice, as long as the ground still applies.
How long does Breathing Space last?
A standard Breathing Space lasts 60 days from the day it starts, under regulation 26. Regulation 24 means you cannot get another standard Breathing Space until 12 months after your last one ended.
If you are receiving mental health crisis treatment, there is a separate version. Under regulation 32 it lasts for as long as your crisis treatment continues, plus 30 days. The 12-month limit does not apply to it (regulation 30). An approved mental health professional must confirm the treatment, and people such as your carer, a mental health nurse or a social worker can apply for you. If the professional named as your contact stops responding to the adviser, it can end early.
Sixty days is not long. The point is to give you and the adviser time to put a longer-term plan in place, such as a repayment arrangement with your landlord, before the protection ends.
Rent due during Breathing Space still has to be paid
Rent that falls due during a standard Breathing Space is an "ongoing liability", and regulation 16 says you must pay it as it falls due. Breathing Space freezes the old arrears. It does nothing about next month's rent.
Missing rent can end your Breathing Space. Between days 26 and 35 your adviser carries out a midway review, and under regulation 27 they must cancel it, for some or all of your debts, if you have not kept up with ongoing payments. They must also cancel it if they cannot reach you, unless your personal circumstances would make that unfair or unreasonable. That exception covers missed rent too, and for missed rent there is a second one. The adviser does not have to cancel if you did not have the money to pay. So if you cannot pay the full rent, tell your adviser straight away and explain why, rather than letting it go quiet.
The mental health crisis version does not carry this obligation, though any rent you miss during it is still new arrears.
Does Breathing Space pause a possession claim already in court?
Partly. If your landlord had already started a court claim over the arrears, regulation 10 lets the case carry on until the court makes an order. What the court must stop is enforcement. It cannot issue or serve a warrant of possession while the Breathing Space lasts, and the landlord cannot take possession (regulation 7). If you are facing a hearing, Section 8 eviction defence covers how to prepare.
Your landlord can ask the court for permission to go ahead anyway. Under regulation 7(5), the court can only allow it if that is reasonable and would not harm you or significantly undermine the protection.
When the Breathing Space ends, the landlord's options come back, so use the 60 days. Pay the current rent, agree a plan for the arrears through your adviser, and put any offer to your landlord in writing. Remedy can draft that letter, check any notice your landlord serves once the protection ends, and help you prepare a defence if the case reaches court.
