Apportioned Rent

The common law position is that where a tenancy ends midway through a tenancy period, the landlord is entitled to receive the full payment of rent for the entire period.

For an assured shorthold tenancy, this changes for some circumstances and may require a repayment of rent apportioned daily where the tenant ceases occupation mid-way through a rental period of the tenancy.

Those circumstances are—

• due to the service of a notice by a landlord under section 21, the tenancy is brought to an end before the end of a period of the tenancy,
• the tenant has paid rent in advance for that period, and
• the tenant was not in occupation of the dwelling-house for one or more whole days of that period.

The amount of repayment a tenant is entitled to is calculated by considering the number of days in the month and how many days the tenant occupied the property.

If the rent repayment has not been made when the court makes an order for possession under section 21, the court must order the landlord to repay the amount of rent to which the tenant is entitled.

Nothing in these rules affects other rights of the tenant to the repayment of rent from the landlord, for example, compensation for a failure to repair.