Behind on the pub rent? What your landlord can actually do, the 2026 bailiff notice change, and why the flat upstairs matters

If you fall behind on the rent on a pub in England or Wales, your landlord has four main routes: take it out of your rent deposit, send enforcement agents to take goods under CRAR, forfeit the lease, or sue you and go down the insolvency road. Two things almost nobody in the trade knows. Since 1 May 2026 enforcement agents have to give you 14 clear days' notice before they take anything, not 7. And if you live in the flat upstairs under the same agreement, the law is on your side twice over: CRAR shouldn't be available at all, and the locks can't be changed without a court order while you're living there. None of that is a reason to stop paying. It's a reason to talk early, in writing, with the facts in front of you.

I'm a licensee, not a solicitor. Everything below is from the legislation and the case law, linked at the bottom, and it's England and Wales only. Scotland works differently. If a letter has already landed, get proper advice the same week.

The sum first: what a month behind actually is

Take the rent from the BBPA model I worked through in how pub rent is calculated: about £371 a week. That's £1,608 a month. At roughly £2.23 of gross profit on a £4.89 lager, which is the figure I use in my quiet nights guide, a month's rent is about 721 pints of profit.

Hold onto one number from that: £371. Seven days' rent is the minimum that has to be owed before a landlord can use enforcement agents at all. On this model, one missed week is enough.

What arrears look like on a £371 a week rent, my arithmetic

Behind by	Owed	Pints of profit to clear it
One week	£371	about 166
One month	£1,608	about 721
One quarter	£4,823	about 2,163

Route one: your rent deposit

Most pub agreements take a deposit up front. Star, for example, publishes three months' rent as its deposit, which I covered in tenancy or lease. The deposit deed decides when they can dip into it and how fast you have to top it back up, and the top-up clause is the one that bites, because it turns one bad month into a second bill. Dig the deed out now, before you need it.

Route two: enforcement agents (CRAR)

CRAR, Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery, is the modern version of the old bailiff distress. It lets a commercial landlord send enforcement agents to take control of your goods and sell them to pay the rent. The rules are tighter than most people think.

• It's for rent only. The law defines rent as what you pay for possession and use of the premises, plus interest and VAT on it. It specifically excludes rates, services, repairs, maintenance, insurance and other ancillary sums, even if the lease calls them rent. So a pubco can't use CRAR for your insurance recharge, a repairs bill or what you owe for beer.
• At least seven days' rent has to be owed, net of anything you're entitled to set off, both when the notice goes out and when they first take goods.
• The notice is now 14 clear days. The Taking Control of Goods (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026 doubled the minimum notice from 7 to 14 clear days from 1 May 2026. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day don't count. A court can shorten it only if it thinks you'll move goods to dodge it.
• The fees land on you. From 1 May 2026: £79 at the compliance stage, £247 plus 7.5% of anything over £1,900 at the enforcement stage, and £116 plus 7.5% if it goes to sale. On a month's arrears that's another £326 before anything is sold.
• Some goods are protected. Tools and equipment you personally need for your trade are exempt up to £1,350 in total. Goods that aren't yours aren't yours to take: the owner of a leased coffee machine or a supplier's gas cylinders can claim them back through the court.

The flat upstairs changes everything

This is the bit I'd want every tenant who lives in to know. CRAR is only available for a lease of commercial premises, and the Act says premises aren't commercial if any part of them is let as a dwelling or occupied as a dwelling. It goes further: "let as a dwelling" includes a letting that permits other use combined with living there. A pub let with the accommodation, where you're allowed to live upstairs, looks squarely inside that wording.

So if the flat is part of what's let to you and you live in it with the landlord's blessing, on the plain words of section 75 CRAR shouldn't be open to them at all. The exception is where living there would itself breach your lease. I haven't seen this tested on a pub in court and I'd want a solicitor to read your actual agreement before you lean on it. But if an enforcement agent turns up at a pub where the tenant lives upstairs, it's the first question I'd ask.

Route three: forfeiture, and why the locks are harder to change than you'd think

Forfeiture means the landlord ends the lease because you broke it. Most pub agreements have a clause allowing it if rent is unpaid for a set number of days. For rent, unlike most other breaches, there's no requirement for the warning notice under section 146 of the Law of Property Act. Many leases also say the rent counts as unpaid "whether formally demanded or not", which removes the old need for a formal demand. Check yours.

A landlord can forfeit in two ways: through the court, or by peaceable re-entry, which usually means a locksmith at seven in the morning when the pub's shut. And here the flat matters again. Section 2 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 makes it unlawful to forfeit premises let as a dwelling other than through the court while anyone is lawfully living there. In Pirabakaran v Patel in 2006 the Court of Appeal held that covers mixed premises, a shop with a flat above in that case, not just pure homes. The judgment even cites an old case about premises let partly as a public house and partly to live in. If you live in, they need a court order.

Even if the locks do get changed, you can still get the pub back:

• Pay everything before trial. If the landlord goes to court, paying all the arrears plus costs before the trial stops the proceedings and you keep the lease.
• Apply for relief within six months. After a peaceable re-entry for unpaid rent you can ask the county court for relief at any time within six months of the date they re-entered.
• Watch for waiver. If a landlord accepts or demands rent for a period after the breach, knowing about it, it can lose the right to forfeit for that breach. Lawyers also argue that using CRAR for arrears can waive forfeiture for the same arrears. Don't play games with this, but know it exists.

Route four: suing, and the insolvency numbers

Arrears are a debt, so a landlord can simply sue for them. The heavier tools are the insolvency ones:

• If you trade as a limited company, a creditor owed more than £750 can serve a statutory demand. If the company doesn't pay or come to terms within three weeks, it's treated as unable to pay its debts, which opens the door to a winding-up petition.
• If you're a sole trader, the bankruptcy level is £5,000.
• If you've sold or assigned a lease and still guarantee it, the landlord can only come after you for the new tenant's rent if it serves you a notice within six months of the rent falling due. That's section 17 of the 1995 Act, and if you've moved on from a pub it's worth knowing. More in my guide to selling a tied pub lease.

Where the Pubs Code fits

Not much, on the arrears themselves. The Pubs Code is about the tie, rent assessments, information and the market rent only option. I couldn't find anything in it that stops a regulated pubco recovering rent you owe. Where it does help is the cause. If the arrears are building because the rent was set too high, the routes are a rent assessment or the MRO. If it's tied prices squeezing you, there's what you can do about a tied price rise. Sort the cause and the arrears stop growing.

What I'd do this week

1. Get the statement split. Ask for the arrears broken down into rent, insurance, repairs, interest and anything else. Only the rent part can go to CRAR, and the split often shows the problem is smaller, or different, than the headline.
2. Read four clauses. The deposit deed's top-up rule, the interest rate on late rent, the forfeiture clause and how many days it allows, and whether the lease says "whether formally demanded or not".
3. Offer a plan in writing before it hits a week's rent. A specific weekly amount you can actually pay beats a vague promise. Email, so there's a record.
4. If a notice of enforcement arrives, use the 14 days. Ring the landlord, get advice, check whether you live in and whether the sums are really rent. Business Debtline is a free charity service for the self-employed and small businesses.
5. Find the leak. On a £5,000 week, 1% of sales lost to stock is £50 a week, a third of the roughly £150 a typical pub keeps, which I worked through in how much profit a pub makes. That's £2,600 a year, more than a month and a half of rent on this model.

And one habit I'd start tomorrow, whether you're behind or not. Move one day's rent out of every day's takings into a separate account. On £371 a week that's £53 a night. Rent stops being a lump that arrives on a Monday and becomes a line you pay daily, like the till float. It's dull, it costs nothing, and the week the pub has a bad Saturday you see the gap in days, not when the direct debit bounces.

Common questions

What happens if a pub tenant doesn't pay the rent?

The landlord can usually draw on the rent deposit, use enforcement agents under CRAR once at least seven days' rent is owed, forfeit the lease if it has a forfeiture clause, or sue for the debt and use statutory demands. Which routes are open depends on your agreement and whether you live on the premises.

How much notice do bailiffs have to give for commercial rent arrears?

Since 1 May 2026 the notice of enforcement must be given at least 14 clear days before goods are taken, up from 7. Sundays, bank holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day don't count, and a court can only shorten it if goods are likely to be moved to avoid enforcement.

Can a pubco use CRAR if I live above the pub?

CRAR is only available for a lease of commercial premises, and the Act says premises aren't commercial if any part is let or occupied as a dwelling, including a letting for other use combined with living there. If the flat is part of what's let to you and you're allowed to live in it, on those words CRAR shouldn't be available. Get a solicitor to check your agreement.

Can my landlord change the locks on the pub for unpaid rent?

Peaceable re-entry is allowed for many commercial leases, but section 2 of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 makes it unlawful to forfeit premises let as a dwelling without a court order while anyone lawfully lives there, and the Court of Appeal has held that covers mixed business and residential premises. If the locks are changed, you can apply for relief within six months.

Can CRAR be used for my insurance recharge or repairs bill?

No. For CRAR, rent means the amount paid for possession and use of the premises plus interest and VAT. Rates, services, repairs, maintenance, insurance and other ancillary sums are excluded even if the lease calls them rent.