Rent arrears in Queensland: the step-by-step process from day one to QCAT

The arrears window

In Queensland, rent is in arrears the day after it's due. The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (Qld) — the RTRA Act — gives you a clear pathway, but it's a sequenced one. Each step gates the next, and skipping a step usually means starting over.

The key dates:

• Day 1–6 of arrears — informal contact only.
• Day 7+ of arrears — you can serve a Notice to Remedy Breach (RTA Form 11) requiring the rent to be paid within 7 days.
• After Form 11 expires unremedied — you can serve a Notice to Leave (RTA Form 12) with 7 days notice on the ground of unremedied rent arrears (s 281).
• After Form 12 expires unremedied and the tenant doesn't leave — you apply to QCAT for a termination order.

It's a roughly 21-day process from the first day of arrears to a termination order if everything is served correctly and consecutively. You'll often resolve it much sooner, because most tenants pay before it gets to QCAT.

Day 1–6: the gentle nudge

Don't go straight to a formal notice. Most missed payments are bank delays, holiday gaps, or genuine cashflow hiccups that resolve themselves. A short message ("hey, I haven't seen this week's rent yet, is everything OK?") clears most of them inside 48 hours.

Two reasons to log the nudge:

1. It builds a paper trail. If this escalates, your communications log shows the tenant was given fair warning. 2. It opens a conversation. A tenant who's lost their job or had a medical emergency will often offer a payment plan if asked — and a payment plan you both honour is much less painful than a forced eviction.

In Property Journal, log the contact in the Communications tile on the property — channel = SMS / email / phone, direction = outbound, body = the message you sent.

Day 7+: Notice to Remedy Breach (Form 11)

Once rent is at least 7 days late, you can serve RTA Form 11 — a Notice to Remedy Breach. This is the formal notice that says: "rent is in arrears, you have 7 days from receipt to pay it, or the tenancy can be terminated."

The Form 11 has three things you need to get right:

1. The ground — pick "rent in arrears" (it's a specific tickbox on the form). 2. The remedy period — 7 days for arrears. 3. The remedy — the exact arrears amount, and how to pay (your bank details, payment ref).

Service: the same rules as any RTA form. In-person same-day, post = 7 days deemed receipt, email only if the tenant has agreed in writing.

If the tenant pays in full inside the 7 days, the Form 11 is complied with and the tenancy continues. You can issue another Form 11 if it happens again — there's no statutory limit on how many you serve.

After Form 11 expires unremedied: Notice to Leave (Form 12)

If the 7-day remedy period passes and the rent is still unpaid (in whole or in part), you can serve RTA Form 12 — a Notice to Leave — on the ground of "unremedied breach (rent arrears)" under s 281.

The notice period for this ground is 7 days from deemed receipt. The handover day on the Form 12 is at least 7 days after deemed receipt.

The Form 12 must reference the earlier Form 11 — same breach, unremedied. You'll often see this written as "Form 11 served [date], expired [date], breach not remedied".

If the tenant pays after Form 12 is served — what then?

A common scenario. The tenant didn't pay during the Form 11 period, so you served Form 12. Then they pay before the handover day.

Under the RTRA Act, once a Form 12 has been served on the unremedied-breach ground, the tenant doesn't have an automatic right to "cure" it by paying late — but in practice, accepting payment is usually treated as waiving the breach. If you want to keep the tenancy going, accept the payment and confirm in writing the tenancy is continuing. If you want to enforce the Form 12, return the payment and explain why; otherwise the tenant has a strong argument at QCAT that you waived the notice by accepting payment.

This is one of those situations where it's worth thinking ahead about what outcome you actually want. Most landlords keep the tenancy when the rent gets paid; the Form 12 has done its job by getting the money.

After Form 12 expires and the tenant hasn't left

Now you apply to QCAT for a termination order. The application is Form 1 (Minor civil dispute — residential tenancy dispute) lodged at the QCAT registry, with the filing fee.

You attach:

• Copy of the tenancy agreement.
• Copy of the Form 11 + evidence of service.
• Copy of the Form 12 + evidence of service.
• Communications log showing the timeline.
• A current rent ledger showing the outstanding amount.

QCAT typically lists urgent applications within 2–3 weeks. At the hearing, the tribunal looks at:

• Were the notices served correctly?
• Did the notice periods comply with the Act?
• Is the rent actually in arrears?
• Have the parties tried to resolve it?

If everything is in order, QCAT issues a termination order with a date the tenant must vacate by, and (separately) a warrant of possession authorising police involvement if the tenant still won't leave.

Practical advice

• Serve Form 11 the moment you can — day 7. Tenants who pay during the Form 11 period save you a trip to QCAT.
• Document everything as it happens. Communications, dates of service, response or non-response. Don't reconstruct from memory months later.
• Use registered post. Free and gives you a date-stamped record of when you mailed it.
• Talk to the tenant in parallel. A formal notice doesn't preclude a payment-plan conversation. Often the formal step is what makes the conversation real.
• Insurance. Landlord insurance (e.g. Terri Scheer, EBM) covers rent default after the tenant has been served the formal notices. Check your policy — most have a maximum claim period and require you to follow the right process.

What this means for you

The arrears process is bureaucratic but it's not legally complex. The hard parts are:

1. Knowing the exact day you can serve Form 11 (day 7+). 2. Knowing the exact handover day on Form 12 (deemed-receipt day + at least 7 days). 3. Keeping a clean evidence trail.

Property Journal does the date math and the form generation. The dashboard surfaces an "arrears" alert as soon as a payment is overdue. The Rent tile has a "Notify of arrears" button that pre-fills a Form 11 from your tenancy data with the right amount, the right deadline, and a draft email to send it. The Communications log timestamps everything for your evidence trail.

> Not legal advice. This guide explains the framework. For your specific situation, especially anything escalating to QCAT, get advice from the RTA (1300 366 311) or a tenancy lawyer.