You are experiencing financial problems and want to ask your landlord if you can pay your rent late. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter: - explain Why you are writing to him - Why you cannot pay the rent - When you will pay the rent.
Sample Response
Dear Mr. Smith,
I am writing to you to ask whether I may pay my rent lateask you for a delay in my rental payment this month.
I haveI’ve been your tenant for a couple of years, and you knowa couple of years and you know that I have always paid my rent on time. However, due to COVIDCovid-19, the hotel where I have been workingthe hotel I have been working at is going bankrupt, so I am currently unemployedgoing bankrupt so currently, I’m jobless. As you mayalready know, I live in Ho Chi Minh Citycity alone and receive no financial support from my familyalone with no financial support from my family, which has left metherefore leaving me short of funds this monthquite short of money this month.
I applied for a part-time waitress positiona part-time job as a waitress last week at a local restaurant and have been accepted. I will be starting to work tomorrow, so I can assure you that the rent will be completely paid in the next two weeks on May 10th.
I would be grateful if you could takeif you take my circumstancescase into consideration. Please contact me, and please contact me if you have any questionsif there is any problem.
Best regards,
Amber Van
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter clearly explains the request, the financial circumstances, and the proposed payment date in a polite, appropriately formal manner. Its main limitation is that several grammatical and collocational choices sound awkward, while in the next two weeks on May 10th creates a small timing ambiguity; prioritize expressing the payment commitment with one precise date and polishing conditional structures.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter achieves its purpose, covers every bullet point with relevant detail, and maintains a suitably respectful tone.
State the exact revised payment date without the competing two-week time reference and make the request for permission fully explicit.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is clearly organized by purpose, explanation, solution, and closing, with smooth overall progression.
Use punctuation or sentence division more carefully where several causal links are combined in the second paragraph.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficiently varied and generally appropriate for a formal request, including financial support and take my case into consideration.
Choose more natural collocations such as request an extension on my rent and pay the rent in full.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses a good mix of simple and complex sentences, though several non-impeding errors remain noticeable.
Improve conditional and clause control, especially I would be grateful if you took and the loosely attached therefore leaving phrase.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are experiencing financial problems and want to ask your landlord if you can pay your rent late. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter:
- explain Why you are writing to him
- Why you cannot pay the rent
- When you will pay the rent.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.