Your rent
It is important that we collect the rent and
service charges due for your home. We use this to cover the costs
of maintaining and managing your home and carrying out essential
repairs and future improvements.
The rent you pay will depend on:
- the type and size of your home; and
- whether it has been modernised.
You may also have to pay a service charge to cover the costs of
providing extra services not included in your rent, such as
sheltered housing officer services, cleaning shared areas, TV
aerials and emergency alarm services.
We will explain the charges you must pay when you take
up a tenancy with us, and they will also be set out in your tenancy
agreement.
Your rent is due weekly in advance. You can pay your rent every
month, but it must be paid in advance or by direct debit or
standing order. We work out the rent over a 48-week year so there
are four/five weeks each year when we do not charge rent. These are
always the last week (or two) of March, last week of May, last week
of August and Christmas week.
Rent statements
We will send you a rent statement every three months, which will
show you all the weekly rent that we have charged you, any housing
benefit or supporting people grant that you received and all
payments that you have made. If you have questions when you receive
these statements, please contact us.
If you have difficulties paying your rent
Contact us immediately if you have any problems. If you fall
behind with your rent and don’t tell us, we can take legal action,
which could mean losing your home. Try not to let your debts build
up.
Once we know that you have problems we can often help you by
checking that you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled
to and working out the best way of paying your rent and repaying
the debt. We can also help by putting you in touch with an
organisation that specialises in giving debt advice.
You can find out more about benefit and debit advice by clicking
here:
» Benefits and debt advice