Rent Arrears

If you are having difficulty paying your rent, you should contact us as soon as possible. Your housing officer will discuss the problem with you and offer advice on how we and other agencies can help, including:

• discussing if you are receiving your full entitlement to Housing Benefit
• advising you on other benefits you may be entitled to
• suggesting other ways of paying your rent to make it more manageable (for example, direct debit)

We will help you to set up an affordable repayment plan, to clear your debt. If you keep to this agreement, we will not need to take any action against you.

Our Rent Arrears Policy has information about how we can help prevent you from getting into arrears, and how we can recover the money you owe us. We place more focus now on preventative work to stop you from getting into debt. We always try to make personal contact with you, to help you and offer support. We can also offer advice if you are at risk of homelessness.

Serious and Persistent Arrears

Recovery of rent arrears will be based on a process called an ‘escalation process’. This begins when you first fall into arrears, and ends when we have taken all of the action we can. In the worst case, we can repossess your home for non-payment of rent.

When deciding which action to take, we will consider the amount that you owe us and review your payment history. If there is no improvement in your rent arrears and they continue to rise, we may send you a ‘notice of proceedings’. The notice allows us to begin legal action and apply to the court for payment of arrears or even eviction from your home.