Paying your Rent

Paying your rent is your most important responsibility with respect to your tenancy. We need your rent to manage and maintain your home. Without the rent paid by our tenants we cannot pay for repairs to your home, pay our staff, maintain our offices or repay the loans we use to build or buy our properties.

How to Pay your Rent

Your Tenancy Agreement says that rent is due weekly or monthly in advance. You can choose which method of payment suits you best.

Direct debit

At a post office

At any shop showing the PayPoint sign

By telephone

By text message

Via the Internet

At our offices

Housing Benefit

If you are having Problems Paying your Rent

It is very important that you let us know straight away if you are having trouble paying your rent. We can advise you on your entitlement to state benefits, and help you fill in the necessary forms.

We can refer you for debt counselling if you have other debts.

We understand that there may be times when you genuinely have difficulties paying your rent. We will listen to the reasons you give us, and can make an arrangement with you for you to make up any missed payments of rent by instalments; however, we expect you to clear any arrears as quickly as possible.

How you can Check your Rent Account Balance

Rent statements are available upon request and you can ask our Customer Services Centre to send you a statement at any time, or you can get a balance over the phone. (We will ask some security questions first.)

We will send a statement of account with most of our letters to you about rent arrears.

You can register to see your rent statement online using ‘seemydata‘. Contact our Customer Services Centre on 020 8778 6699 to register. You will be sent a password that will enable you to see your rent account online.

If you do not Pay your Rent

We will do all we can to help you if you fall behind with your rent payments, but it is vital that we collect rent from our tenants in order to maintain the service we provide as a landlord. If you persistently fail to pay your rent on time, or if you do not keep to an arrangement you have made to make up missed payments, we will follow our procedure to recover arrears.

We will:

• Remind you by letter that rent payments have been missed.
• Try to contact you to discuss the arrears, if you do not contact us first.
• Serve a Notice of Seeking Possession to warn you that legal proceedings may be started.
• Give you a written warning and a final opportunity to make up any payments you have missed before applying to court.
• Get a Possession Order from the County Court with a Money Judgement for the arrears and an order for the costs of the proceedings. The costs will be added to your rent arrears.
• Give you written warning before applying to the court for your eviction, and give you a final opportunity to bring your payments back in line with the Court Order.
• Get the approval of our Director before applying for your eviction.
• Evict you if you do not keep to the terms of the Possession Order.
• Use debt collectors, if necessary, to collect the money you owe us if you leave the property.