What to do if you can't Pay your Rent...
If you are experiencing a problem paying your rent, you should contact your Housing Officer immediately to discuss the situation. It's important to deal with the problem quickly before it becomes unmanageable. We will offer you the following help:
- Give you basic money and benefits advice;
- Agree a repayment plan to clear any rent arrears;
- Refer you to other agencies who may be able to help.
In order for us to help resolve the problem there must be a good exchange of communication between you and your Housing Officer. This will enable us to identify any changes that affect your ability to make the agreed payments. For more complex situations, we strongly recommend that you also seek impartial advice.
Useful organisations include:
Help With Rent Payment
If you are in receipt of Income Support, Job Seeker's Allowance or are on a low wage you may qualify for Housing Benefit. This is a scheme operated by the Local Authority to assist residents with the payment of rent. The amount of Housing Benefit entitlement depends on individual circumstances.
If you think you may qualify for Housing Benefit you should contact either your Housing Officer or the council directly for further information and to obtain an application form. You can contact your local councils on the following numbers or get information from their website:
If you are already claiming Housing Benefit, inform the council immediately of any changes in your circumstances, for example:
- Starting work or changing job;
- A change in income;
- Someone else coming to live with you;
- Someone in your household moving out;
- A new baby;
- Children leaving school or starting work.
Failure to tell the council straight away of a change in circumstances may mean that you are underpaid or overpaid benefit which could affect your rent account.
We are committed to working with other agencies to combat benefit fraud. If any officer of RFHA becomes aware that a resident is committing fraud, it will be reported to the relevant agency immediately.
Failure To Make Rent Payments
Please be aware that should you fall into arrears with your rent, failure to make and keep to an arrangement to clear rent arrears is very likely to result in RFHA taking court action against you. The court costs incurred will increase the debt and having a County Court Judgement could make it difficult for you to obtain credit in the future. Most importantly, you may be at risk of being evicted and in such cases the Local Authority and other social landlords will not re-house you.