When recovering rent arrears, we will:
- contact tenants about any outstanding balance on their account, his could be by letter, telephone, text or similar messaging service, visit to the property or any other means, at any time (we will use whichever is the most effective)
- send letters at each stage to tell tenants of their position and any actions being taken
- use payments due to tenants, including Home Loss Payments, to offset arrears
The first stage
During the first stage we will:
- monitor rent accounts weekly
- attempt to make early contact with any tenant who is not paying their rent as agreed, eg owes 2 weeks’ rent
- make further attempts to contact tenants if rent arrears continue to increase, eg if they owe 3 weeks’ rent. We will include a warning that we can take legal action when 4 weeks' net rent is owed
- expect the balance outstanding to be paid in full
- if an account is in arrears and the tenant cannot pay the balance in full, we may agree a realistic agreement to clear the arrears, we will take the tenant’s circumstances into account