We understand that sometimes you might have difficulties paying your rent and could fall behind.
If this happens you should contact us straight away, as we can offer help and advice. We can help you make affordable arrangements that will get you back on track with your payments.
What happens if you don’t pay your rent
If you don’t pay your rent, we will take firm action against you. This might result in you being taken to court. If this happens, you will be charged legal costs and could risk losing your home.
How we can help you
We can help you in the following ways. When we discuss these issues with you, we will always behave respectfully and confidentially.
Payment plan
If you are a new tenant, we can support you with help and advice from the start. We can help you set up a regular payment plan to suit your needs.
Benefits support
We can advise you about different welfare benefits such as Housing Benefit and Universal Credit and point you in the right direction to make a claim.
Health and wellbeing
We will ask if you have any disabilities, illnesses, or take any medication that could affect your ability to pay your rent. This will help us give the best advice we can.
Managing your money
We can help you with specialist advice if you have debts or need help managing your money. This includes referring you for in-depth advice at Citizen’s Advice or the Credit Union.
Arrears from a previous tenancy
We are here to help you manage your debt. This includes talking about the balance you owe and helping to break it down so that you understand it more easily. Affordable payment plans can be arranged that suit your needs.
Current tenants
If you are a current tenant, but have previous debt, you should continue to pay along with your current weekly rent.
Please be aware that any outstanding former tenancy arrears you owe may affect your current housing registration, or ability to join later. This could include your preference being reduced to a lower band or you being disqualified and unable to join the register.
Former tenants
If you are no longer a current council tenant, but still owe rent arrears, we will still pursue this debt. We will use a range of methods to recover this debt. These include:
- telephone calls to your home
- letters sent to your new or last known address
- contacting a family member or your employer, if we have their details
- using debt collection agencies, who will visit you at your new address
- using tracing agencies if we don’t know your new address
We will pursue debt until it is cleared. If you leave a tenancy and you still owe rent, you must contact our Housing team on 0114 293 0000.