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Improving Homes Improving Neighbourhoods
DEALING WITH RENT ARREARS
Tenants may have difficulty meeting their rent payments for many
different reasons.
If you are having difficulties and have fallen into rent arrears, the first
thing you should do is speak to your Housing Officer.
They will discuss the problem with you and will make an agreement
with you to pay off your arrears along with your weekly rent. You will
also be advised about claiming Housing Benefit, which is assistance
available to people on lower incomes to help meet their housing costs.
Q Why is it important to pay my rent on time?
A When you accepted the tenancy of your home you signed a
contract (known as a Tenancy Agreement), obliging you to pay
your rent every week. If you do not do so, Housing Hartlepool is
entitled to take action to either enforce payment, or alternatively,
to start proceedings to bring your tenancy to an end.
You should remember that rent arrears lead to higher rents being
charged to all tenants, as Housing Hartlepool must make up for
the money lost through some tenants’ failure to pay. This is not
fair to other tenants and Housing Hartlepool is determined to
minimise its effect by ensuring the lowest possible level of arrears.
Q What will happen to me if I don’t pay my rent?
A If you do fall into rent arrears, this fact will be noted by your
Housing Officer, who is responsible for checking the rent arrears of
all their tenants every week.
You will be contacted to discuss the matter and hopefully an
agreement will be reached to settle the debt. However, if you do
not abide by the agreement, legal action will be taken.
If you have rent arrears you will not be entitled to transfer to
another property or be offered a garage.
Q What legal action can Housing Hartlepool take if I
don’t pay my rent?
A The Housing Officer will serve you with a Notice of Intention to
Seek Possession, which after 28 days allows Housing Hartlepool to
apply for a County Court Hearing to repossess your home.
Even if the stage of serving a Notice has been reached, Housing
Hartlepool will still allow you to make an agreement to clear your
arrears if your Housing Officer feels that the agreement will be
complied with.
If the arrears are not reducing when the 28 days’ Notice period
ends, then an application to the County Court is made. Court
costs of at least £150 could be charged to you. It is obviously a
good idea to avoid reaching this stage and incurring Court costs
by making and keeping to a voluntary agreement with your
Housing Officer before Housing Hartlepool applies for Court
action.
Q What happens at a County Court Hearing?
A The County Court Hearing is to consider whether to allow Housing
Hartlepool to repossess your home. Normally, Housing Hartlepool
is prepared to give the tenant in arrears a final opportunity to pay
off their arrears by only asking for a Postponed Possession Order.
The effect of this is to allow you to keep your home providing that
you meet the terms of the Order, which is usually to pay your
weekly rent plus a sum off the arrears every week.
Q What happens if I don’t keep to the terms of the
Postponed Possession Order?
A If the payment required under the Postponed Possession Order is
not made, then Housing Hartlepool is entitled to apply for a
Warrant for your eviction.
You will also be classed as a Tolerated Trespasser, which means that
you lose all your tenancy rights (such as the Right to Buy, Right to
Repair) and cannot regain these without another Order from the
Court.
Q I have a family. If I am evicted, Housing Hartlepool
will have to rehouse me, won’t they?
A N o . You have a right to apply for rehousing under the Homeless
Persons legislation and Hartlepool Borough Council is bound to
consider your request. However, if you are deemed to be
“intentionally homeless”, then Hartlepool Borough Council has no
obligation to permanently rehouse you, although it may offer a
hostel place temporarily. You can be considered “intentionally
homeless” if there was some action which you could have taken to
avoid being made homeless which you failed to take.
Unreasonably failing to pay your rent falls within this category.
Almost 50 families were evicted from Housing Hartlepool
properties last year.
Q I owe less than £100. Surely Housing Hartlepool
would not take action to evict me?
A Housing Hartlepool will not take legal action against any tenants
in genuine difficulties providing that they discuss this situation
with their Housing Officer and come to an agreement to sort out
the problem.
However, Housing Hartlepool does have the right to serve a Notice
on any tenant in arrears, no matter how small, if it is thought that
they are unlikely to pay off the debt voluntarily.
Alternatively, Housing Hartlepool can sue the tenant as a debtor
and obtain a Judgement Order against them, requiring them to
settle their account. If they do not, then this fact is recorded on a
nationally available register of Court Judgement. This is a principle
source of information to credit reference agencies and inclusion on
it could seriously affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.
OUR SERVICE PROMISE
• Housing Hartlepool is committed to collecting all the money
that is owed to us. We will do this in a way which recognises
that some customers may need help and support in meeting
their payment responsibilities.
• All our customers will be treated in a fair and consistent
manner, which will be sensitive to the situation and the needs
of the individual. Your contact with us will always be treated
as confidential, in line with our data protection and
confidentiality policy.
• We will develop links with organisations so that individuals can
manage their income for the best advantage. As a minimum,
we will work with Hartlepool Borough Council Benefit Section,
Department of Work and Pensions, West View Resource Centre
and Citizens Advice Bureau.
• We will provide a range of ways in which you can pay your rent
and service charges. At the very least this will include Direct
Debit, Standing Order, over the Internet or by Allpay outlets.
• We will offer guidance and assistance to enable customers to
claim any housing and other benefit to which they might be
entitled. As a minimum, assistance with completing
application forms and passing verified Housing Benefit forms
to Hartlepool Borough Council within one day of having
received all the required information from you.
• We will provide you with a rent statement quarterly and at any
time on request.
• We will provide support and advice to anyone who has financial
or other problems in meeting their rent and service charge
payments.
• We will try to agree with you as to how any debt can be paid
and by when. Where an informal approach to arrears fails, or
you do not contact us when requested, or keep to an
agreement, we may take legal action against you. If we have to
do this, you are likely to have to pay our court costs.
• We will keep you informed at all stages of the arrears process.
• Eviction will only be considered as a final resort when all other
reasonable actions have failed.
• We will do our best to obtain contact details of former tenants
or their representative, and to keep that information up to date.
• If it appears that there is an amount of rent or other charges still
to pay after a tenancy has ended, we will write to the former
tenant or their representative within 14 days of the tenancy
ending.
• Because Housing Benefit and Supporting People grant are
processed by Hartlepool Borough Council, we cannot guarantee
that former tenants or their representatives can assume that
there are no former tenant arrears to pay if they do not hear
from us within 14 days of the end of the tenancy. If any Benefits
are to be reclaimed, we will write to you within 14 days of us
being notified by Hartlepool Borough Council.
• We will try and agree with former tenants or their
representative as to how any debt is to be paid and by when.
• We will provide statements of the amounts still to be paid upon
request.
• If we cannot reach agreement on payment of former tenant’s
arrears in a reasonable time, we will use a variety of ways to
enforce payment. This may include the use of reputable Debt
Recovery Agencies. We reserve the right to add any additional
costs of collection to the original outstanding amount.
• If a former tenant applies for another Housing Hartlepool home
at any time, we will consider the amount and progress of
repayment of any former tenant arrears as part of our
allocations process.
• If you ask us to provide a reference in connection with housing,
including other landlords and mortgage providers, we will
include details of any outstanding details including former
tenant arrears in the reference.
• If we owe former tenants or their representatives any money,
we will make a refund by cheque within 14 days of the end of
the tenancy, provided that we have a forwarding or contact
address. We reserve the right to delay payment where it seems
to us that it is likely that a Benefits overpayment will reduce or
cancel out the credit, or that other charges are owed to us, until
the amount of any credit is definitely known.
• We will monitor these service standards regularly and use this
information to make sure we are keeping to these standards
and to see if they can be improved in any way.
• If you are unhappy about the way any aspect of your contact
with us has been dealt with, please let us know as soon as
possible so that we can put things right. Please contact any
local Housing Office or our Head Office at Housing Hartlepool,
Greenbank, Stranton, Hartlepool, TS24 7QS. You may even use
our Complaints Process. We will be happy to post one to you if
you wish.
Please remember, your rent is the most important of all your household expenses.
Housing Hartlepool is determined to offer the maximum amount of assistance it
can to people struggling to pay their rent and will always try to recover arrears
by co-operating with the tenant and agreeing a method of paying off the debt.
If you are having difficulties with your rent, please contact your Housing Officer
as soon as possible to discuss this matter.
Never ignore the problem, as this wont make it go away – it only becomes a
bigger problem.
Seek help immediately.
Housing Hartlepool, Greenbank, Stranton, Hartlepool TS24 7QS
Telephone: 01429 525252 www.housinghartlepool.org.uk
If you or someone you know need help in communicating with
us or would like a summary of this document in your language,
Braille or large print, please telephone the Customer Services
team on 01429 525252 or contact us at the address above.
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Urdu
APRIL 2007
