Housing associations

debrag

Arrears are bad but:

Started with L&Q took awail for them to send letters out saying you were in arrears. Now we are with Affinity Sutton and within 2 weeks they want to send out an eviction notice!!!!!!!! Due to this we paid some rent last night, now no money till pay day.

Rent is £109 a week and moved in on 12th June, paid 2 weeks and planned to pay full months rent next week (yes I know we would be in arrears).

So we have paid:

13th June - 221
16 July - 200
24th July - 240 (to pay)
27th July - 240 (to pay)

Total = 901

We get paid monthly so would be paying monthly. They said we were £300 in arrears so should still owe £100 after paying £200 last night.

My OH gets paid 26 Aug and I get paid 25 Aug & 27 Aug (changing jobs) and paying to cover Septembers rent.

With our July pay we hope to pay as much back as possible but will probably be still in arrears come Aug's pay.

13 June - 17 July arrears = £124 (5 weeks = 545 - 421)
18 July - 1 August = 218
August has 4 weeks so = 436

So when we pay 4 weeks worth end of July that would still leave us 2 weeks in arrears by the time we get paid end of August. So we really need to pay 6 weeks right? - this I know I can't afford but could pay more end of August.

I'm just finding it strange that they would sent an eviction notice so quickly. Could it be due to we are paying full rent and claiming no HB at this property?

Is it worth contacting them and explaining, we aren't NOT paying just paying on payday, and paying back the arrears a little each month. Will they see we are paying rent and just send a letter saying 'you are in arrears of xxx'

Also if we were to get jobs in a different area could we get a deposit etc from the LA for a new place? We want out of this place but as yet have no deposit, we would be happy with a studio to start with if it came to it.

EDIT: both on min wage I'm lucky if I get 20 hours some weeks (home care)

Running_Horse

I know someone who works in debt recovery for a HA and you would be amazed how many tenants assume it is OK not to pay rent. But somehow they always find money for a house full of electronic gadgets. Phone them up and agree a payment plan, and stick to it. Not many private landlords would allow the lax attitude to rents among most HAs. Why should a HA find you a deposit on your next place? Save up like everyone else.

debrag

We are paying rent just not weekly as we get paid monthly. Yes we have a tv, pc etc all what we have had for 2 + years. We aren't buying stuff instead of rent, we got behind we ARE paying it back.

Jowo_2

Yes, many local councils operate deposit guarantee schemes for private tenants on low incomes or on benefits but it is a very bad idea to give up the security of tenure and cheap rent of social housing to go into the private sector where your wages will be swallowed up on rent. Consider a mutual exchange scheme.

It's actually social housing tenants that press for and support strong action against tenants in arrears. Neighbours have little appetite for others that get away with not paying when they do.

Do contact your housing association - communication is key - to explain about your proposed payments to clear your arrears. Get this in writing to prevent disputes. See if you can start paying monthly and get a standing order set up for it. Paying rent is a priority. Speak to your bank to arrange an overdraft rather than persistently paying late.

There's no such thing as late rent - if it's not paid on time, the tenant is in arrears.

debrag

Well the named tenant is moving out so we will prob be homeless by end of year. I will get everything in writing to them this weekend.

Running_Horse

By your own admission you were in arrears with London & Quadrant. Those must have been cleared to allow a transfer to Affinity Sutton, and yet you are in arrears again and complaining when they ask for those arrears to be paid, and now asking for a deposit on another flat. I seriously wonder sometimes why I bother paying anything at all. Pay your rent, and save up a safety cushion for hard times.

Edit. Who is actually the named tenant if not you?

Wee_Willy_Harris

The real nuts and bolts basics of the agreement between you and your landlord (the HA) is that you give them money (rent) and they give you a home (tenancy). With a secure HA tenancy, as long as you pay rent and behave like a tenant, they will not evict you. Seems simple enough.

Most HA's are non profit, charitable organisations who rely on rental payments to fund everything they do, from building new homes, to repairing fences and everything in between. Obviously, it is best for them to take steps to ensure that their rent is collected and collected on time. There does seem to be an attitude among a minority of social housing tenants that rent is, in some way, optional and that if they don't pay, it doesn't matter. It does. I've even heard it said that "They can't evict you if you have children"..... They can, and they will.

If you aren't keeping your rent account (or any other agreement reached) up to date, the standard advice has always been the same... SPEAK to your debter and discuss a solution.

It is likely that you are an "introductory tenant" and, as such, you enjoy fewer rights and less security at this stage in your tenancy. Eviction of an introductory tenant is the same as a private LL evicting a tenant, ie easy.

The payments you make for the roof over your head are the most important payments you must make. As such, they should be prioritised above all others. You should, as another poster has already stated, speak to you HA as soon as possible (Monday morning!) and explain the difficulties you are having and how you will resolve them. Then you MUST stick to any agreement rerached. They may still go for an eviction order for as long as you still have arrears as a suspended posession order works to their advantage as it reduces any further delay in the eviction process and cements any agreement reached.

As for the deposit? That is very much down to you. But if you are struggling with the affordable rent in a HA property, I think you should give this more careful consideration.

SingleSue

The way it was explained to us when we moved to a HA property was that if you received your pay weekly and then paid weekly it was no problems but if you were paid monthly and then paid your rent monthly, to counteract the weeks where it appeared (on paper) you were not paying, you needed to build up a month in credit to cover the inidividual weeks you were not paying (although they were covered by the monthly payment made).

We had almost the same thing as no-one had told us about it..so we had set up the DD/Standing order (can't remember which, it was years ago now) to pay monthly, payments were going out but an arrears notice was sent out...confuzzled the life out of us to be honest but once it was explained, it made perfect sense and we made an agreement to pay a certain percentage extra per week to get us a month in advance in a relatively short amount of time.

debrag

Running_Horse wrote: »

By your own admission you were in arrears with London & Quadrant. Those must have been cleared to allow a transfer to Affinity Sutton, and yet you are in arrears again and complaining when they ask for those arrears to be paid, and now asking for a deposit on another flat. I seriously wonder sometimes why I bother paying anything at all. Pay your rent, and save up a safety cushion for hard times.

Edit. Who is actually the named tenant if not you?

Actually we had paid up or so we thought but the hb had been stopped so we are paying this back.


We plan to pay £473 a month which is what it works out monthly. I shall contact them and arrange to pay off the arrears.