Housing Association Rent

bizzy_lizzie

Hi
I work for a HA. Years ago it wouldn't have effected your credit rating but these days we do register it. Also other HA's and Councils will check with the original HA that you dont have any former tenant arrears before they agree to rehouse you in future. On top of all that we normally sell former tenant arrears to a debt collection agency. We would also pursue for void costs i.e. if you left the property needing repairs etc.
All of our money comes from rent, we don't have other income, so we pursue the debt or else we don't have money to repair properties, build new properties etc. Much like any other business really.
Hope that helps.

silverwhistle

AutumnWinter wrote: »

They don't have a forwarding address for us,

Why not? Like the previous occupant of this house, not giving one normally is, and is read as, a bad sign..

Obvioulsy if we have to pay then

Obviously you do...

I pay my council tax by online transfer: do it that way and send a snail mail post at the same time to make sure it gets to the right account: no need for a cheque, a weight off your mind and no problems further down the line.

AutumnWinter

-taff wrote: »

You didn't provide them with a forwarding address, you didn't get in touch with them via phone call or letter, and you 'oops' forgot to pay the last payment.

Is it a 'thing' here to be belligerent, patronising and sarcastic to new members genuiley seeking help and information?

1. I wasn't asked for a forwarding address when I handed in my keys

2. I said in my inital post that I had left several voicemails and sent several emails... so there is a paper trail. You must have missed out this key information in your haste to reply with your useful insight.

3. I did not 'oops' forget to pay anything. Again, my initial post said we had the full balance ready to pay, but could not get intouch with anybody at the office.

4. If I was 'oops' burying my head in the sand, would I be on here asking for advice as to how best resolve?



Bizzy_Lizzie - thank you! useful and helpful advice. This is absolutely fine, I understand and have no qualms making the payment. Nothing on my credit file thus far *touch wood* so I will sort the money and make the payment asap.

Is there no requirement/obligation for them to call/email at least?

Just to clarify it wasn't a housing association like if you're on benefits etc. We found the property on Right Move and paid full rent/council tax etc, so there will be no need for 'rehousing' in the future. I don't know if that makes a difference?

-taff

AutumnWinter wrote: »

Is it a 'thing' here to be belligerent, patronising and sarcastic to new members genuiley seeking help and information?

1. I wasn't asked for a forwarding address when I handed in my keys

2. I said in my inital post that I had left several voicemails and sent several emails... so there is a paper trail. You must have missed out this key information in your haste to reply with your useful insight.

3. I did not 'oops' forget to pay anything. Again, my initial post said we had the full balance ready to pay, but could not get intouch with anybody at the office.

4. If I was 'oops' burying my head in the sand, would I be on here asking for advice as to how best resolve?

It's also your responsibility to provide one if you're in arrears or you owe money, or even if you are just asking for your deposit back.

Vvoicemails don't count as a paper trail. You might think that e-mails count, but they can be diverted, deleted, ignored etc. Paper gets delivered [mostly], anything sent first class is understood to have arrived whether it did or not.
If you've already had experience that communication was dire, why didn't you resort to pen and paper since any other way was already known to not work?
You said you spent the money 'oops'
You weren't initially asking for advice on how to pay, you were asking what were the chances that they would take you to court in your absence because you weren't going to pay if 'nothing was going to happen'

AutumnWinter

This is the first property I've rented. I handed in my keys and wasn't asked for a forwarding address, how am I to know any different? It's unfair of you to abscond me on this - especially when it isn't the case at hand.

Emails do count, I've checked with the CAB.


Spending the money (and admitting to spending the money) has nothing to do with your baseless assumption that I 'forgot to pay' and am 'burying my head in the sand'. No correlation between our comments and I think you just tried to be an !!!! tbh.


And I'm still not asking for advice on how to pay So that's a moot comment.



These forums are for help and advice, not a slap on the wrist from... well... who are you? To be so condescending? We have all made poor choices and decisions.

Kimberley

Most Landlords give you a bank account number and sort code to pay your rent into. Why not just pay via a bank transfer and put your reference number/rent account number as the payee reference? You say you paid that way before so you should have the receipts. So pay the final balance in this way and keep the receipt/ bank statement to prove it's been paid and then let them contact you.

ShirePiskie

Hi

I think the general assumption is the advice you were asking for was would there be repercussions if you didn't follow up paying the outstanding rent. If you've been mis-understood then please clarify what advice you were looking for.

The general consensus, with which I agree, is you should pay the outstanding money as you owe it and also in the long-term there will be consequences for you - having to find the money, pay additional charges and have your credit file affected.

Perhaps it's the way you have replied, but the impression I get is you are looking for approval to avoid paying your debt, if that's not the case then that's just what happens with the written word on forums. I know some replies have been quite succinct, but the advice is well meaning and not all, unlike me who can waffle as an Olympic sport, sugar-coat their advice. I've had some fairly short replies to questions I've asked on MSE, but it has still been well meaning.

It's up to you if you want to take the advice/ opinions on board or not, as it is with everyone, but if it's not what you want to hear choose to disregard it rather than respond in what comes across as a very ungracious way.

TBagpuss

You do need to pay. As Bizzie Lizzie said, this would be pursued and will affect your credit rating if you leave it. The fact that you were not recieveing benefits isn't relevant, the HA was your landlord, the method of payment (i.e. direct, via housing benefits, or a mix) doesn't make any difference.



Although you've said that you made efforts to pay, what you've described wouldn't be considered to be very great efforts - of course they should have responded to your voicemails/e-mails but if they didn't, it doesn't mean that your debt is forgotten, it means that you have to find an effective way to communicate with them - normally this would mean sending a hard copy letter and if you didn't get a response to send a further letter, 'signed for'.

And it would not normally be the responsibility of the land lord to follow up with phone calls etc. They may well have written to you at the last address they had for you - it's usual when you move out of a property to notify people of your new address, or to arrange with Royal Mail to forward your post (ideally both)

I think that the reason you've had some fairly robust answers here is that effectively what you were asking is whether you could get away with stealing £1,200 from your landlord

stevemLS

AutumnWinter wrote: »

Hi all

I was wondering if I could get some advice from you lovely people.


My friend (and ex-flatmate) and I owe roughly £1200 between us to a housing association (I think that's what it is although we paid full rent, no benefits).


We had a payment plan set up and paid the first installment, however they claimed there was in issue with the bank transfer and claimed we never paid, cue weeks of headaches to prove we had.


We decided we didn't want to pay this way anymore as communication with them was dire, so we called to make the payment. 90% of the time we couldn't get in touch and they rarely replied via email. We left several voicemails saying we wanted to make the final payment via telephone and nobody got back to us.



The final balance should have been cleared in January but it hasn't (and we spent the money... oops). They don't have a forwarding address for us, so technically, letters could have been sent to our old flat, but they haven't tried to contact us via email or telephone either.

Where do we stand with this? Obvioulsy if we have to pay then I will get the money together and pay, but I don't want to make the payment if nothing would happen, as I'm saving to go traveling and currently it's quite a big stress on my shoulder at the mo.


Thanks in advance

This was OP - doesn't seem to me to be an awful lot of scope for misinterpretation.

Why didn't you pay, btw, on the 10% of times you did get through on the phone?

Pixie5740

AutumnWinter wrote: »

Just to clarify it wasn't a housing association like if you're on benefits etc. We found the property on Right Move and paid full rent/council tax etc, so there will be no need for 'rehousing' in the future. I don't know if that makes a difference?

It doesn't really make a difference as private landlords can pursue you through the courts for rent arrears too. This can lead to the arrears being reocrded on your credit file (it will be there for 6 years) and possibly a CCJ. If a court does award a CCJ then that will show up on any credit searches future landlords and letting agencies might carry out if/when you're looking for somewhere to rent when you come back your travels.

You might get lucky and get away with it but then again you might not.