Help! Housing Association didn't inform us of Rent Arrears?!

notfunnymoney

Wow thanks for making me feel less freaked out than I already did....

Lily-Rose_3

I don't know how long the period of time is that these arrears have accrued, but our housing association sends us a statement of our rent payments, every 3 months (we aren't on any housing benefit at all, and pay the full £300 a month rent, but they still send it.)

So your landlord hasn't sent ANY rent statements or correspondence whatsoever? Nothing. In how long? How long since you last had contact with them?

Did you not notice that your rent was not coming out of your account?

Or is it just housing benefit that has not been paid?

I don't understand how the arrears can be so high.

How has this amount accrued? This much? How?

I am not exactly understanding what you're saying.

How much percentage did you pay yourself, and how much did housing benefit pay?

agrinnall

If you really have a DD set up to pay your rent then the amount taken is entirely under the control of the HA, so if they've taken the wrong amount that's their fault. It will still be your responsibility to pay the arrears, but you'll have a very good argument for doing so over time.

Of course, if it's actually a Standing Order rather than a DD then that brings full responsibility back to you.

[Deleted User]

In my experience, not only should you have received something from the HA that you were in arrears (normally they are pretty hot on this), but everytime there was an assessment and/or change of circumstances changing what HB you receive, you should have received notification from HB of this. So you should have been notified twice over. However if the HA didn't notify you, its still your responsibility to pay the debt.

I am not brilliant but I always know what HB is being paid, and how much rent I need to pay. Its the only way to stop bills building up. The less money there is, the more careful I am. Rent has to be top priority if you have a shortfall. As soon as I know there is a 'short' time coming up, I cut back on everything else. Its very hard when you have insufficient income, but you have to be very proactive. You could also try the debt free wannabe board to see if you can cut expenses to enable you to cope financially. In your posts you say you were £700 in arrears at one point, then that you were in credit at another point.., now you owe £2k and you didn't know anything about it. It sounds a bit haphazard.., I suspect you need to pay more attention to what your rent status is. As I have said, even more if there is an adequate income problem. Its a time when you can least afford to bury your head in the sand.

Just in case there is some kind of error, I'd get all my HB paperwork out, or ask for copies if you can't find it, get an up to date rent statement from the HA.., and start doing week by week sums to see what has been outstanding each week and if there is any error. Its unlikely though (but possible).

I can't understand why the HA hasn't been chasing you. Personally.., after I'd done my week by week breakdown, I'd start making phone calls to the HA. Its a lot of arrears. You'll have to make some kind of repayment arrangement with them.

chocdonuty

It sounds like you have never checked your rent account and just paid a rent haphazardly without checking how much you actually owe.
Like you my pay varies so I'm frequently in the HB office getting my claim recalculated so I'm always up to date.
What happens is I get paid 4 weekly on a friday and my HB is paid the following Monday, I simply pay my full rent for the four weeks minus the HB payment. (rent is weekly but easier to work out this way for me)
If I have a good pay period then I know my HB will be reduced the next time so I pay a little extra that time to cover myself.

RuthnJasper

I am in no way justifying an arrears build-up of £2k, but I once had a similar experience with my HA (but not HB-related as I don't get benefits).

In my first year in the property, the HA specified the incorrect amount of monthly rent in my "starter pack" and then compounded the error by not sending the annual letter advising of a rise in rent several months later, so I merrily continued paying what I had been informed was the correct amount.

Some months down the line, I got a letter stating that I was @£900 in arrears. When I queried this, the HA said that they didn't bother to chase arrears until they had reached a certain amount. I argued that it wasn't my fault, it had been their error with the incorrect letters. They agreed, but I still had to repay the arrears. They let me do it in installments though.

I just consider myself to be extremely fortunate in having a nice little HA place to live in and kept (keep) a much closer eye on things after that debacle.

Best wishes. x

pmlindyloo

I have to say that this is extremely unusual to allow arrears to reach this level without any kind of notification.

This is not condoning the OP's failure to keep an eye on the rent payments but enough has been said about this already.

It is extremely important that the OP asks for a complete breakdown of the rent arrears to check that there has not been a mistake. Since the OP only found out from an on line service scheme that amount of arrears may be totally wrong.

Also since the OP had set up a DD for the remainder of the amount that hadn't been paid by HB why did the HA not alter the amount of DD to compensate for the adjustment in the HB? After all that is what DDs are for.

The OP certainly has a case to have whatever arrears are due to be taken back at a reasonable amount of money each week/month as, personally, I do not feel that the OP is as much to blame as has been suggested here.

TBagpuss

I agree that the first step is to ask the HA to provide a full statement and breakdown of the arrears and payments recieved, so you can check that this is correct.

Also ask if they can let you have details of what the arrangements are for sending statements or notifications - unless there was something at the outset telling you that they no longer send paper statements and that is is all paperless, then the fact that you didn't receive any communication is concerning.

Assuming their figures are correct then you will have to pay the arrears - I'd suggest that you sit down an do a statement of your income and out goings so that you can work out how much you can realistically afford to pay back each month, and so you can provide that breakdown to the HA when you start to talk to them about the repayments.

If they say that they have sent you letters etc then you can ask for copies to check whether there is a problem such as an incorrect postcode which might have caused the letters to go astray.

Tigsteroonie

OP Are you sure that you are actually in arrears? Given that you've had no correspondence, and you seem confident that you've been paying what's required - might there be an error with the online system?

I'd suggest you do as TBagpuss and others have suggested - contact the HA yourself and ask for a full statement. Only once you have the confirmation that you are actually in arrears - and you can see how it's arisen - then you start asking questions about why you weren't informed etc.