Housing Association abusing rent

pimento

Are you saying that the two weeks in December should have been free and they've charged you?

Cakeguts

When do you pay rent? Weekly? Every 4 weeks or monthly?

hammy1988

Housing associations always like the rent paid in ARREARS. My mum can one month pay her rent by debit card on the 3rd of the next month when the rent was due on 28th of the previous month...and bam always receives a warning letter about unpaid rent. Similar can happen if you pay every four weeks but some weeks are four and a half so that all tallies up.

It always helps yourself to be in front of the rent. Red moments of owing rent to a housing association never look good if you want to move into private accommodation, or move within the association itself.

HA always have people you can go and see to help with your rent and circumstances, might be worth giving them a call and sitting down and looking at the figures to see where the money is owed from?

sue33

Pilmento , it seems this way because like I said the statement shows what I owe and that I what I pay. I don't earn enough for them to keep whipping out a figure silly nilly. This is why I request statements so that I am not left surprise. £100 is a lot of money . To me, with travel costs high as it is per week . Like I said the association made a mistake on my account before and never took responsibility for it and I was having to pay

[Deleted User]

If they are saying you get rent free weeks ask what your actual weekly rental is and check this against what has actually been paid, just in case there has been a misunderstanding or miscalculation somewhere. It could be a rounding off error. So easy for miscommunication to happen.

G_M

sue33 wrote: »

Hello GM

Like I said they send me a statement with a payment schedule. I had created a spreadsheet and when I challenge it with them ,they still advise I am still owing . They made a mistake before and admitted to it but I still ended up having to pay . They take advantage because housing ombudsman failed to intervene

1)if they made a mistake before and admitted it, why did you end up having to pay? Makes no sense.

2) so you have a spredsheet ofyour payments. And they have sent you a payment schedule. So you can identify exactly where they claim the debt, or arears, came from. The difference between your records and theirs. Is it

* a payment you believe you made but they claim they never received?
* a rent increase you believe was not legally justified?
* or what?

Writethem a letter, identifying the problem, and enclosing your evidence of payment to show they are wrong.

Norman_Castle

As above, prove them wrong about your current rent position or get them to explain why your payments do not cover your rent.
HAs will have people who will sit down and discuss this with you.

Which Housing Association are you with?

Ci_bach

Ok. Deep breath. Don't panic.

Remember a rent statement will only show the rent account at the point the statement was printed. It could be that the payment that you had made had not yet 'hit' the account.

Does the rent week start on a Monday? If payments are made later in the week, they may not reach the rent account until the next Monday has passed, by which time another weeks rent will be added to the account and so the rent account will show arrears. A way to avoid this is by making additional payments of a pound or two each week so that overtime the account will not show arrears before the next rent payment is received to your rent account

Do you pay weekly or calendar monthly? Some months will have 4 Mondays and others will have 5. So if a 4 weekly payment is made in a 5 weekly month, arrears will accrue.

Paying rent on a credit card is not a good idea. You will incur charges from your bank if you don't clear the credit card balance in full each month.

Can you view your rent account on line?
Can you make your rent payments on line via a debit card?
How about setting up a Direct Debit or Standing Order? A lot of housing organisations will accept these methods for weekly, 4 weekly or calendar monthly payments. You should be able to obtain the housing organisations bank details from your Housing Officer

For calendar monthly payments, multiply weekly rent by 50 (rent weeks in the year) and then divide by 12 (months in the year).

You could also try going back on the rent account statement to the last time no arrears balance was showing and count up the number of Monday that have passed since then and compare with the amount of rent payments showing. You should be able to see if there are any shortfalls between the two.

Also, check your receipts / credit card statements against your rent statement to see if there are any rent payments not showing on your rent account.

Email your Housing Officer and ask for a meeting to discuss your concerns (and findings of the above). If this doesn't produce results, then mail your local councillor or MP and ask for an appointment and request his / her assistance in resolving the issue

You might also want to check your eligibility for Housing Benefit (and other benefit). You can do this by going to https://www.turn2us.org.uk. If it does appear that you are eligible for Housing Benefit , then you would make a claim either from your Local Authority or Job Centre depending on if you are in a UC area or not.

Good luck

HTH
CB