Historic debt?

paulsm

my mother (retired) has had a couple of letters from the council about her rent, stating she needs to be 1 week in front with th rent payments, she gets her rent paid upto date by benefits as she is on a pension, this was made a problem apparently march time last year when the council implemented a new computer system which realised her rent was only ever paid up to date and not 1 week in advance. but I suspect it has been that way for some years as she has been retired for quite a while, they are saying she owes 1 weeks rent at the current rental amound even though this probably  goes back around 20 years. even before their new system she got the odd letter about the rent but when she rang them they always said it was ok and the letters where computer generated. My question is, as this has gone back some years and she rang before to query it should she still have to pay the extra week? if so shouldnt it be at the rental rate back when it became "arrears"? i have heard from a lot of people locally having the same latters.

fatbelly

My take on this is that that's the way the benefit system works and the council should accept that.

Sending out hundreds of letters is a waste of council resources

Aylesbury_Duck

paulsm said:

my mother (retired) has had a couple of letters from the council about her rent, stating she needs to be 1 week in front with th rent payments, she gets her rent paid upto date by benefits as she is on a pension, this was made a problem apparently march time last year when the council implemented a new computer system which realised her rent was only ever paid up to date and not 1 week in advance. but I suspect it has been that way for some years as she has been retired for quite a while, they are saying she owes 1 weeks rent at the current rental amound even though this probably  goes back around 20 years. even before their new system she got the odd letter about the rent but when she rang them they always said it was ok and the letters where computer generated. My question is, as this has gone back some years and she rang before to query it should she still have to pay the extra week? if so shouldnt it be at the rental rate back when it became "arrears"? i have heard from a lot of people locally having the same latters.

Assuming there hasn't been an administrative error and that her tenancy agreement does state she should be paying one week ahead, then yes, she owes the money.  As to the amount, it seems logical to me that to get a week ahead, she needs to pay the week at the current rate.  If she pays the weekly rate from 20 years ago, she won't be a week ahead.  She needs to be paying for next week, not a week from 20 years ago, that's long gone.

Ergates

paulsm said:

my mother (retired) has had a couple of letters from the council about her rent, stating she needs to be 1 week in front with th rent payments, she gets her rent paid upto date by benefits as she is on a pension, this was made a problem apparently march time last year when the council implemented a new computer system which realised her rent was only ever paid up to date and not 1 week in advance. but I suspect it has been that way for some years as she has been retired for quite a while, they are saying she owes 1 weeks rent at the current rental amound even though this probably  goes back around 20 years. even before their new system she got the odd letter about the rent but when she rang them they always said it was ok and the letters where computer generated. My question is, as this has gone back some years and she rang before to query it should she still have to pay the extra week? if so shouldnt it be at the rental rate back when it became "arrears"? i have heard from a lot of people locally having the same latters.

This isn't a "debt" as such - it's a requirement around when rent payments should be made in relation to the current date.  If it is determined she has to comply with this requirement, then a weeks rent at the current rate would be appropriate.

Bear in mind this isn't "lost" money - if/when your mother ends her tenancy then this extra week's rent will either be returned, or used to cover the final week.

user1977

It isn't "historic" debt, it's having one week in arrears, settled the next month, and that happening every month.