Problems paying your Rent?

What should I do if I owe rent?
What will the Council do if I owe rent?
What happens if I have Introductory Tenancy?
When will the council take legal action, and what will happen?
Apart from eviction, what other action can the Council take to collect rent arrears?
What happens to my rent arrears if my tenancy ends?

What should I do if I owe rent?

The important thing is to make contact with the Rents Team to get advice before the debt gets too large for you to deal with.

If you are able to afford to pay off all your rent arrears in one go, you should do so as this will reduce the likelihood of being taken to Court.

If you need more expert advice contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or an Advice Centre near where you live.

What will the Council do if I owe rent?

We will make every effort to contact you by phone if you are up to two weeks behind with your rent.

If you can, you should pay off all your rent arrears straight away.

If you are not able to pay your rent, for whatever reason, you should contact the Rents Team to discuss your situation, and agree a way forward.

If you are receiving State Benefits such as Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance (Income Based), you may be able to have a deduction taken directly from your benefit to pay your arrears by instalment.

If you make an arrangement to repay your rent arrears and keep to it, we will not usually take legal action.

Failure to keep to an arrangement may lead to Legal Action.

We will offer you the opportunity to discuss your rent matters with a member of the Rents Team face to face, either in your own home or at a Council office close to where you live, or over the telephone if you so wish.

What happens if I have an Introductory Tenancy?

If you have an Introductory Tenancy, your account must not go into arrears. If it does, we will take Legal Action, and please note that the Judge generally, cannot disagree with our request to repossess your home. 

When will the council take legal action, and what will happen?

Before we take this action, we will try to make contact with you face to face to discuss why you are in arrears, and to agree a positive way forward.

Stage One : If you fail to keep to the agreement you reached with us, or do not make any payment to pay off all your rent arrears, we will serve you with a Notice Seeking Possession or a Notice of Possession Proceedings if you have an Introductory Tenancy.

This Notice tells you the amount of rent you owe and gives you four weeks warning that we may apply to the County Court for a Possession Order.

Stage Two: If you still have not paid off your debt or reached an agreement with the Rents Team to repay it by regular instalments, we can apply to the County Court for a hearing date. If this happens, you will receive a summons to appear in Court, with a defence form which you should fill in and send back to the Court.

You can get independent advice and should make every attempt to attend your court hearing, so you can explain to the Judge why you are in arrears with your rent.

At the Court hearing, if the Judge is satisfied that you owe rent and you agree to pay a fixed amount each week that is acceptable to us, we will ask the Judge to 'postpone' the Possession Order. This means we cannot evict you as long as you keep to the agreement (now known as a Court Order).

Going to Court could also mean that you have to pay for the cost of the hearing. The Court will usually award us with a Money Judgement which can affect your future credit rating.

Stage Three: If you do not keep to the Court Order, we will ask independent Senior Officers, known as the Eviction Panel, to give us permission to apply for a Bailiff's warrant to evict you.

Before we take this action, we will try to make contact with you face to face again to discuss why you are in arrears, and try to agree a positive way forward. This may involve asking the court to amend the original Court Order (known as a Variation Order) and you may incur additional costs.

If you are evicted due to not paying your rent, you may be considered to be intentionally homeless.

If you owe rent but are considered eligible for housing you will usually be required to pay off any debts before you are offered a property in the future.

Apart from eviction, what other action can the Council take to collect rent arrears?

If the Council fails to reach an agreement with you on arrears, or if you break your agreement to repay, the Council could take steps to deduct payments from your benefits or go to court to claim part of your wages (known as an Attachment of Earnings).

What happens to my rent arrears if my tenancy ends?

When you know you will be moving out of your current tenancy, you should make arrangements to pay off all rent arrears, and any court costs due up until the date your tenancy ends.

If you are unable to pay off all the rent outstanding in one go, you should contact Rents Team using the details on the right hand side of the page to make an arrangement to repay these debts.

If you are evicted, any rent and court costs outstanding at the time of the eviction that are still owed to the Council may result in further legal action to recover the debt.

The chart below shows what steps will be taken if you owe us money for rent

Page last reviewed 9 Mar 2009