What Happens if You Don’t Pay?

If you are having difficulty paying the rent, we will provide as much help and advice as we can.

If rent is not paid or an acceptable repayment agreement followed we may take legal action that could result in you losing your home. This may also affect your credit rating.

We’ll Take the Following Steps

We always try to reach an agreement to recover rent debt, however, if you do not engage with us or break the agreement reached, we may have to take legal action to recover the debt and possibly to obtain possession of your home. These are the steps we may take: 

• Send reminder letters if the rent account is in arrears. We expect you to make an arrangement to clear the debt within an acceptable timescale. We will keep in touch with you by telephone, text messages and by visiting you at home.
• If you have not been in touch to make an arrangement and rent is outstanding we will issue a Notice Seeking Possession (NSP).  The NSP invites you to meet with your Rent Manager to discuss the rent debt – it is important to resolve any problems at this stage as the NSP is the first stage of the legal process which may result in your eviction from your home. 
• A regular review of any rent debt is carried out by your Rent Manager and if the debt remains un-paid we may have no alternative but ask the County Court for a Possession Order to evict you as well as a Money Judgment Order to recover the debt. You will also have to pay court costs (currently over £400). 
• Should you have a rent debt when you leave your home, you may find it difficult to find another home with the council or another Housing Association. We will continue to pursue tenants who have left their home with rent arrears and other debts and may use a debt collection agency to help us recover these debts. 
• Contact us at the earliest opportunity if you miss a payment so we can help you avoid the above.