Your Tenancy

Paying your rent

You must pay your rent in full and on time. If you do not, you will be breaking the terms of your tenancy agreement and we will take legal action against you.

What your rent pays for
We make a weekly charge for your home. It includes:

• Basic rent-the charge to you for providing your home
• Water rates-the charge for water and sewerage collected on behalf of the water company
• Charges for heating and water if your rent has shared heating
• Amenity charges for other services such as a concierge scheme or closed circuit television

We use rent to provide, maintain, manage and repair your home. It covers estate cleaning, grounds maintenance and providing shared and estate lighting.

Changes in rent and other charges
Any changes in the amount of rent and charges you pay usually come about in April. We will write to you giving you reasonable notice. This letter is called a ‘notice of variation.’

When to pay your rent
It is a condition of your tenancy that you pay weekly rent every Monday. You can pay your rent every fortnight or month if you prefer, but this must be agreed with your area housing office.  However, you must still make payments in advance.

How to pay your rent
There are several ways to pay your rent-choose one that suits you best.

    

PayPoint or Post Office
To pay in person, you will need to use your payment card to pay your rent at any post office in Islington or at any recognised PayPoint by cash or cheque.

By Phone – You can pay by the above credit or debit cards on any of the numbers below.

0800 694 3344 Freephone (8am to 8pm Mon – Fri and 8am to 12 noon Sat)020 7527 2633 (8.30am – 6.00pm Mon –Fri)

020 7527 8000 2-hour telepay or through your Area Housing Office through the income recovery team

ipay – Pay online with the above credit or debit cards on any of the below numbers.  Please ensure you have your nine digit ‘payment reference’

Simply go to to www.homesforislington.org.uk

Standing Order is where you set up a regular payment from your bank or building society.  Please note that this method needs to be amended each year to reflect the change in the rent.

Direct Debits are where you set up a regular payment from your bank or building society and where you give permission for HFI to alter the amount collected to reflect the change in your rent each year, after advising you of the change beforehand.

For more advice on paying by standing order or direct debit contact the cash control section (020 7527 4393) or your Income Recovery Officer at your area housing office.

Rent statements
We will send you a rent statement 4 times a year showing your balance. This is usually in April, July, October and January. This lists:

• All charges payable by you
• What you have paid since your last rent statement
• Any Housing Benefit added to your account
• Any other adjustments and
• The balance on your account

Check this statement carefully. If you have any questions contact your area housing office. You can also ask them for a current rent balance at any time. As far as possible this can be provided at the office (if you provide proof of identity) or they will send it to your home. You can also get a mini rent statement online by going to www.homesforislington.org.uk

If your rent account is in credit because you have paid too much, you can apply to your area housing office for a refund. They will check your account and where appropriate will confirm the credit with the Housing Benefit team. If the credit is correct, they can arrange for you to receive a cheque or BACS transfer to your bank account. Alternatively, you can leave it in your account to pay your rent in the future.

Housing Benefit
Housing Benefit is a government scheme run by local councils to help people on various state benefits including Income Support to pay their rent. You can get Housing Benefit even if you are working. What you get depends on:

• You and your partner’s income and savings-some benefits such as Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance are not counted as income
• The number of grown-up children or other adults you have living with you (reduction is made in your Housing Benefit entitlement for non-dependents you have living with you-for example, lodgers or children who have left school)

You can get an application form and advice on claiming Housing Benefit from either the Housing Benefit office or your area housing office. Islington Council’s Housing Benefit department run a drop in service at each area housing office Mondays to Fridays 9am to 1145am. You can speak with a trained benefits advisor on a first come first served basis. You will be able to:

• Get general advice on Housing Benefit
• Check on the progress of your application
• Submit supporting evidence for your claim

More complex cases will be referred by appointment to the Housing Benefit Assessment Officer. For more information about this service please call 020 7527 4990

Rent arrears
If you get into arrears and have not contacted your area housing office, they will write to you asking you to arrange to pay. Do not ignore this letter-you must respond to an arrears letter.

Please do not wait until you have a large debt that you cannot pay. We may also contact you by phone, text, email or visit you at home. We will do everything we can to help you if you are having difficulty paying your rent. However, if you ignore our attempts to contact you, or if you break an agreement to pay your rent and arrears, we will take action to evict you. This is because not paying your rent breaks your tenancy agreement.

We may hand deliver a Notice of Seeking Possession. If this happens and you do not make an arrangement to pay the arrears within four weeks, we will apply to the court for a possession order. There will then be a court hearing, which you should attend. The court can grant us two types of possession order.

We are here to help you. Please do not ignore our attempts to make contact with you. We have an Independent Advice Project that may be able to help. You need to let us know as soon as you begin to have problems paying your rent so that we can refer you to someone who can offer you advice.

Postponed possession order
This means that as long as you keep to the agreement made in court to pay off the arrears, nothing more will be done. If you break that agreement, we will write to you telling you to contact the office within 7 days to make up the shortfall. If you do not respond within 7 days we will write to you again to advise that unless the shortfall is cleared within 14 days of our letter we will ask the court to fix a date for possession.

Forthwith or outright possession order
This means you can be evicted straightaway or from the date the court states.

You may also have to pay extra court costs that the court may award us for having to take you to court.

Good reasons not to get into rent arrears
If you are evicted from your home for rent arrears, the Council will not normally rehouse you.

You may have trouble getting credit such as loans and hire purchase. A possession order always carries a money judgement for the amount of arrears, plus court costs. This lasts for seven years.

You may not be able to get a mortgage as building societies and other lenders may, with your permission, ask us for a rent payment reference.

You will not normally be able to get a transfer or a mutual exchange

You will not be allowed to rent a garage, parking space or car cage. If you already rent one, it will be taken away from you.

You risk losing your right to buy if you get into rent arrears. If you breach any terms of a possession order, you will lose your right to your tenancy and your right to buy at the same time

Independent Advice Project at local area housing offices
The Independent Advice Project has been set up and funded by HFI to provide residents with independent expert advice on a range of housing and welfare problems. The advice sessions are provided free.

They can offer advice on:

• Rent arrears
• Debt problems
• Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
• Social Security
• Possession proceedings

All appointments to see an advisor should be booked through your local area housing office.

Please contact your local area office if you require more information.

Housing Support Service
A Housing Support Service is provided to help tenants who may need extra help to deal with situations such as evictions due to rent arrears.

Tenancy Management, Income Recovery or Antisocial Behaviour Teams can refer tenants who may be vulnerable and require extra support to the Housing Support Officer (HSO). There is also a facility for self-referral to the Housing Support Service, this form can be found on the HFI website www.homesforislington.org.uk