Rent

Your rent

When you pay your rent, we will:

• keep your home in good repair;
• manage the housing service (run the office, manage the waiting list, make sure all empty homes are relet as soon as possible, order repairs and so on);
• help make your neighbourhood and Warrington better places to live by supporting community developments;
• pay back any money we have borrowed to build new homes and to improve older ones; and
• put money aside to pay for future major repairs.

How is my rent set?

Your tenancy agreement or lease will tell you what type of agreement you have. This will affect how your rent is set.

If you have a tenancy agreement dated before January 1989, you will have a ‘fair-rent tenancy’. If you are a fair-rent tenant, the Rent Officer will set your rent every two years. This is an independent organisation, and is not linked to us in any way. They will look at the area you live in, the size of your home and its condition, and the facilities you have. They will also look at the rents of similar properties in the area.

You can appeal against the rent set by the Rent Officer to the Rent Assessment Panel. They will either agree with the rent that has been set, or put the rent up or down if they agree with the appeal.

Most tenancies created after January 1989, including those transferred from the Warrington New Town, are known as assured tenancies. As an assured tenant, we will assess your rent every year. We will increase your rent from the first Monday in April every year, and we will always give you four weeks’ notice, in writing, before you will have to pay.

We set the rents for our properties by taking account of:

• the number of bedrooms in a property;
• how much the property is worth; and
• the average income levels in the county.

This is in line with government policy, which requires all housing associations and local authorities to set their rents in this way. Overall, the rent we charge should be less than the ‘market rate’.

	How to pay your rent

Your rent is due every Monday, for the following week. You can make arrangements with us if you want to pay us every two weeks or every month.

You can pay your rent in many ways. When you become a tenant, you will receive a swipe payment card. You can use this card to pay your rent at any post office and at a variety of shops and outlets showing the PayPoint or PayZone sign.

Pay your rent online
To pay your rent online click HERE

Keeping a check on your rent account
To request a rent statement click HERE

Paying at the post office

You can pay at any post office or sub-post office, and should hand in your payment with your swipe card. You can pay in cash or by cheque, but please make sure you get a receipt and keep it as a record of your payment.

Paying at a PayZone outlet

You can pay with your swipe card at any outlet which displays the PayZone logo - you can also use your debit card to make a payment. We will give you a list of all the PayZone outlets near you.

By direct debit

If you want to pay by direct debit every week or every month, please ask and we will send you the forms to fill in. You must then return these forms to us and we will send them to your bank. Please note that if you do choose to pay by direct debit, we can amend your payments directly once we have your approval and this will save you having to fill in a new set of forms every year.

By post

If you want to post a cheque directly to our offices, please make sure that it is crossed and made payable to ‘Warrington Housing Association Limited’. You should write your name, address and reference number on the back of the cheque. If you want to send in cash, please do this by registered post.

Through Housing Benefit

If Housing Benefit covers all of your rent, you can arrange for it to be sent directly to us. If Housing Benefit only covers part of your rent, you will need to pay the rest using one of the methods above. Please note that it is your responsibility to claim Housing Benefit.

Keeping a check on your rent account

To keep you up to date with your rent account, we will send you a rent statement every six months. This will tell you how much you should pay and how much you have paid. It will also show if you owe any money (‘arrears’) or if you have paid more than you needed to (‘credit’).

If you would like to check your rent account at any other time, please phone us and we will be more than happy to give you details of your current balance.

	Difficulty with paying your rent

We recognise that many residents can have money worries. This may be because you have lost your job or have been off work through illness. It is important that you contact us straightaway if you do fall behind with your rent payments for whatever reason. If you don’t contact us and you let your rent account fall into arrears, you could risk losing your home.

We are keen to help you find a solution to any money problems you are having. We will discuss with you why the arrears have built up so that we can look at all the options available to you. We can suggest where you can go for advice about claiming the right benefits that you might be entitled to, along with advice on how you can arrange to clear the arrears. We will work with you to try and agree a repayment plan that you can afford. This may mean that you add an extra amount on to your weekly rent until you have paid the debt.

Legal action

If we make an agreement with you and you do not keep to this, or you do not make a satisfactory agreement to clear the arrears, we may have to start legal action.

A Notice of Intention to get possession of your home is the first stage of legal action and lasts for a 12-month period when it has been served. This notice does not mean that you have to leave your home. If you do not arrange to pay your arrears after this notice has been served, or if you fail to keep to any agreements we and you have made, we may ask the county court for a possession order. Once we have got this court order, if you do not keep to your agreement or do not reduce your arrears, we may then apply to the court to evict you.

Please remember, the sooner you contact us, the sooner we can help you avoid the worry of being in debt by working with you to sort out your financial problems.

Help with housing costs

We can also:
• work out whether you are claiming all the benefits you might be entitled to;
• explain some of the complicated benefit rules; and
• give you claim forms or contact numbers, and help you fill in the forms.

If we cannot help you, we will be able to point you in the right direction of an agency that can, such as a Citizens Advice Bureau, the Department of Social Security or a Housing Advice Centre (please see the back of this handbook for useful contact details).

	Service charges and other charges relating to your home

Service charges

If you live in a flat or house where we provide a service such as a scheme manager service, window cleaning, gardening, cleaning the shared areas and so on, we may charge you a service charge to cover the cost of these. Most of our service charges are variable, which means that we assess the charge every year.

We will increase your service charge along with your rent from the first Monday in April each year. As with your rent, we will always give you four weeks’ notice, in writing, of any increase.

We assess service charges by looking at the actual costs of the services we provide. If a service charge is included in your rent, it will always be identified separately on your tenancy agreement.

We aim to provide you with services that offer value for money. Please contact us if you have a problem with any of the services we provide.

Council Tax

As soon as you move into your home you are responsible for paying Council Tax direct to the local authority. You must tell them the date you moved in immediately.

Water rates

As soon as you move into your home, you are liable to pay water rates direct to United Utilities. It is your responsibility to tell them as soon as you move in. Your home may have a water meter, which United Utilities will read regularly. This will always be explained clearly to you when you first move into your home. The only exception here is in St Johns Court where we will pay the water rates bill and you will pay us a charge every week to cover this cost.

Insurance

We are only responsible for insuring buildings. We are not responsible for insuring your furnishings and belongings, or for damage to any decorations. You should make sure you have suitable contents insurance to cover damage from fire, floods, burglary and other dangers.

We can offer you the option of taking out a contents insurance policy where you will pay premiums with your weekly rent. A reputable company provides the insurance cover and the premiums are reasonable. Please contact us for more information on the contents insurance scheme for tenants.