Our focus on preventing problems with rent

·         We make sure that our customers know they are responsible for paying their rent.

·         We give all our new customers advice on how to pay.  We agree a payment method that suits them and set it up.

·         We can help our customers to sort out their benefit problems if they ask us.  We can give advice and information to help customers get all the benefits they are entitled to.

·         We send our customers a rent statement four times a year to let them know how much they have paid and how much they owe us.

·         We can tell customers how to get independent advice about debts and money management.

Our approach to vulnerable customers

·         We will try to identify customers whose vulnerability may affect their ability to pay the rent.  We will offer them support to sort out any money problems they may have.

Our approach to recovering rent arrears

·         We get in touch with customers while the amount they owe us is still low.

·         We send letters and use court action if personal contact doesn’t lead to the debt being paid.

·         We evict customers only as a last resort, when every other option has failed to get the debt paid.

·         We expect that customers who leave our properties will still pay us what they owe.

version 8     22/02/05