Rent arrears
Rent arrears are dealt with by your Home Agent. They will contact residents who are behind with their rent and direct them towards any financial help that might be available. With your permission they will refer you for support from our Money Advice Team. Or you may wish to do this yourself.
With or without the support of the Money Advice Team your Home Agent will work with you to agree realistic arrears repayments.
If you are in rent arrears we will:
- visit you at home
- help you as much as possible so you can keep your home
- keep information about your circumstances private.
What happens if your rent is late
We will contact you within three days if your rent is late. If you cannot pay the overdue amount straight away, we will make a payment agreement with you. This will be your rent, plus an agreed amount to reduce the arrears.
We will make regular checks to ensure you are keeping to the payment agreement. You are responsible for ensuring payment reaches your account by the due date.
Whilst eviction is a last resort, where arrears occur without explanation or good reason we will take early legal action. This involves serving a legal Notice and starting court action for bpha to regain possession of your home. Eviction is often avoidable but does happen, particularly when the resident who owes money does not keep in contact with us.
What happens if we take court action
If you receive a Notice of Seeking Possession you have four weeks in which to start reducing your arrears by an acceptable and agreed amount. If you do not do this and fail to keep to a repayment agreement, we will apply to court to request a possession hearing. You will be notified that we have applied to court, and again when a hearing date has been arranged. At court you will have an opportunity to tell the Judge what you intend to do about your arrears.
bpha will consider a payment proposal made by a resident at any point before eviction is sought.
If you have been evicted for rent arrears or leave your property owing rent, in most cases we will not help with future permanent rehousing until you have cleared the outstanding debt.
