Rent FAQs

If you don’t pay, we’ll try to get in touch to understand your situation and help find a solution.

If we can’t agree on a plan, we may have to start legal action. This is always a last resort.

This could mean:

• You may have to go to court
• You may have to pay extra costs
• You could lose your home

The best thing you can do is contact us early so we can help.

We understand that sometimes things can go wrong and you might miss a payment. The most important thing is to contact us as early as possible — we’re here to help. We’ll talk through your situation and work with you on the best way forward, which may include setting up a plan to repay what you owe.

Call Payment Support on 0800 111 4013 (option 2)

All of the rent we receive from our customers is reinvested into our business. This helps us to maintain our homes, improve the services we provide and build more affordable housing.

Much of the money we receive is spent on housing management costs and improving repairs and other key services.

A proportion of our income is also spent on repaying loans from investors who’ve provided funding to help us to grow and deliver more homes.

You may receive automated calls or texts from us if you’re behind on your rent. These help us get in touch and support you.

If you’re unsure, please call Payment Support on 0800 111 4013 to check.

Your monthly Direct Debit is worked out over the whole financial year. This means your payments are spread across the year to help keep your account up to date and prevent it falling behind. If your Direct Debit changes, we will contact you with the new amount. If you are struggling to pay your rent, please contact us 0800 111 4013 and we can help you.

Your rent may increase each year to help cover the cost of maintaining your home. You can find more information on our Changes to rent page and there are some frequently asked questions about this further down this page.

The Renters’ Rights Act is a new law that changes how renting works in England. It aims to give tenants more security and stronger rights. For social housing, these changes are expected to apply from October 2027.

You can usually only get a refund if you have more than four weeks credit on your account. If you have more than four weeks credit on your account, please contact us to check if you can request a refund.

You must pay your rent and any charges up to your tenancy end date, including your notice period.

After your tenancy ends, we’ll review your account and contact you about any final charges or refunds.

You’ll need to pay your rent in advance. Our Early Intervention Team will discuss the details with you.

Customers who are on a 48-week tenancy have four non-collection, or “rent-free weeks” in the financial year. We expect you to continue making payment during these weeks if your account is in arrears.

Most of our customers are on a 52-week agreement, so this may not affect you. You can read more here.

Your service charge is the money you pay towards the communal day-to-day running costs of your estate, block or both. Your charge covers many different services, depending on where you live.

A fixed service charge means that you pay the same amount every week or month during the financial year (April to March). This is based on how much we know or estimate it’ll cost to provide services on your estate, block or both.

If the service charges don’t cover the actual cost of the services provided, we’ll make up the shortfall. However, any surplus won’t be refunded.

We review your service charges every year. As part of this, we look at what’s been spent in previous years and the contracts we’ve entered into for the coming year.

The total cost of the services provided are shared in line with everyone who benefits for them, and their customers agreement permits to charge.

Customers can’t opt out of these services. For example, if the service charge contributes to maintaining a lift in a block of flats, you can’t opt out of the service charge by saying you always use the stairs.

We understand that any increase to your rent and/or other charges isn’t good news. However, to enable us to keep up with rising costs, we need to increase rents and service charges for the year ahead. Increasing our charges is essential to make sure that we, as a social housing provider, can continue to fulfil our responsibilities to keep our customers safe and secure, as well as continuing to provide – and improve – essential services, while also delivering more much-needed affordable housing.

For most customers with a tenancy agreement, rent increases are set in accordance with government rent policies. This is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the previous September plus one percent.

For example, if the CPI in September was 3.5%, then there would be an increase of 4.5% from April 2026.

For tenancies that are not included in the government rent policies or licence agreements, follow the agreement charge increase clause or review the increase.

Service charges may increase but the same formulas as rent changes won’t apply. We’ll only set service charges in line with your agreement and our service charge policy.

The revised service charge is based on market trends, expected inflationary changes and changes in prices for contracts. For responsive services it is based on previous years actual costs.

If you have a service charge, this will be on your annual letter about changes to your rent and charges. It will also include a charge breakdown of the services that make it up. And if you’re not sure what something means on the letter, you can find a glossary of terms here.

As always, our priority is to support customers to sustain their tenancies and licenses as we want to help prevent rent arrears as much as you do.

We have a highly-skilled and dedicated Financial Wellbeing Team who are trained to ensure you maximise your benefits, help you manage your finances and support you through any change in your circumstances. Find out more here.

You must inform the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as soon as possible after these changes have taken effect.

You can do this by reporting a change of circumstances in your Universal Credit journal account.

It’s crucial that you don’t update your Universal Credit journal until the date mentioned on your rent change letter. It’s important to report the change as soon as possible after it’s taken effect otherwise you might miss out on payments.

You must immediately tell your local council’s Housing Benefit Team about this increase before the change takes effect. You can do this by taking the charge notification letter included in this pack to your benefits office. The benefit team may also be able to accept a scan or photo of your charge review notification as evidence. Please check with your benefit office how they’d like to receive this.

Remember, intentionally failing to report a change in your circumstances that entitles you to less benefit can be considered fraud.

Don’t worry, your Direct Debit will be adjusted automatically.

If you’re an Allpay customer, you might receive a separate letter from them in March confirming the change.

Please check your Direct Debit has been changed as you’d expect. Get in touch with us if you have any questions about the calculation.