can choose whichever way is most
convenient for you.
You can read more about these options in this section. We’ll also let you know what steps we’ll take if you miss a payment or fall behind with your rent.
When and how much to pay Your rent should be paid in advance on the first day of each week or month, depending whether you have a weekly or monthly tenancy agreement. To find out which you have, check your tenancy agreement or ask your Customer Service Partner.
If you’d like to change the frequency of your payments we can arrange this for you.
If you are a new customer your tenancy agreement will tell you how much rent you should pay.
Your Customer Service Partner can confirm the details of your rent if you’re unsure.
How to pay
We have a range of ways available to pay your rent:
• The simplest way to pay your rent directly from your bank is by Direct Debit or Standing Order – call us on 0345 141 4663 to request a form.
• Online – you can view your account balance and make payments using your debit card at any time of the day or night by opening a self service account. Visit www.homegroup.org.uk and select ‘My Account’.
• Allpay card – using the Allpay card sent to you when you first become a customer you can pay at a post office or any shop displaying the PayPoint logo. • Pay online at www.allpayments.net. You will be required to enter your Allpay swipecard number.
• Telephone – 24hrs a day (automated) call 0844 557 8321. You will be required to enter you Allpay swipecard number.
• Telephone – direct to Home Group call 0845 155 0387 (available between 10am-4pm weekdays only). • Cheque/Postal Order – payable to
Home Group Ltd with your name, address and payment reference on the back.
Send cheques to Home Group Ltd, 2 Gosforth Parkway, Gosforth Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 8ET.
What your rent covers
As a social landlord we’re a not for profit organisation. This means we reinvest our income into the affordable housing we provide and the neighbourhoods our customers live in.
We use your rent in three main ways: • To cover the cost of repairing your
home when things go wrong or wear out
• To meet the cost of managing our services to you
• To pay back money we borrow to build new homes.
Some rent money is put towards larger repairs (in planned
maintenance programmes) such as new roofs or replacement windows.
How your rent is set
The government sets guidelines and limits for housing association rents. We review your rent every year to make sure we’re meeting these requirements.
Whilst we have to ensure your rent is enough to cover our costs, we also aim to ensure our rent charges are affordable for people on low incomes.
We review our rent charges every year and you’ll receive information confirming
your new rent and service charge at least four weeks before any changes are made. If you’re a secure tenant and aren’t happy with your new rent you can write to the Rent Assessment Committee. They will set a fair rent for your home. This may be higher than the rent set by Home Group. If it is lower, we will reduce your rent. If you’re an assured tenant and aren’t happy with your new rent you have the right to appeal using our complaints procedure.
Service charges
Your service charge is a charge for services or facilities for your home or scheme. If you’re a new customer your tenancy agreement will tell you how much service charge you need to pay.
You should pay your service charge together with your rent. We review your service charge every year and will notify you in the same way as changes to your rent.
Service charges can cover several things, including:
• gardening and grass cutting in communal gardens
• cleaning communal areas, stairs and car parks
• lighting communal areas • maintaining door entry systems • window cleaning in communal areas • maintaining communal lifts
• litter picking.
If you’re on a low income you may be entitled to some help towards your service charges. Please contact your local authority to see if you’re eligible for some support as part of your housing benefit payment.
Housing benefit and Universal Credit
Housing benefit is money available to people on a low income to help pay their rent.
From 2013 there will be a number of changes to housing benefit and how it is paid.
September 2012 – March 2013:
Housing benefit will be available to people on low incomes. It can either be paid to you or directly to your landlord (us). At the maximum level it can cover your full rent and some service charges. The higher your income, the less housing benefit you will receive. Whether you are entitled or not will depend on your income, the size of your family and how much rent you pay.
April 2013 – October 2013: The criteria for housing benefit will change. If you have one bedroom more than the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) say you need based on the number and age of people in your household you will receive a 14% reduction in your housing benefit. If you have two or more bedrooms than the DWP say you need, you will receive a 25% reduction in your housing benefit. You will be responsible for paying the shortfall between your housing benefit and your rent.
If you have spare bedrooms or if your household circumstances change and you’re concerned about a reduction in your housing benefit, please contact your Customer Service Partner to discuss your options.
October 2013 onwards: All working age benefits will be replaced by one monthly benefit payment called Universal Credit. This will be paid directly to you and you will be responsible for paying your rent to Home Group.
Housing benefit will be replaced by a housing element within Universal Credit. Even if you are entitled to housing benefit or get a housing element in your Universal Credit that covers the whole of your rent and service charge, you are still responsible for making sure your rent is paid in full.
Remember - if your circumstances change or your rent goes up you may qualify for housing benefit or Universal Credit, even if you have not been entitled in the past.
Making a housing benefit claim
If you’d like to claim for help with your housing costs, ask your council for a housing benefit application form. Your Customer Service Partner will be able to help you complete the form if you have any problems.
You will need to provide the council with evidence of your income, for example bank statements, wage slips or letters confirming your entitlement to other benefits.
Ask the council what other information they need. It will hold up your application if you don’t provide all the evidence they ask for quickly.
Make sure you get a receipt from the council when you hand everything in. This is your proof that you have made a claim and supplied the evidence they need. It will take several weeks for your council to process your claim.
During this time it’s a good idea to speak to your Customer Service Partner to let them know the stage of your claim, especially if you don’t expect your housing benefit entitlement to pay for the whole of your rent.
Your Customer Service Partner can estimate how much housing benefit you may be entitled to. You can then pay any rent that will not be covered by your claim to avoid getting into debt while your claim is processed.
Please make sure you read any letters the council send you about your claim. These are very important and a quick response usually means your claim can be assessed more quickly.
Remember – you are responsible for making sure the rent is paid. Please contact your Customer Service Partner straight away if your housing benefit claim stops or is reduced unexpectedly. If you owe us money because of late, changed or reduced housing benefit payments, we will treat this in the same way as if you were paying the rent yourself. It is your responsibility to secure housing benefit. Please do let your Customer Service Partner know if you’d like any help along the way.
Water rates
Housing benefit doesn’t cover water rates and you’ll need to pay these yourself. In some areas we may collect water charges on behalf of your water company and pass the cost onto you.
Your tenancy agreement will inform you if this is the case. The amount is set by water companies and we’ll advise you if the amount changes.
Council tax
It is your responsibility to pay your council tax. We don’t collect this from you so you should pay your local authority directly.
You may qualify for help towards your council tax if you are on a low income. Contact your local authority if you have any questions, or ask your Customer Service Partner for advice.
Help if you fall behind with your rent
Most customers pay their rent on time and in full, however there are times people find it difficult to pay.
If you’re finding it difficult to pay or you fall behind with payments, please contact your Customer Service Partner as soon as you can. Most concerns about rent arrears can be sorted out if early action is taken. It may be possible to come to an arrangement to pay any arrears off in instalments. We can visit you in private at home to discuss your situation if you wish. All conversations will be confidential.
We’re able to give help and information about benefits or put you in touch with organisations who give advice on more complex problems. If you’re struggling to manage your finances and meet all of your payments, there are a range of independent advice agencies and services available, for example:
• National Debtline – 0808 808 4000 or www.nationaldebtline.co.uk • Citizens Advice Bureau –
www.citizensadvice.org.uk
• Local free independent advice clinics We believe the right money advice can make a big difference to people’s lives, so you can visit www.homegroup.org.uk/ money for loads more information and advice.
If we don’t hear from you or you break your repayment agreement and your arrears continue to grow, we can arrange to have money taken directly from your benefits and will start legal action. We’ll make every effort to work with you to resolve the situation before this stage. Where this happens we will serve you with a ‘Notice of Seeking Possession’. This is a legal notice warning that we have started court proceedings. At this point you have the opportunity to take action to clear your arrears. If no action is taken we will continue with legal action.
If this happens you will receive a
summons from the county court informing you of the date of the hearing. Before the court hearing we will try to meet you to agree a way for you to repay your arrears. At the hearing the judge can order you to pay your arrears (at once or in instalments) or they may grant us possession of your home. We will also ask the judge to grant us costs. This means you would have to pay the cost of the court hearing as well as your rent arrears. Breaking the court order would ultimately lead to you being evicted from your home. Losing your home is a very serious matter and we always try our best to resolve arrears at an early stage to avoid things going this far. We do not seek evictions lightly, however we must be fair to all customers by making sure everyone contributes towards the costs of our services.
Moving on
In the future you may want or need to move home. This section explains the help you can get with finding a new home and what steps you need to take when you move out. Please get in touch with your Customer Service Partner as soon as you’re sure you want to move out. We’ll do all we can to help.
Mutual exchange
Depending on the type of tenancy agreement you have, you may have the right to swap your home with the tenant of any housing association or council. You’ll need our permission first and will also need permission from the other tenant’s landlord.
In most cases we’ll be happy to give you this permission and will only refuse it if: • you have rent arrears
• you are subject to possession proceedings or a notice seeking possession is in force against you. • your home is bigger or smaller than the
incoming tenant needs
• your home is specially adapted (for example for wheelchair access) and the incoming tenant does not need the adaptations
• there are restrictions on who can live in your home. For example, some properties have Section 106 agreements that state only those with a local connection can live there.
You can exchange with any housing association or council tenant who has a clear rent account and the permission of their landlord. You cannot exchange with a private tenant or homeowner.
To help you do this, we’re a member of HomeSwapper.
HomeSwapper is the UK’s largest community of social housing tenants looking to swap homes. It’s free to join and you can look up people to swap with on the internet. In many cases, you can also look at photos of their properties. You can upload details and photos of your home so other people looking for swaps can see them. For further information or to join HomeSwapper visit www. HomeSwapper.co.uk or contact your Customer Service Partner.
Your Customer Service Partner can answer any further questions you may have about exchanging your home. When you agree a mutual exchange you take the other tenant’s home ‘as seen’. This means you’ll be responsible for any repairs the other tenant has not done. For example if your new home needs to be redecorated, you will have to do the work. Before you complete the swap, make sure you check the property and ask the landlord what they’ll accept responsibility for. You also need to ask the landlord about the tenancy agreement you’ll take on and whether you will lose any of your current rights. For example, if you have a secure tenancy with the Right to Buy, you will lose this if you move into a property with an assured tenancy.
Transfer
A transfer is a move from one of our homes to another of our properties. We operate a banding system for letting our properties based on housing need. When a property is available we will offer it to the applicant we deem to be in the most urgent need. If all applicants are in equal need we’ll make the offer to the person who has waited the longest. In some areas we have had to close waiting lists due to a lack of vacant homes. In those cases we can only accept applications via councils. In some areas we let our properties via ‘Choice Based Lettings’. This means we advertise our vacant homes along with those of other housing associations and the council. Anyone interested must make a bid or expression of interest.
For further information on waiting lists in your area please contact your Customer Service Partner.
Shared ownership
Shared ownership helps people onto the property ladder who cannot afford to buy a home outright – providing an easier way to become a homeowner. Instead of raising a full mortgage on a property you can buy part of it and pay a subsidised rent on the unpurchased share. In the future you can buy more shares until you eventually own the whole property. This is known as staircasing.
We have an ever-growing supply of shared ownership properties in many areas and you can view these on our website.
Some of our shared ownership properties are called New Build HomeBuy. You’ll need to register with the HomeBuy agent in your area and our dedicated sales teams will be able to provide you with further details. Your local council will also be able to advise you about registering with the HomeBuy agent. The agent holds details of other housing organisations in your area operating New Build HomeBuy.
Rent to buy
With rent to buy you rent a property for up to five years and pay a discounted rent. As your circumstances change, you can buy shares in your property or buy it outright.
Right to Acquire
If you live in a property that was built after April 1997, you may qualify for the Right to Acquire. This depends on the type of property, where it is, and the funding used to pay for the building. You won’t qualify if you owe rent arrears.
The Right to Acquire scheme gives a grant to tenants to help buy their current home. The amount of money available depends on where you live. If you’d like to know whether your home qualifies, please contact the sales team on 0845 155 1234.
Right to Buy
Some customers who have older secure tenancies (before January 1989) with Home Housing
Association may qualify for the Right to Buy.
The vast majority of tenants don’t qualify for the Right to Buy with the exception of those who have a preserved Right to Buy following an estate transfer from the council. With the exception of the above, all assured tenants don’t have the Right to Buy.
Other schemes to help with buying properties are introduced from time to time. Please ask your Customer Service Partner for information.
Ending your tenancy
If you want to end your tenancy you must give us at least four weeks’ written notice. We’ll arrange to visit you to check