You must pay your rent regularly. If you fall behind with your rent, we will take action to recover the money. This could lead to you:

• Having to pay court costs
• Not being able to get credit; or
• Being evicted from your home

We do appreciate that you can face short-term difficulties as a result of sickness, unemployment or other personal problems.

If you cannot pay your rent, the first thing you should do is contact us. We will be able to advise you about the possibility of getting benefits or making other arrangements to help you. We can also agree with you a way, that you can afford, to repay the outstanding amount.  Our leaflet 'Get in touch not in debt' gives further details.

What is Broadacres policy and procedure on rent arrears

Our rent income pays for services, improvements and repairs. If some tenants do not pay it affects our ability to provide services for the majority that do. We will, in the interest of fairness, take action against those tenants who do not pay or reach an agreement with us.

Our procedure is as follows:

Initial warning - we will send you a letter asking you to contact us to discuss the arrears and reach a repayment arrangement.

Final warning - we will send you a further letter and begin legal proceedings. This will usually be a Notice to Seek Possession. However, we may consider other legal action to seek payment of the debt.

Court hearing - we will usually ask for a postponed possession order on condition that you pay your rent plus an amount towards clearing your arrears. In certain cases we may ask for an immediate possession order.

Eviction - if you do not keep to the terms of the court order we will apply to the court for your tenancy to be ended. We will ask the bailiffs to evict you from your home.

Between every stage we will contact you and give you the chance to discuss any problems you are having and make an agreement to pay. If you keep this agreement we will stop any further action.

What are the consequences of rent arrears?

• If you do not have a clear rent account it is unlikely that you will be able to transfer or exchange to another home.

• If you lose your home as a result of rent arrears you may be considered as intentionally homeless and could find it very hard to find somewhere else to live.

• You may have a county court judgement issued against you. This will affect  your credit rating, which could mean that you will be refused a loan, credit card, mortgage or alternative rented accommodation in the future.

• If we do have to take court action it is likely that you will have to pay the court fees, which can be considerable.

Please do not ignore the problem - come and talk to us.