Marches Housing Association - Housing Herefordshire, Worcestershire & Shropshire Communities

If you get into Rent Arrears, please contact our Debt Recovery Team on 01568 619615 or call in at reception. They will be able to provide help and advice on getting out of debt and clearing your arrears.

When should I be paying my rent?
Do not simply ignore paying your rent, as it may result in the loss of your home.

You must pay the rent including any other charges weekly in advance as stated on your Tenancy Agreement. If you do not do this, your account will be in debt and we will have to send you warning letters. If these are ignored we may have to take further action.

If you want you can apply to pay your rent by standing order. Contact our Debt Recovery Team for details on this.

I have received a letter showing I am in debt, what should I do? -

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Read the letter carefully
· Check that you are receiving any Housing Benefit you are entitled to.
· Check that any bank standing order is being paid and is the correct amount.
· If you know you are in debt, pay off what you owe, as soon as possible.
· If you cannot pay off what you owe, or are unsure please contact the Debt Recovery Team on 01568 619615

If you can't pay the rent you should contact our Debt Recovery Team as soon as you have a problem.
We will treat your case privately and fairly. If we know there is a problem, we can offer to help you and can make an arrangement for you to pay any money you owe in instalments. If you delay taking action it will often lead to a serious problem. Do not ignore any letters that we send to you. The earlier you contact us the easier it is for us to help.

I have received a Notice of Seeking Possession - what does it mean? -

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If you receive a 'Notice of Seeking Possession' (NOSP) pay off the rent you owe or contact our Debt Recovery Team. A 'Notice of Seeking Possession' is the first step for us to ask the County Court to give us the legal right to repossess your home. We will usually agree an arrangement for you to repay the debt in instalments. A NOSP does not mean that you will automatically lose your home; it gives you 28 days to either contact us or pay off your arrears. If you ignore this or make an arrangement to pay which you break at a later date, we may proceed to the County Court.

As a tenant, we cannot evict you without first getting a 'Possession Order' from the County Court. There are clear procedures, which we must follow to do this. You should come to the hearing to listen to the judge's decision and answer any questions. You will also be given an opportunity to give any information you wish the Judge to consider. The modern County Court is a lot more informal than it used to be and is held in chambers as opposed to open court. You will not be expected to know legal terms and phrases. If you cannot come, we will ask you to write to the judge giving your reasons for the rent you owe. Either way, the court will provide you with a N11R Defence Form (rented residential premises) download a form here .At court we will ask for a money judgement, which means that the debt is listed on the County Court Register and you may find it difficult to obtain credit. (This is a C.C.J.) We will also ask that you be charged the costs for the application we have made for possession of your home.
You may wish to get legal advice from a solicitor or the CAB before the hearing. www.citizensadvice.org.uk

A Suspended Possession Order means a judge has decided that you may stay in your home as long as you keep up the payments shown in the terms of the court order. For example you may have to pay your current rent plus £10 a week off the money you owe until the rent account is cleared. The amount is usually set by taking account of your income and any savings you may have. If you miss a payment, we can apply to the County Court Bailiff to arrange for you to be evicted. When you are notified you will have about 14 days to the date of the eviction. If you cannot make a payment you should contact the Debt Recovery Team on 01568 619615 immediately.

We will only evict a tenant once we have a court order which has not been kept to, if this happens, you are likely to be found intentionally homeless, and no registered social landlord or council would be obligated to rehouse you, regardless of your circumstances. This would mean that the council or ourselves would probably not give you another home. If you ever have a problem keeping to a court order, please contact us immediately 01568 619615. The Money Advice Officer at the Citizens' Advice Bureau (CAB) may be able to help.

This can be used at all Post Offices to pay your rent. Many tenants call at their Post Offices every week to collect either Pensions or Child Benefit, or to pay their other bills, so this method of payment is very convenient.

You can also use your swipe card at 'Pay Zone' and 'PayPoints' which can be found at many local retail corner shops and service stations, with longer opening hours than the Post Office. You may not be able to pay by cheque at these places.

Standing Order

This is when the payment is paid directly from your bank account. This is very simple to set up and you only need to fill in one form at the beginning of each year when we tell you what your rent is. Your rent is then automatically paid on your choice of day every month or week. Of course you can set up a standing order at any time, to request a form or for more information about any of our payment methods, please contact customer services or call in at reception.
When paying by standing order, you must make sure that there is enough money in your account for your bank to pay us. If not, we may decide to cancel this method of paying, and your bank may decide to make additional charges for the lack of money in your account.

Debit Card

You can now make payments with a Debit Card over the telephone, 24 hours a day. All you need to do is call 0870 770 0472, with your Swipe Card and Debit Card to hand. This will connect you to allpay.net who handle all of our swipe card payments. You will need to enter, when asked:

You will then be asked to confirm your payment, and be given a reference number. If you have difficulty using the system during office hours, you will be transferred to a Customer Services Advisor at allpay.net. For further information, please contact a Customer Services Advisor at Marches Housing Association.

What about Housing Benefit ?

There are a number of ways to pay your rent.

For those on low incomes or special circumstances it may be possible to ask Housing Benefit to help you pay your rent.

For more information on using Housing Benefit please click here.

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Content Updated :: 16/02/05