council house rent

[SombReroIguana]

Surely councils realise that people in their properties are likely to not be the wealthiest !
When things get messed up with the hb claim (and it could take up to 4 weeks to resolve and they will be charged full rent till claim updated) that they may fall a bit behind !

Have been paying as and when and trying to clear the arrears. It’s clear I’m making an effort but they keep writing saying the outstanding amount and clear it with the next payment.
Have called and asked them to put a note on account about hb and how I’m trying to pay extra which they can see I have been and I’ll clear it ASAP. They can’t. Now have been sent an appt I can’t get to and asked to have a call back instead to discuss over the phone but as of yet had no reply

I just think they should be a bit more understanding of people’s circumstances and not have a one size fits all response to everything

Council / housing association property's are property's for cheap rent, if you can't pay that rent they WILL chase you for it like ANY other landlord, its not as it was 10 years ago. They have to many tenants that pocket the HB so its come to a point now if you don't pay your out! Some people ruin it for everyone else unfortunately.

Some even ask for rent upfront now when you start a tenancy, I had to lend my cousin 2 weeks upfront rent so she could get a house!

OP i hear you Tenants who rent from Clarion and Sanctuary are going through even worse due to the crap computer systems they are using. They are being asked for rent which has already been paid,

It’s so relative though isn’t it everyone thinks they are ‘cheap’ but if you aren’t a high earner then it’s not cheap ! It’s just they keep saying this amount outstanding add it to the next payment and no matter how much I explain they don’t seem to realise I’m trying to clear it but it’s not going to be immediately!
The inflexibility regarding call backs or home visits saying I have to go to them yet 3 months ago they just turned up to double check how many people lived here so they can come round when they want to

Yes the rents are always soooo cheap.

Speye Joe
Affordable? Social? at £497.83 pw for a 3 bed! £25,976 pa rent! Is it unlawful?

There are 201 so called social housing and so called affordable rent 3-bed properties in England with a weekly rent level of over £400.

How the fu*k can they be called social housing?
How the fu*k can these be called affordable?

All 201 of these are owned and managed by Clarion Housing Association and below is a table detailing the properties that will make your eyes water

speyejoe2.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/affordable-social-at-497-83-pw-for-a-3-bed-25976-pa-rent-is-it-unlawful/

Yes exactly it’s NOT cheap!! It’s a big chunk of our income each week

It's even worse when you look at smaller properties. Regularly help a family member whose rent is £425 for a one bed in a high rise (not in SE before anyone asks). I mean, he's very pleased that he has it, but it does put him in a benefits trap as he could never afford it if he returned to work (given that he'd realistically be on a single, minimum wage)
HAs are supposed to give you some leeway as long as you're paying something regularly towards the arrears, but the automated debt letters don't help. Have they set you up a payment plan?

some areas are cheap, and some areas people get their entire rent paid for them.

Other people are in the same boat and actually have to pay their own rent and mortgages.

Contact Citizens Advice or another similar charity. Quite often you will get a better result that way than giving them exactly the same information yourself.

Yanbu. The UC wait seems almost designed to plunge people further into poverty. Companies that deal with UC should really be aware of how it works.

The rent isn't really that cheap, it's just private rents are disgusting. I pay more for rent of my HA house than a lot of people's mortgages.

@carly2803 I said this to you on a thread back in June and it looks like i will have to say it again. You are STILL behind the times. Tenants HAVE to pay a good proportion of their rent now whether they work or not. The only exceptions are pensioners.

Citizens advice in this area is impossible to get hold of. Can’t get through to get an appt and have to have one it’s not drop in.
I am going to see if the children’s centre still has CAB sessions

It’s just infuriating as I’m making an effort to clear it and they are demanding more and I feel like it’s unfair

It's called the pre- action protocol. They have to show that they are communicating with you about the arrears rather than starting posession proceedings immediately. I know it's crap when you feel they are being unreasonable though.

Why are they demanding more?

If you are not working then it is possible to come to an agreement where you pay your rent plus £3.70 pw towards the arrears. If you are working then they should accept £5 pw towards the arrears (plus your weekly rent)

As long as you don't break the arrangement, then no further action should be taken (If it is a council that is acting reasonably) - that is

You can also apply for Discretionary Housing Payment to cover some of the arrears and use the fact that your houisng benefit was delayed on the form. Google Discretionary Housing Payment (name of local authority) You can fill this in online.

Also search google to see if you have a law centre or Shelter advice centre in your area as they can offer free legal advice regarding housing and might be able to advoctae for you if you can't get an appointment with CAB.

Can't help you with how you feel about it though- sorry.

I w paid loads extra each week I’m really making a huge effort but the loss of the hb till the claim is sorted out (due to employment change and they need to redo it all) plus obviously day to day costs means I can’t clear it all immediately
Last week I was -175 in arrears, paid £150 but then the hb department wrote that they stopped payments the weeks before so suddenly a weeks rent was put onto the arrears.....
Yesterday I paid £75 but on Monday again a weeks rent will be debuted from the account. They can see I keep making payments surely. I’m going to pay some more on Monday and call them again to say please just let me do as much as I can and perhaps my housing officer could speak to hb ? But they always say ‘it’s a different department ‘ but surely it’s a housing officers job to help with these sorts of issues

Rent is between you and the housing association, HB is between you and the council it's not your housing officer's responsibility to sort this out. Housing officers are expected to actively chase arrears so they don't build up. Chase HB and ask them when they will get your claim sorted.

@carly2803 I said this to you on a thread back in June and it looks like i will have to say it again. You are STILL behind the times. Tenants HAVE to pay a good proportion of their rent now whether they work or not. The only exceptions are pensioners.
This is incorrect. Plenty of people get their full rent paid. It's COUNCIL TAX which isn't paid in full unless you are a pensioner.

It’s council housing not HA so the landlord is the same local authority as the hb department

@pollywollydolly

Actually, some people do get full council tax paid without being a pensioner. Depends on the LA and budget.
I know this for certain, because I get mine paid in full using council tax relief. As do a lot of people in the area I live.

@helenadove - as above - in some areas, yes you do.

those are the people that shouldnt be moaning getting full rent paid and can physically work.

Well i wonder why so many on here are happy to spout about pensioners on full HB then and say they are the only ones getting it.

From a review from a HA employee Taken from glass door

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet.
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed.
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious.
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"

Yanbu that if it’s the same council, they should be a bit understanding. But yabu to emphasise the social housing aspect as though that makes it worse, when in reality it’s the one blessing amongst whatever balls up has delayed your claim. Private landlords are generally much quicker to evict, and the arrears would be much higher from the higher private rent.

speye.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/staggeringly-high-social-sic-landlord-evictions-shhh/