Housing association want suddenly want one month's rent in advance

[Darbynjoan]

I have been renting from same housing association for 4 years.My tenancy agreement is to be 1 week rent in advance. I get paid monthly so I pay rent monthly instead of weekly so I pay my rent at the end of every month.This has been fine until now the housing association is under new management and telling me if I want to pay my rent at the end of the month I need to pay one month's rent on advance.Is this correct? They keep sending me arrears letters threatening to evict me. Love to hear from people living in housing association homes.

So whilst you should be paying weekly you actually pay monthly but is this in arrears then?

So are you in arrears by the time you get to the end of the month when you then pay your months rent? If so, then yes, you need to pay a month in advance.

So you are paying every month as you have been doing for four years? It sounds a bit odd that they think you are in arrears.

Going back to when your tenancy started did you pay your first week in advance? It sounds like some confusion relating to the difference between paying a week in advance and you paying monthly.

I would ask for a statement of account going back to the start of your tenancy to try to figure out if there are arrears due to how it’s accounted for.

If you've been paying in arrears in breach of the tenancy agreement then it should come as no surprise that someone is now asking that you rectify the situation.

is your area switching over to universal credit?
some ha ask for an extra payment to avoid getting into arrears once you go on uc.

I had exactly this thing with my brother, who's affairs I looked after for various reasons. It was a condition that rent was paid in advance, not arrears. I think it is pretty standard with HA's. I had to pay double rent one month to turn an arrears payment to an advance.
Can you offer to pay a small amount each week or month to turn the payment around, so to speak?

They shouldn't be threatening you with eviction for a month's rent arrears (unless there are more arrears than that?)

I suggest you offer to pay a small amount extra every month until you've caught up. For example, if your rent is £500/month, you could pay £525/month, which means that after 20 months you will be paying in advance instead of in arrears.

In HA and we have to be one month in advanced. Rent always comes out on the 1st. I'm a new tenant so we are paying extra for 6 months and after that our rent goes back to normal. If you are paying at the end of the month and they expect it at the start you are a month in arrears.

I pay by direct debit, HA send quarterly statements, depending when they fall I might be in arrears depending on when direct debit is taken however there is always a note on the bottom of the statement telling tenants to disregard arrears if you pay by direct debit as payments are taken so that account is clear at end of year. As a new HA they can't know that you pay regularly and so want that assurance I imagine.

This happened with our Housing Association last year.

We've been here 12 years and started out in weekly installments as we got paid weekly then switched to monthly in arrears +£10 as agreed by our housing officer.

Then last year they were taken over with new tenancy agreements, paying in arrears was non-negotiable so we had to find rent+half as we'd covered the rest with our previous £10 credit.

They shouldn't be threatening to evict you unless you have continually ignored their arrears notices, ours say 3 notices (of more than one month) and eviction process starts but they will try to help you before taking that route.

I guess it makes sense, they are running a business and can't afford to be "carrying" people who don't contribute on time as they'll have things to pay too.

It sounds like you have been effectively paying in advance for one week of each month and in arrears for the other 3-and-a-bit weeks.

It's not surprising that the landlords don't find it acceptable.

Like pp said you need to stop ignoring this and deal with it. Obviously you can't magic up a big chunk of money on demand but you will need to scrape together what you can, and overpay more than the monthly rent until your account shows you to be correctly in advance by the full amount.

Yes unfortunately it's correct. Your tenancy is for rent to be paid in advance and your account will show as in arrears. Can you offer to pay current rent weekly going forward with an additional amount for arrears.

The fact you are already getting notices means you can't ignore this.

You would already have been evicted if you were renting privately and did this! Sorry