Here is an outline of the arrears process - that is, what happens if you get behind with your rent.

Stage 1
When your rent account first falls into arrears, usually after 2 weeks, we will send you a polite reminder letter, confirming your arrears and asking you to clear the balance or contact us within 7 days.

Stage 2
If the arrears continue to rise, we will send you a second letter and a member of the Income Management Team will visit you. They will discuss your arrears with you, and tell you what you need to do next.

The letter will confirm that if the issue with your rent account has not been resolved within 7 days, you may receive a ‘Notice of Seeking Possession’.

Stage 3
A Notice of Seeking Possession is a legal document and the first stage of legal proceedings. It is always hand delivered by a member of the Income Management Team. It will either be given to you personally or put through your letterbox.

The Income Management Officer will sign a certificate of service to prove that the notice has been served. They will discuss the issues with you, and provide you with as much help or advice as possible.
The notice gives you 28 days to address the issues with your rent account before the next stage of the process can begin.

A Notice of Seeking Possession remains in place for 12 months. However if you clear the balance during this time, we will remove the Notice from your account as a gesture of good will.

While the Notice is in place you will not be able to:
• Make any changes to your tenancy (such as remove a joint tenant)
• Carry out a mutual exchange
• Join the transfer list and if you are already on the list, your application may be removed.

Stage 4
Once the 28 days given on the Notice of Seeking Possession have passed, the Income Management Officer will look at your account and decide whether to apply to the County Court.

If the arrears are continuing to rise, and you have failed to fully deal with the issue, you will receive a letter and a visit from a member of the Income Management Team. You will be given 10 days’ notice that we intend to apply to court.

After 10 days, we will make the application and you will receive a letter from the court confirming the date of the hearing.

If an agreement is made and maintained before the hearing, we will ask for a ‘Suspended Possession Order’. This means that you can remain in the property as long as you keep to the terms of the agreement / court order. We will also ask for an order that you pay the costs of the court application which will be added to the rent you owe.

Stage 5
If you fail to keep to the court order, we will write to you confirming that we intend to apply for an Eviction Warrant. This letter will be hand delivered by an Income Management Officer. He or she will again give you the chance to discuss your problems and provide you with the help and advice you need to avoid this action.

If this application is been made, you will receive an appointment for a County Court Bailiff to visit the property with a member of the Income Management Team to carry out the eviction.
Eviction is a last resort when all other attempts to resolve the issues with the arrears have failed.
We do not want to evict anyone, and will do what we can to help you avoid this.

A copy of our Income Management policy and procedure is available on request, or you can download a copy below.