We will do the following:

• Send you a rent statement every six months.
• Write to tell you about our yearly rent increase at least one month before we make the change.
• Not take court action against you for missed rent payments until we have discussed it with you and done all we can to sort out the problem.
• Send you a statement of how we have worked out your rent each year and investigate any questions you have.

Rents and service charges

The amount of rent and service charge due is set out on page two of your tenancy agreement. We can change this, but only if we give you one month’s notice. We base the calculation of your rent on the Government’s rent restructuring scheme, which has been introduced to make rents as fair as possible across the whole country. The amount you pay will usually increase once a year in April. We base service charges on an estimate of the cost of providing services during the year. When we know the actual cost, we will adjust the service charge.

We charge rent to cover:

• the repairs and major work we have carried out;
• housing-management costs;
• loan repayments that were taken out to buy the properties transferred from Mendip District Council; and
• improvements and the cost of building of new homes.

Rent payments

Your rent is due on the first Monday of the rent fortnight. You must pay the first fortnight's rent or produce a fully filled-in Housing Benefit form before signing your tenancy agreement. We realise that many tenants receive their income every week so we are quite prepared to accept rent payments every week, as long as you pay it in the week in which it is due.

You can pay:

• using the payment card provided at any post office or
• pay point site;
• by monthly direct debit payment (on the last working day of the month); or
• by bank standing order payment.

If you are joint tenants, you are both responsible for paying all the rent and any arrears. This means that, if you are a joint tenant and leave your home, we can still hold you responsible for paying any outstanding rent.

The council normally pays us Housing Benefit every four weeks. We will ask new tenants to confirm that they agree with this arrangement.

Our Income RecoverySection works closely with the council's Housing Benefit Section to make sure that tenants receive the correct benefit.

You must contact the Benefit Section immediately if any change of circumstances affecting your entitlement takes place. If you have a question about your Housing Benefit entitlement, you should contact the council's Housing Benefit Section to sort it out. Our Benefit Co-ordinator ( 01749 334409 ) is happy to offer advice and support if you need it when doing this.

Unpaid rent

We realise that tenants have financial difficulties from time to time. If you have problems, it is important that you phone our Income Recovery Section (freephone 0800 068 8853) or send them an email (rentsenq@mendiphousing.co.uk) as soon as possible. We will offer help, support and advice to overcome difficulties in paying. Normally, you can arrange to repay any amount you owe, taking account of your financial circumstances.
We check our rent accounts regularly. If you are having payment problems and you have not contacted us, we will send you a reminder letter. If we do not receive a reply, or you do not keep to a previous arrangement, we will start legal proceedings. The first stage of those proceedings is to send you a ‘Notice of Seeking Possession’, normally by recorded delivery. This warns you that we will take court action if you do not make and keep to an arrangement. We will get possession orders against tenants who do not make or keep to a satisfactory payment arrangement. We always try to avoid evicting tenants, but we have a duty to all our tenants to take this action when necessary.

You may be asked to bring your rent payments up to date before you can transfer or exchange tenancies.

Debt and benefits advice

If you are having difficulties paying your rent, staff in our Debt and Benefits section may be able to help you. They can act on your behalf to contact everyone you owe money to so you can arrange to regularly pay an agreed amount. They will also carry out a full assessment of your finances to make sure you receive all benefits due to you. We will regularly visit you, in the privacy of your own home, until you have sorted out your financial difficulties. We will expect you to keep to an agreed action plan. If you would like more information, please contact our Debt and Welfare Benefits Advisor on 01749 334455.