Having difficulties paying your rent
Are rising costs or reduction in income making it difficult for you to maintain your tenancy?
If so then help is available.
- For Caerphilly Council contract holders text RENTHELP to 81400
- For all other contract owners and homeowners text HOUSUPPORT to 81400
A member of staff will call you back.
If you get into arrears – don't ignore it!
The contract you sign when collecting your keys means that by law, you must pay your rent regularly and not get into arrears. It is your responsibility to keep your rent account up to date.
The most important thing is to make contact with the Rents Section immediately for advice before the debt gets too large for you to deal with. Call 01443 811450 or text RENTHELP to 81400 and a member of staff will call you back. If you do not contact us, we will contact you either in writing or by phone and officers may call to your property.
You need to make an arrangement for arrears payments with us. We will do our best to ensure that these are realistic and affordable for you.
We will always be sympathetic to your problems and generally an agreement to clear the debt can be made.
We also offer a free confidential advice and support service with an independent debt and money advisor for anyone in rent arrears or likely to get into arrears.
If you don't clear your arrears
We will contact you by phone, letter or visit you at home to discuss your arrears, arrange affordable repayments and ensure you are claiming all that you should be.
If this action is unsuccessful, and you continue to not pay your rent, we will serve a 'Notice of Seeking Possession'. This is a legal notice telling you that we intend to take legal action if you do not pay your arrears.
If you do not arrange to pay off the arrears, we will apply to the county court for a possession order for the rent you owe. We will tell you, in writing, about all the stages of legal action and what is likely to happen.
We will do all we can to support you. We do not want to evict you but, if you do not make an affordable arrangement, we will have no alternative. Even when you have been evicted, we will try to recover the rent arrears and court costs you built up while you were a contract holder.
What if I am waiting for housing benefit / universal credit to be paid?
We will not take legal action against you if we know you are waiting for a claim to be sorted out and you are making payments, but you should contact us.
Former contract rent arrears
When a contract holder ends their contract they become a former contract holder. If you owe us money when your contract ends we will contact you to make an afforable arrangement to repay the debt. If this fails we will take legal action to get the money owed to us. This could include referral to an external debt collection agency.
To make sure you do not get into rent arrears when you move out, contact us and tell us when you intend to leave. We will then tell you how much rent is due to the end of the contract.
Good reasons not to get into rent arrears
As well as risking being evicted from your home, there are other reasons why you should avoid getting behind with your rent.
- You may have trouble getting credit (including loans or hire purchase) because a possession order will be revealed in a credit enquiry.
- You may not be able to get a mortgage or other loan
- You will not be allowed to rent a garage
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