Paying your rent

Payments must be arranged so that your account is never in arrears. When paying your rent you must use your nine digit tenancy number as a reference.

Your rent is due weekly in advance, payable on a Monday. If you want to pay monthly, you should pay in advance to prevent your account showing arrears.

We'll normally only review rents in January each year with any changes taking place on the first Monday in April after giving you four weeks notice. However, we can alter rents at any time, provided we give you the correct notice.

We'll also send you a statement every three months that will list your payments. If you have any queries with your statement then please let us know. The cheapest way to pay in terms of how much it costs us to process is Direct Debit, it's also really quick and easy for you to set up.

Check your rent balance

Pay online

Payments can be made online safe and secure with a debit or credit card. You will need your nine digit tenancy number

Set up a direct debit

Paying your bill by Direct Debit is quick, easy, safe and secure. It means you sign up once and you don't have to worry about it again. You can sign up using our online form.

We'll ask you for your rent payment account reference number. The reference number will be on your bill. It's a nine character reference starting with a 9 and ending with a letter. We'll also ask you for your bank account details.

Other ways to pay

For other ways to pay, please visit our payments page.

Help to pay your rent

We recognise that tenants may suffer money problems and can fall into arrears for many different reasons. Our Housing Income team are there to help, and you should contact us by telephone 01474 337970 as soon as possible.

We can help you:

  • Make an agreement with us to get you back on track with your rent payments.
  • Offer to pay us a reasonable amount each week that's a bit more affordable until you can get back on track with your usual payments.
  • Check out your entitlement to housing benefit using the GOV.UK benefit calculators.

If you get income support, income based job-seekers allowance or employment support allowance you can have a standard amount taken out of your benefit each week and paid direct to us for rent arrears. If you are issued with an eviction date because you haven't been paying please contact us immediately for help. It won't be too late to try to get you some help.

Housing benefit 

Tenants on a low wage, income support or a pension may be able to get help towards the cost of their rent through housing benefit.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP)

You may be eligible for a discretionary payment to help you pay your rent and other housing costs.

Find out about discretionary housing payments.

Universal credit

If you currently claim Housing Benefit, check how Universal Credit may affect you.

Rent arrears

It's important that you keep up to date with your rent payments. If you don't, you'll end up you'll end up in rent arrears. 

You can get advice if you’re in rent arrears or having difficulty paying your rent from:

Find out more about rent arrears from gov.uk