If you find yourself in arrears, or are having problems making your rent payments, we will always try to give you advice and support.
However, we will not allow you to miss payments that are legally due. We will seek a formal repayment agreement with you. And, if such a formal agreement is made and kept, further legal action can be avoided.
Advice and assistance
Call us as soon as you know that your financial circumstances have changed.
Practical help and advice to pay your rent and manage debt is on offer. Soha is working with Citizens Advice Bureau to support you.
If you’re having difficulties, contact your Housing Officer as soon as possible.
He or she will contact your local CAB office to arrange an appointment for you to see an advisor. They can - Help you to claim welfare benefits you may be entitled to
- Help you to complete forms for housing benefit and council tax
- Help you with backdated requests for housing benefit and council tax
- Help you understand your income and your outgoings
If you sign an agreement with us that says you are getting help with money management from CAB and do attend your appointment there, we will suspend or stop further action against you until the CAB have been able to reach an agreement with you to pay. CAB will work with you to help you get your rent account back on the right track and reduce your debt to Soha.
Making a debt repayment agreement
Unless you debt has become large, or there is already Court Order in place, our Customer Service Advisors will be able to discuss your rent account with you and explain what payments would be acceptable to clear your debt.For any agreement we will need to know:
- The amount of the payments you can make
- The dates of the first and subsequent payments
- How these payments will be made
We will discuss with you whether we feel these payments are realistic and explain what steps we will take if the agreement is not kept. Legal action to take back your home
Where you have not made or kept to a reasonable agreement to clear your arrears, Soha may start legal action to recover the debt and take back the property. In most cases we are able to come to an agreement before the debt reaches the level where we feel that must take legal action, but some cases do, regrettably, result in a court hearing.
Going to Court
If we take legal action because you have not made or kept to a reasonable repayment agreement, we will first serve a Notice Seeking Possession. This Notice gives a date after which we can apply to the County Court to ask the Court to give us back possession of your home.
We will write to you when we apply to the Court for a Possession Order and will also try to visit you. The Court will also write to you to confirm the date it has set for the hearing to discuss our application to regain possession of your home.
Even after we have referred your case to Court, it is not too late to contact us and discuss how you can clear the debt.