The Council is reliant upon rental income to pay for the services that it delivers to its Council tenants. If rent arrears increase it does have a definite effect on the services that the Council tenants receive. For that reason it is critical that rent arrears levels are kept to the minimum.

If a tenant falls into arrears the Council is sympathetic and will permit repayment of those arrears by instalments. However, the most important thing is that a person falling into arrears should make contact with the Housing Management Section.

The Council can only assist in solving the problem if the tenant contacts us to let us know what the problem is. If arrears continue to rise, and the Council can see no prospect of that changing, then the Council does have to take its tenants to Court.

At the Court the Council will normally ask for what is termed a 'Postponed or Suspended Possession Order'. That is where the Court orders that the tenant must start paying the rent and a small amount per week, fortnight, or month off of the arrears. Tenants are encouraged to attend Court, should they be summoned. Even at this stage the Council would much prefer to have the problem of the arrears resolved rather than have the tenant evicted.

If a person has a Postponed or Suspended Court Order against them the Council would still wish to know if the tenant encounters any difficulty in making payments. We will exercise some discretion, rather than just seeking to evict.

Regrettably, there does come a time when the Council appears to be faced with no alternative but to evict a tenant. This is very much a last resort and it is not an action taken lightly by the Council. If a person is evicted they do have a right to make an application to the Council as being homeless. Whilst every case has to be dealt on its merits the Council may well argue that if a person had the ability to pay the rent, but did not do so, then they may be considered to be 'intentionally homeless' and the Council would have no obligation to rehouse them. That would apply even where there are children in the household. For this reason it is very important that tenants deal with arrears issues at an early stage and the Housing Management Section are always happy to give help and advice at an stage in an arrears problem.

When a person leaves a Council tenancy they become known as a 'former tenant'. If there are arrears at the end of the tenancy the Council will continue to pursue these. In this case the council's debt recovery process will be set to recover the debt. In practice, this may mean summonsing the former tenant to Court to get an Order for payment. However, the addition of court costs against the former tenant makes this an expensive option for the former tenant. In practice, we would much rather negotiate repayment by instalments if clearing the debt in a single payment is not possible. As always, it is important that people contact our Housing Management Section to discuss these issues so that a mutually convenient solution can be negotiated.

Contact details for all our Local Housing Offices are as follows:


E-mail: hes@waveney.gov.uk

Telephone:

Beccles	01502 523165
Bungay	01502 523164
Carlton Colville/ Kessingland	01502 523169
Gunton	01502 523125 01502 523126
Normanston	01502 523165
North Lowestoft	01502 523122
Southwold/ Halesworth	01502 523166
Whitton	01502 523121

Related link: Rent arrears - more information