Council services
Paying rent
Your rent must be paid weekly in advance, on a Monday. The best way to pay is directly through your bank account, using a standing order, then you will not have to worry about paying each week as it will be taken care of. Contact your Housing Officer to arrange this on 0118 974 3771/3772.
You can also pay your rent online.
If you do not pay your rent by standing order, a rent payment card can be issued to you. This card is accepted at any Post Office in the UK and at the cash office at our Civic Offices in Shute End, Wokingham.
What happens if rent is not paid on time
If you do not pay your rent on time you will receive a reminder letter from us. If you receive a letter from us:
- Read the letter carefully
- Check that a standing order is being paid from your bank if you have arranged this
- Check that any other payments that you have made using your rent card are showing on your account
- Contact the Citizens Advice Bureau or us to ensure you are getting enough help with your rentsuch as housing benefit if you are on a low income
- If you know that you are in rent arrears pay off what you owe as soon as possible
- If you cannot pay off what you owe, contact your Housing Officer immediately (see our rent arrears website page to find out how)
What happens if I cannot pay the rent?
If you cannot pay your rent see our rent arrears website page for adivce about what to do. We will do all we can to help you if you are having genuine difficulties and discuss the best way to clear the debt.
If you do not pay your rent we will write to you and then, if you do not contact us to explain why you have not paid, we will visit your home.
If you continue to owe rent without making an arrangement to pay it off:
- You will be served with a Notice Seeking Possession - a warning that, unless you pay your arrears in full or put in place an installment plan, we will take court action to recover the deb
- After 4 weeks the Notice Seeking Possession will expire and then we will then seek to recover possession of your home
If the rent is still not paid:
- We will take you to Court and ask the Court to order that you pay using a Suspended Possession Order on condition that you pay your rent plus an amount towards clearing the arrears
- In certain cases we will ask for an outright possession order requiring you to leave your home.
- We also ask the Court to make an order for our costs, usually in the region of £130.00
Finally if you do not follow the Court’s instructions, we will formally apply to the Court to evict you. At this stage you will have the right to appeal within 7 days of receiving the eviction notice. This appeal must be made to:
Court Office
Reading County Court
Friar Street
Reading
Tel: 0118 987 0500
