General Information
The Council would like all tenants to pay their rent in full and never fall into arrears but realise that sometimes this is
not possible. We know that people do get into financial difficulties. Our aim is to minimise the level of rent arrears in
a sensitive but effective manner and to provide advice and assistance to those who need it.
Your tenancy agreement explains your responsibility to pay your rent in advance. If you do not, we have an agreed policy that is efficient, effective and also sensitive to your situation
In May 2005 the Moray Council introduced a new rent arrears recovery policy. This policy covers:
The main change that you will notice with the introduction of the policy is that we start arrears recovery action much sooner. We will contact you as soon as your account is in arrears. This is to ensure that we give you advice and assistance and to try and resolve the problem together.
We now place more focus on preventative work and personal contact. At the start of your tenancy, we will make every effort to ensure that you know about all the costs associated with your tenancy. You will be encouraged to complete application forms for Housing Benefit. We will offer you help and advice on money management and welfare benefits. If you are having difficulty filling in benefit application forms, we will help you or tell you where to get help, for example, Housing Benefits or Welfare Benefits.
Are you having difficulty paying your rent?
If you are having difficulty in paying your rent you should contact your area housing office as soon as possible. A housing officer will discuss the problem with you and will offer practical advice including information about other agencies that can help you. For example, your housing officer will:
They will also work out an affordable repayment agreement with you to help you pay off any arrears you may have. If you keep to your repayment plan we will not take any more action.
If our attempts to reach an agreement with you fail, or if you break an agreement made to pay off your arrears, we may take legal action to make sure that you pay your rent. The action we take will depend on how much money you owe us. This can range from arresting your wages to asking the court to evict you.
We will always try to make personal contact. This includes contacting you in person, by text or e-mail, but in most cases we will write to you.
We will send you letters until either, there is an improvement in the amount of arrears you owe, or you contact us to make an arrangement to repay your arrears. Each letter we send will be stronger in content but will emphasise the use of repayment agreements to improve the situation.
Serious and persistent arrears action
Rent arrears recovery will be based on a process called an escalation process. This process starts when you fall into arrears and ends when we have taken all the action we can. This can include repossession of your home for non-payment of rent.
When deciding whether to take legal action we will consider the amount that you owe us and review your history of rent arrears.
If there is no improvement in your arrears and they continue to rise we will send you a ‘Notice of Proceedings’ before we take legal action. This allows us to apply to the court (within six months) for permission to evict you and everyone living in your home. If we send you a ‘Notice of Proceedings’, we will give a copy of it to everyone living in the house over the age of 16.
You will continue to receive letters from your housing officer along with information and advice. You will also receive a visit from a member of staff seeking to give you advice and assistance. If there is no improvement we will take Court action against you. We will tell you in the letters that we send you about the action we will take. Legal action can include:
If we take legal action, you may have to meet our expenses.
We will accept payment of the amount that you owe us at any point during the process but if we have a court order known as a Decree for Eviction your tenancy will end.
If you have a garage lock-up and are in arrears, we will send you reminder letters. If there is no improvement we will take action to end your lease and repossess the garage lock-up. We will use our Debt Management Policy to get back the money that you still owe us for the garage lock-up.
For more information please contact your area housing office.