Rent

[Unique]

hi, im new on here and this is my first post. I joined as we are having trouble with the income services officer at genesis housing over our rent arrears. We agreed with her a payment scheme which weve kept without missing a payment but still she threatens us with court action. We now have received a letter from her saying despite all her warnings our rent arrears are still going up. Each time she writes to us she tells us how much we now owe and it has gone down by £300 so far but she insists its gone up. We are not sure now where to go at genesis now to take this matter up above her as i dont think we will get any where with her as i think she just has it in for us

[Peridot]

Re: Rent

Hi and welcome Unique,

Hopefully we'll be able to point you in the right direction. So you got into difficulties with your rent and reached an agreement how to pay back the outstanding arrears. You have been doing this for a while so paying your rent plus an additional sum as agreed with the officer from Genesis Housing Association to clear the arrears. Despite keeping up with the repayments agreed and paying your monthly rent, you have now received a letter saying your arrears are increasing? Is that correct?

If you have been keeping up with your monthly payments and an additional payment to clear the arrears this surely can't be correct. I would write to the Housing Association asking for a full breakdown of the payments you have made since you agreed the payment scheme, so that you can see they have been receiving the amount you believe has been sent. I would also check your own accounts to check the amount has been transferred to them each month just in case something technical has gone wrong at either your bank end or theirs.

If it is Genesis Housing Association that you are with they do have a compliments comments and complaints page on their website so if you need to you can make a complaint here: http://www.genesisha.org.uk/genesis_...omplaints.aspx

I would check all your calculations are correct and that you have been paying the correct monthly amount and that any payment you have made are being allocated to the correct account at the Genesis end, so to speak.

Hopefully once you have the further information about the payments made and received matters will be cleared up and this lady will stop hassling. It may be something simple such as not allocating the money you've been paying to the correct account. Not a great situation and very worrying for you but hopefully it can be sorted pretty quickly.

Here if you need any more pointers.

[Unique]

Re: Rent

Thank you for ur help. It's so frustrating when you know ur in the right and they aren't. Each time I prove her wrong over something she gets worse with me. She actually phoned this afternoon and apparently the council was £3 a week this month short in there benefit payment. I was told I should have known this and sorted it out and it wasn't down to her to tell me they hadn't paid the full amount. She also denied saying she would take us to court if this wasn't payed despite the fact I had the letter in front of me. Anyway things are sorted with her for the third time now but know doubt she will rear her ugly head again soon

[Peridot]

Re: Rent

Sounds a bit of a jobsworth, there are plenty about unfortunately. But probably also overworked and underpaid no doubt
I would suggest in future keeping records of all payments so they are easily to hand and logging any contact she makes and a brief synopsis. Hopefully you'll never need it but if it ever became too much, then at least you have the information to make a formal complaint to hand.
Hopefully there won't be any further issues.
Here if you need us.