Help need with Housing Association please

[brokeman]

My wife and I bought our house a few years ago on a 50/50 scheme with a local housing association, we own 50% and pay rent to the housing association.
Lately a few things have came to our attention thatwe would really appreciate advice on.

1. Periodically we get letters from them saying that our rent is in arrears even though we have never missed a payment.
They claim that because we pay monthly (like most other tenants in the world does) but thry charge weekly rent that we end up in arrears.

2. WE own 50% of our house yet our next door neighbour who owns 25% pays only £10 per month less in rent than us and our best friends who also own 50% of their property pay about £20 per month less.

Any attempts to contact this company results in having a converstaion with some worthless individual who has the Iq of a dung beetle.

3. We recently went to remortgage our share to convert the loft and add a conservatory but the remortgage feel through at the last minute as this housing association objected to it.

In a 50/50 arrangment how come one party has more control than the other?

[jackieandwayne]

I deal with weekly rents, and it is a very common mistake that tenants make to pay monthly and forget that some months have five weeks in them. To get them off your back, work out what the yearly rental figure is, divide it by 52, then divide that by 12, and pay that figure each month. You won't get any letters from them then. I can't believe they haven't explained this to you. I think they should also allow you to pay the arrears, whatever they are, back to them at an agreed affordable level. And I suspect that because they can technically say you are in arrears, albeit very small and due to genuine error, that is why they objected to you remortgaging. Hope this helps with a little of your problem. Can youfind out who your Housing Officer is and ask them to visit you for a chat about this?

[Ms Fi]

When we rented from a HA we were always told that we were in arrears as we paid monthly.

We were advised that we had to calculate the yearly rent (multiply the weekly rent by 52) and then calculate the monthly rent (divide that figure by 12) - yes I know it's obvious!! and then pay double that figure as a one off payment.

After that pay the montly figure every month. That way we were a month in hand with the rent. Alternatively simply pay the set weekly rent weekly in advance.

HA are set up for low income families so paying monthly really messes up their systems and they can't cope.

Jackieandwayne - I think you meant divide by 52 then multiply by 12!

[jackieandwayne]

Yep you're right - one eye open at that hour and on first cup of tea!

[Joa]

divide it by 52, then divide that by 12

eeh?
wouldn't it be divide by 52, multiply by 4 and pay 4-weekly?
or weekly figure, multiply by 52, divide by 12 amd pay monthly?