Changes to Rent and Service Charge for 2019/20

25 February 2019

From 1 April 2019 your rent and/or service charge may change. If it is changing, you'll receive a letter from us explaining the changes to your charges. Some of the key points are explained below.

The basic rent change for all general needs, assured tenancies from 1 April 2019 will decrease by 1%. If you have a service charge, your new charge will be based on the cost of providing the services.

For Fair Rent Tenancies the rules are slightly different and most will decrease by 1%, but if your current rent is below the registered rent for your home you may see a smaller decrease or small increase in your rent.
Service charges are based on the cost of providing the service.

For other tenure types below we will apply a percentage increase based on your lease or agreement with us:

If you have a lease with Optivo
Or your home is in one of our Market Rent schemes,
Your property is managed by Optivo on behalf of a Local Authority or another landlord.

For more information, please contact us.

Get in touch

Payments

If you pay by Direct Debit, we’ll send you a letter giving details of the amount to be taken from your bank account. If you pay by Standing Order, please notify your bank of the new payment.

If you do pay monthly it’s important you alter your payment (we will alter your Direct Debit). There are 53 weeks in the coming year so if you pay monthly you’ll need to multiply your weekly rent by 53 and divide by 12. Its’ really important you do this otherwise you won’t be paying the right amount.

If you currently receive Housing Benefit and if it’s paid directly to us, we‘ve already told them about your new rent and charges. If it’s paid to you, you must take this letter to your Council so they can recalculate your payments. If you don’t receive housing benefit and you’re unsure if you can claim, please contact us for help.

If you receive help for housing costs in your Universal Credit, you must let the DWP know about your rent change on the 1 April 2019

All 2019/20 garage charges will be charged for every week of the year e.g 53 weeks of the year.

Want to view your rent statement or service charge information?

You can keep track of rent payments and service charge information 24 hours a day using our online service MyAccount.

MyAccount is the quickest and easiest way to keep up to date with your payments and also allows you to report repairs and contact us at a time and place convenient to you!

Go to MyAccount