Rent and charges FAQs

See paying my rent and charges for the many different ways to pay your rent. Remember you can conveniently pay your rent any time through the MyRaven customer portal.

Pay my rent

Your rent is due either weekly or monthly and in advance as set out in your tenancy agreement. You need to be in advance as per how often you pay, so if you pay monthly you need to pay a month in advance. If you pay weekly, you need to pay a week in advance. If you have concerns about this, please discuss them with your income officer.

A quarterly rent statement will be posted to you or you can check anytime on the MyRaven customer portal. Log into the portal using the below link, select ‘My accounts’, then you will see your account details, statements and charges breakdown. You also have the option to opt out of receiving paper statements and receive an email to view this online.

Check my balance

Your tenancy agreement is a contract and payment in advance is one of the terms of that contract. This applies whether you receive benefits or not. If you cannot pay in advance, you need to make an arrangement with your income officer to pay extra over time to get into advance. You must pay in advance by the frequency you pay, for example if you pay monthly then you need to be a month in advance.

Yes, if you already pay by direct debit, we will amend it to reflect the change. You will receive a letter to advise you of the new direct debit amount a couple of weeks before your rent changes. If you do not currently pay by direct debit and want to change over, please see paying my rent and charges to set this up.

You are now able to receive Allpay email confirmations for direct debits where you would have received a letter before, please contact us to set this up.

If you pay by direct debit and are registered to our portal we have set you up with this option already. These emails will be from noreply@allpay.net. The first time you receive this you will need to click the link to verify your email address.

If you are struggling to pay your rent, please request an email/call back from your income officer by completing the form via the MyRaven customer portal. You can access this by clicking the button below and then selecting ‘Manage account’ from your current agreement, select ‘Request contact’ and choose your preferred method of communication.

Request contact with my income officer

There are lots of different ways we can help through offering advice and support. We have a whole section on our website dedicated to this: Help with money and benefits.

Following four years of rent decreasing by 1% from 2016-2019, the government started allowing rent increases in 2020 to cover increased costs.

No, the total should still be 4.1% for rent and fixed service charges. If you have other charges, for example for personal or block heating, these may go up or down at a different rate depending on actual use.

This is a legal notice we are required to serve on some tenancies to advise we are increasing the rent.

There is a small number of properties where a 4.1% increase would be over the government’s rent cap for regulated rents. This is explained in your rent increase letter if it applies to you.

Examples include cleaning your block, lift maintenance or grounds maintenance. What you pay for will be listed in your tenancy agreement. These are fixed service charges and will generally be increased by the same amount as the rent each year. Some homes also have other charges that change to reflect actual costs. For example, if you live in a sheltered housing scheme or temporary accommodation scheme where heating charges are included, the cost will be based on use and may go up or down.

Yes, direct debits will be adjusted to allow for this. If you pay monthly, the amount will have been calculated to allow for this and therefore your payment amount will not change.

Although you will not be charged rent on these weeks, we would strongly advise and expect you to still pay to get yourself back into advance as soon as possible.

Your letter will show whether your charges are HB/UC eligible or not. But if you are unsure, please contact us.

No, you must notify the council or update your UC journal. If you don’t report the changes, it could cause delays or mean your increase does not get covered by your benefits. You will still have to pay your full rent. The one exception is if you get Housing Benefit from Reigate and Banstead because we notify them of all the rent changes.

You will need to contact the council/UC to check. If you need to adjust your payments, please contact us. We can help set up different payment methods that work best for you. We can also give you free support and advice if you are struggling to pay or need help with benefits.