Ways to pay your rent
Longhurst & Havelok Homes (L&H
Homes) offer a wide range of easy ways to pay your rent:
Income Team Please
contact us on Freephone 0800 345 7580 or email us
at incometeam@longhurst-group.org.uk if you want
to:
- discuss your rent account
- find out more about any of the ways
to pay your rent
- benefit and debt management
advice.
How to pay your rent Housing
Benefit
- if you are on a low income or receive
state benefits you may be entitled to Housing Benefit. It is your
responsibility to claim this from your local authority and make
sure it is paid to us. Please contact us if you need help or advice
in making a claim.
Click here to
use the Housing
Benefit Calculator
We encourage everyone who would qualify for housing benefit to
claim the help they are entitled to receive. To claim Housing
Benefit and Council Tax Benefit you will need to complete a claim
form. You can obtain a claim form by contacting your local
authority / council.
You should claim as soon as you think you need to. Housing
Benefit is usually paid from the Monday after the day your claim
form was received by the Housing Benefit department. If you are not
able to return your form on time because of your circumstances you
can ask the housing benefit department to consider backdating your
claim to a date earlier than the date it was received.
If you want us to speak to your council on your behalf about
your claim, you will need to sign a declaration form giving your
permission.
Direct Debit
- this is the easiest way to pay if you
have a bank or building society account and it’s simple to arrange.
There are no extra charges and you are guaranteed a refund from
your bank or building society in the unlikely event of an error.
Please ask us for a Direct Debit form.
Debit or Credit
card
- you can make payments over telephone
using your debit or credit card by calling the Income Team on
freephone 0800 345 7580
Standing order
- you can arrange for your rent to be
paid from your bank or building society account. Please ask us for
a standing order form.
Allpay rent payment
card
- take your payment along to any Post
Office or PayPoint outlet with your rent payment card and they will
give you a receipt.
Allpay internet
payment
- users log onto
http://www.allpayments.net and are prompted to enter your Allpay
card and debit or credit card numbers.
Allpay telephone - debit or
credit card
- please phone Allpay on 0870 243 6040.
You will need your Allpay card number.
Telephone banking
- if your bank offers telephone
banking, call them with the Longhurst Homes account details
(account number 06394957, sort code 30-00-00).
Remember to tell them your tenant reference number.
Internet banking
- if your bank offers on-line
banking, enter the Longhurst Homes account details (account
number 06394957, sort code 30-00-00)
- remember to quote your tenant
reference number.
By post
- make your cheque payable to
Longhurst Homes Limited
- write your tenant reference number on
the back of your cheque
- send it to: Longhurst Homes, Finance,
Leverett House, Gilbert Drive, Endeavour Park, Boston, Lincs PE21
7TQ
- please don’t send cash or post-date
your cheque.
Payment
difficulties?
Tell us now if you are finding it hard
to pay your rent. We want to help. call us on Freephone 0800 345
7580 or call in or write to the Income Team.
For free independent financial
advice you can contact:
- Citizens Advice Bureau on
www.adviceguide.org.uk or visit your local CAB office
- National Debt Line on 0808 808 4000
or www.nationaldebtline.co.uk.
Please allow 5 working days for the
payment to reach us.
Customer service
For all other enquiries including
repairs and applications for rehousing call us on 0800 111 4013.
You will only be charged for a local-rate call.
Checking your
balance
Rent statements are sent out to current
tenants four times a year. If you require an immediate statement,
please contact the Income Team . When you get your statement,
please check that all the details are correct. Please contact us if
you disagree with the record of payments or you have any
difficulties with your statement.
Evidence and proof to support a housing benefit
claim
Please see our fact
sheet on the type of evidence and proof required to support
your housing benefit claim.
You should always ask for a receipt for your completed housing
benefit claim form and for supporting documentation provided. You
should provide any additional information promptly to prevent any
unnecessary delay in the processing of your claim.
Change in your household’s circumstances
You must tell the Income Team and your council straight away of
any changes in your circumstances.
If your circumstances change and this means you may be entitled to
extra housing benefit you must tell the housing benefit department
about this change of circumstances within one calendar month of the
change, or you could be losing out.
Similarly, if you do not tell them about changes in your
circumstances, that reduce your entitlement you may have to repay
any Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit which you should not
have received.
What sort of things do I need to tell you
about?
The following list gives examples of changes you need to tell us
and the housing benefit department about:
- A change to who lives with you.
- If you start work.
- A change in your wages, private pension or any other income you
receive.
- A change to the amount of rent you pay.
- If you start or stop receiving Income Support or Jobseekers
Allowance.
- If you start or stop receiving any other benefit.
- If your capital, such as savings and investments, alters.
- Temporary absence from home. Click here to see our fact sheet
(link to be added shortly).
This is not an exhaustive list, these are only examples of
changes you need to tell us about.