Your tenancy

There are a number of ways available for tenants to pay rent to Southdown: Direct Debit or Standing Order, rent payment cards, cash or online.

Tenants who have been issued with a rent payment card can also make payments online at www.allpayments.net. You will need to enter your rent payment card number, password, debit card number and amount you want to pay. Your rent account is credited within 24 hours. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Individual Rent Statements are issued quarterly and sent to each tenant’s address. Please speak to your Housing Officer or Floating Support Officer if you would like help reading and understanding your Rent Statement.

If you are having difficulty paying your rent, please let your Housing Officer know as soon as possible. Your Housing Officer can set up a repayment plan and put you in touch with specialist advisors who can provide Welfare Benefit checks, debt advice and budgeting help.

We want you to be happy in your new home and have the right amount of support you need. Our Tenant Handbook will help you to understand your tenancy and inform you of all the things we will do and what you need to do as a tenant.

Housing Officers

We will provide a named Housing Officer for all tenants to raise issues with and liaise around tenancy issues in addition to any other support tenants receive from us.

Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)

We will respond promptly to all reports of ASB. Serious abuse or threats of abuse with violence including domestic abuse, hate crime, sexual offences, assault, arson, gang crime or weapons will be responded to within 24 hours. Other causes of ASB will be responded to within 5 working days. We offer home visits to all tenants making complaints and communicate what action we are taking to help resolve the issue.

Shared Ownership

We will offer an annual visit from the named Housing Revenue Officer following the issue of the service charge statements. We will include all shared owners in regular organisational updates from us.

Tenant Involvement

Tenants will be provided with themed, tenant focus groups and an annual tenant survey to provide feedback on how we have performed.

Property Inspections

Tenants will be notified of inspections of common areas and provided with opportunities to attend or provide feedback regarding concerns they have regarding individual flats or the communal areas of the property.

Carpets and Curtains

We will provide carpets and curtains as standard in all properties that we let at the point of move-in.

Post Work Inspections

Southdown will post-inspect at least 10% of day-to-day maintenance jobs raised and 100% of major, cyclical and planned works to ensure our tenants are getting a good quality maintenance service.

Repairs

Tenants will be offered three choices of appointment times for repairs.

24 Helpline for Properties

Where we are responsible for repairs, we will provide a free out-of-hours emergency helpline for tenants needing to report emergency or urgent repairs outside normal working hours.

If you are thinking of ending your tenancy, requesting a transfer, or looking into a mutual exchange, please get in touch with your Housing Officer who will be able to guide you through the process.

Further information on ending your tenancy, transfers, and mutual exchanges is coming soon.