1. Direct Debit
   Take the hassle out of paying your rent and fill out this form to set up a direct debit. Email us at income.recovery@hightownha.org.uk or call 01442 292300.
2. By text
   You can register to pay by text at www.allpayments.net/textpay.
3. Use the App
   You can download the Allpay app from Google Play or the Apple App store.
4. At your local shop
   Take your Allpay card to any shop where you see these signs:

All our tenants need to pay their rent in advance. Whether this is weekly or monthly depends on your tenancy agreement. Generally, most of our social housing tenants pay weekly and our Intermediate Rent tenants pay monthly.

You need to make sure your rent account is paid in advance and never goes into debt (you may hear this called being "in arrears").

If you get Housing Benefit, it is paid 4 weeks 'in arrears'. This means that Hightown only gets your Housing Benefit 4 weeks after you have been living in the property.

We ask residents, even if they are on full housing benefit, to make a regular payment (e.g. £5 per week) to get their rent account 4 weeks in credit. This means you are more secure if there is every a problem with your Housing Benefit. It's also in your tenancy agreement that you will pay your rent in advance, so by making a regularly payment you are showing commitment to your tenancy.

If you receive Universal Credit, this is paid directly to you monthly in arrears. Your rent is due in advance therefore you will need to make additional payments (minimum £5 per week) until your rent account is paid monthly in advance. Some of our tenants have the housing cost element of their Universal Credit paid directly to Hightown. This is known as an alternative payment arrangement. Please call or email the Income Recovery team if you would like to request for your housing costs to be paid directly to Hightown. You can also update your Universal Credit journal to request payments directly to Hightown.

If you are a social housing tenant, you can use an Allpay rent card to pay your rent. If you have lost or misplaced your rent card, please contact the Income Recovery Team on 01442 292280 and they will be able to help you.

You can check your balance by logging into MyHightown.

Your MyHightown account will show you:

• you current balance
• your full rent statement (which you can print)
• rent statements for any other tenancies you have with Hightown (e.g. garages or previous properties)
• breakdown of your property charges
• contact details for your Rent Officer

If you are having problems paying you rent, please tell us straight away.

Evicting a tenant is always a last resort for us and there are lots of steps we can take to help you prevent this.

Stage 1

When your accounts goes into debt we will write to you and ask you to clear it.

Stage 2

If you owe us more than 4 weeks rent, we will serve you with a notice. The notice lasts for 1 year and allows us to apply to court if you don't start paying your rent.

Stage 3

We may apply to the County Court if you do not pay your rent or stick to the payment plan we have agreed with you. 

Stage 4

The Court may give Hightown the property back or they may ask you to pay an agreed amount to clear your debt over time.

Stage 5

If you don't stick to the agreement set out in Court we may apply for an Eviction Warrant. If you get an eviction date you have to leave the property, take all your possessions and give the keys back to Hightown.

Your service charge covers the cost of things like:

• cleaning any communal areas
• repairs to your block
• maintaining the grounds on your estate
• building insurance
• caretakers costs
• lifts

Every year we estimate how much we will need to spend over the next year and use this to calculate your service charge.