Our approach to rent debt

Our approach to managing rent debt focuses on helping tenants avoid falling too far behind. If a tenant misses a rent payment, we’ll get in touch quickly to understand why they have fallen behind and get back on track with their rent. Any missed rent must be repaid, and we can help put a reasonable repayment arrangement in place if needed.

We support households who fall on hard times but are making genuine attempts to get back on track with their rent. We’re a social housing landlord so that’s the right thing to do.

But we are drawing a line on how patient we can be.

We are taking a firm approach with the small number of tenants who are not meeting their obligations to reduce their rent debt, are skipping rent payments or refusing to work with us.

If this happens, we will take steps to end the tenancy.

Our approach seeks to ensure that tenants will not have accumulated more than 12 weeks’ worth of rent debt when their tenancy is ended to prevent large debts in the future.

This means we will begin the process of ending a tenancy earlier than in the past.

Rent Debt Policy POL-399 [PDF, 911 KB]

Partial rent debt reduction

A small number of tenants owed a significant amount of rent debt, and we helped a number of them get on top of it faster by reducing the amount owed to a level that is more realistic for them to repay in full.

This support was only offered to tenants who had 12 weeks’ worth of rent debt at the beginning of February 2025 and were consistently paying their rent and making reasonable payments to reduce their debt.

In return, tenants are expected to continue reducing what they owe and paying their rent on time and in full. If that doesn’t happen, we will take steps to end their tenancy.

Frequently asked questions

• Download the full set of FAQs [PDF, 142 KB]
• Read the general media FAQs