• If you want to pay your rent every month, the best way of doing this is by direct debit. To find out more, please go to the ways to pay your rent page.
  
• If you want to pay your rent every month, your payment should cover the following month. This means that you need to pay a month's rent at the start of the month so that your rent account does not fall into arrears.
  
• If you pay your rent once every calendar month, you should be aware that each calendar month is slightly longer than four weeks (or 28 days). You should increase the amount of your payment as necessary.
• We will make all these calculations for you and tell you the amount you have to pay each year. Please go to the page on how we work out your rent.

You can read the leaflet "Paying Your Rent and Other Charges" in:

• Bengali
• French
• Gujarati
• Portugese
• Punjabi
• Somali
• Tamil
• Urdu

The initial amount of rent you have to pay is shown on your tenancy agreement.

However, we will review the amount we charge every year. At the end of February or in early March, we will write to tell you the new charges for the next financial year (which runs from April to March). Before the new financial year starts, we will also tell you, either by letter or by sending you a new rent card, the actual amounts you need to pay, taking account of any Housing Benefit you may be entitled to.

We will send all tenants a rent statement every three months. This sets out the weekly rent you have been charged, any Housing Benefit you have received and all the payments you have made in the previous three months. The statement will also include other details of any other money you may owe, such as arrears from a previous council tenancy or any Housing Benefit overpaid to you which we are claiming back.

Surveillance

If we suspect you of subletting or non-occupation we may carry out surveillance on you to gather evidence for court proceedings.