Rent Accounting Service Standards
The Rent Accounting team is responsible for the effective financial management of all rent-related income and transactions. This includes the weekly debiting of rent accounts, accurate posting of Housing Benefit and Universal Credit payments, and the end to end administration of the Direct Debit process. The team undertakes detailed investigations into missing or misallocated payments; processes rent refunds and ensures the integrity of tenant account balances. In addition, Rent Accounting leads the annual rent review process, manages associated regulatory submissions, and oversees the reconciliation of cash and stock to maintain robust financial controls and compliance standards.
We are committed to:
- refunding any rent credit to you that you are entitled to
- processing your refund requests within 8 weeks where there are not benefits involved
- processing your refund requests within 8 weeks where there have been payments from benefits such as housing benefit or universal credit
- notifying you of any delays with your refund request
- making it as easy as possible for you to pay your rent by direct debit
- giving you the legally required 28 days' notice of any change in the rent charge to your property
- reviewing your rent charge at least once a year
- acknowledging other enquiries within 2 working days
To meet our commitments, we will:
- review your refund request within 5 working days
- contact the DWP or Revenues and Benefits to check if there has been any overpayment that will affect how much you will be refunded
- provide you with any updates on any general delays within our service online
- let you know if there are any delays specific to your request via your original contact method
- set up your direct debit within 5 working days
- send you a letter within 3 working days of the direct debit being set up confirming the details of set up and details of the Direct debit Guarantee
- notify you in writing, of the amount and date the direct debit amount will be taken at least 10 working days before the date it will be taken
- have a telephone line to answer enquiries regarding your open direct debit or refund request
- send you a letter notifying you of a change in your rent charge at least 28 days before the rent amount changes
We ask you to:
- complete all details on the outstanding credit form
- complete all details on the direct debit request form
- work with us to gain the information we need fromt eh DWP or Revenues and Benefits
To measure and improve our service we will:
- monitor our response times to refund requests
- monitor our response times to setting up direct debits
- send satisfaction surveys