Disabled woman saved from incurring rent arrears
CHAC Case study
Anne’s story
A missed voicemail message meant Anne, a single woman with disabilities, was facing the risk of incurring rent arrears when moving into new ground floor accommodation.
Anne was living in an assured tenancy with a Housing Association but had requested CHAC’s help with making an application to Kent Homechoice for a bungalow. She was in receipt of Employment & Support Allowance as well as housing benefit.
Anne’s Homechoice application was successful and she was offered a bungalow by Canterbury City Council. A message confirming the offer was left on Anne’s mobile voicemail. Unfortunately, Anne did not become aware of the offer (or the voicemail message) until she was told about it by CHAC. Although Anne was delighted to accept the offer, the new tenancy was due to begin in 10 days and her current Housing Association tenancy required four weeks’ Notice to Quit.
How CHAC helped
We negotiated with Anne’s Housing Association to reduce the required Notice to Quit to one week, ending on a Sunday. This saved Anne from having to pay an extra three weeks of rent.
We also helped Anne secure weekly housing benefit payments of £89 and weekly council tax support payments of £19 from the start date of her new Council tenancy. And we secured overlapping housing benefit of £87 to cover the final week of rent on Anne’s Housing Association property. Finally, we liaised with Canterbury City Council to ensure that Anne was given a secure tenancy for her bungalow.
The outcome
As a result of our assistance, Anne has been able to move into a Council bungalow with a secure tenancy, without incurring any rent or council tax arrears.