Difficulty paying your rent or mortgage

Part of: Homelessness advice and support

Contents

If you are struggling to afford your rent or mortgage, it’s important to get advice as soon as possible. If you do not take action, you may risk losing your home.

Tenants

As a tenant of either a private or social landlord, you have a legal obligation to pay your rent fully and on time. If you are struggling to pay your rent, discuss the situation with your landlord immediately and try to set up a repayment plan.

Trafford Welfare Advice and Citizens Advice Bureau can help you make the most of your income so that you can prioritise your rent payments.

If this fails, you should take further action quickly:

  • Seek legal advice e.g. from Shelter or Civil Legal Advice
  • Contact the DWP to check you are getting the right benefit entitlement
  • Ask for your Universal Credit or Housing Benefit to be paid directly to your landlord
  • Apply for discretionary housing payments
  • Search for cheaper accommodation (rent arrears may affect your ability to access social housing)

It’s important that you always keep your landlord updated on your financial situation and ensure they are informed of action you are taking to rectify the situation.

Homeowners

If you are a homeowner and are unable to pay your mortgage, contact your mortgage provider immediately to discuss the situation. 

They should be able to give advice and offer potential solutions such as payment holidays, capitalising your arrears, or agreeing a repayment plan. You should also contact a debt adviser as soon as possible, such as:

If you do not speak to your lender about missed payments, they may begin proceedings to repossess your property.

It’s important that you always keep your mortgage lender updated on your financial situation and ensure they are informed of the action you are taking to rectify your situation.