Your rent is important to us. Without it we could not provide the services we do or pay for improvements.

Cestria Community Housing uses guidelines set out by the Government and fixes the level of rent you pay. When your rent is calculated, the guidelines consider the size and value of your home, its location and local earnings. This figure is called a ’formula rent’. The formula rent is used to decide how much rent all social landlords can charge.

At the start of your tenancy we will tell you how much your weekly rent is and how much water rates or other service charges are. We review rent every year and will always write to you giving you at least 4 weeks notice before any increase takes effect.

Rent is due every Monday and you should make sure we receive all rent by the day it is due. You may make arrangements to pay fortnightly or monthly but payments must be made in advance.

We will send you a rent statement four times a year. You should make every effort not to fall behind with your rent. If you do you are in danger of losing your home.

If you are worried about being able to make your rent payments on time please contact us. We will be able to offer help and advice.

Service charges and Supporting people charges

If you receive any of the services detailed below, you will pay a charge for these as well as your rent. These services might be:

• Water rates
• Heating
• Cestria Care 
• Furniture Package

A complete breakdown of the service charges is given in the notice we send you every year about the rent increase. Even if you are in receipt of full housing benefit you will still need to pay your water rates weekly.

Cestria Invoice

If you have received an invoice from Cestria with regards to private Cestria Care or another service and wish to pay it click here for more information. 

Changes to Rent and Service Charges for 2010/11

The Association must follow the Governments formula for calculating annual changes to rent. We must use the Retail Price Index inflation measure for the previous September – this time around inflation in September 2009 was negative 1.4%.

The Government wants all tenants across the District to pay the same (‘target’) rent for similar properties in similar areas. New tenants of Cestria Community Housing pay target rents for their homes. Their rental charges will decrease this year as we use the following calculation:

TARGET RENT CHANGE = September RPI + 0.5%

                                      = -1.4% + 0.5%

                                      = -0.9%

All tenants that transferred from Chester-le-Street District pay a lower “protected” rent which will gradually increase over time so that everyone is paying target rent. Because of this, tenants paying protected rent will see a slight increase in their rental charges this year. Cestria Community Housing use the following formula to calculated changes to protect rent:

PROTECTED RENT CHANGE = September RPI + 0.5% + Movement towards target rent

                                             = -1.4% + 0.5% + Movement towards target rent

                Average increase = 1.99% 

Last year, due to inflation and the Governement’s formula, the average rent increase was 6.01% which was £3.21 per week. This year, the average increase of 1.99% represents an average increase of £1.14.

If you are currently a tenant with Cestria you will be receiving your rent increase letter in the next few days. If you would like to speak to a member of the Income Management Team about your rent please contact us on 0191 3851411 or 0191 3851412.