Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Paying your rent is an essential part of maintaining your tenancy agreement. If you fall into difficulties, the first thing you must do is contact your Housing officer either by email, phone or in person to New Worlds office.

You can also download and complete our financial statement so you have a clear picture of your incomings and outgoings and where you can make cut backs.

Your rent is known as a priority debt and will take precedence over items such as credit card debts or store cards and even catalogues. It is advisable to contact other debtors to see if you can reduce your payments to them so that you can maintain your rent payments as this cannot be reduced. You may be entitled to other benefits so it’s important that you check with the department for work and pensions.

You cannot register with New World directly as we do not accept direct applicants. You will first need to register with your Local Authority.

You will then have the opportunity to bid for properties with us, the local authority and other housing associations.

For mutual exchanges, you can register with the Home Swapper service – for more information go to www.homeswapper.co.uk.

There are different categories of repairs:

• Emergency – within 24Hrs
• Urgent – 5 working days
• Essential- 30 working days
• Planned/Routine -130 working days.

How soon your repair is done depends on which category the reported repair falls under. When a repair is reported a work order is raised, this is issued to our contractor who will contact you directly to arrange for an appointment to assess/repair the problem.

These are target response times which means that the actual repair(s) could take longer, as the problem could be a lot worse than is visible to the eye or parts/materials needs ordering which may delay completion of the repair work.

Instructions for obtaining your rent account balanace online is available under Rent Statements within the Tenants area of this website. Alternatively, please contact our office.

Your rent account is updated fortnightly so the balance may not reflect payments made in the last two weeks.

Your rent is due every week. If your payment method is anything other than weekly (per calendar month, fortnightly or every 4 weeks). Your rent account will show an arrear until your rent payment is received. Please be reminded that your rent is due in advance.

There is no instant & direct answer to this question. Kitchen renewal is part of major works and to determine this, a stock condition survey will be conducted and the report will determine if a renewal is required or not. Also a pre-inspection visit will be made to your home by a Housing officer or Housing Manager or by both and the Housing Association will response to you in writing about the outcome.

Boilers will only be renewed if after carrying out a thorough investigation by our appointed contractor, a recommendation is made that the boiler is beyond repair or not economical to repair. There might be cases where the HA will seek for second opinion on the condition of the boiler. Depending on the recommendation, a decision will be made to have the boiler renewed.

Your bins should be emptied at least once a week. This can vary depending on the type of property which you live in. Some flats may have refuse collection two times per week, please check the notice board on your block. For more detailed information go to your local council’s website or contact them by phone.

Cleaning contractors will only clean areas where you have a service charge element within your rent (i.e. communal or shared grounds).

Rents are generally set in line with inflation. The government has some control over Social Housing rents which means they are restricted to raise rents above a certain level. However private landlords can set their rents at whatever level they choose. In all cases the type, size and location of a property will have some influence over the level of rents and in broad reflect how desirable an area or property maybe.

All Registered Social Landlords (RSL) have a timescale for when repairs will be completed. This can vary depending on what has been set by the governing body of the organisation. Things can delay timescales and these include; the type of repair, what contractor is required to carry out the repair, whether tenants can be available to provide access for the repair to be completed, parts required being available and sometimes ensuring the correct repair is determined from the onset.

Complaints procedures and forms are available under Complaints within the Tenants area of this website.