Living in temporary accommodation

You need to pay your rent each week. When you moved into your temporary accommodation, we told you how much you need to pay.

If you're not sure how much rent you need to pay, you can look at your tenancy or licence agreement. You can also contact us to check how much you need to pay.

Online

You can pay your rent online using a debit or credit card.

To pay your rent online, you will need:

• your account number (this is seven characters long, and you can find it on temporary accommodation documents from us)
• to know the amount that you need to pay
• your card details, including the card number, CSV number, and start and expiry date
• your email address

By standing order

You can pay your rent by standing order. You will need to contact your bank to set up a standing order.

Our bank details are:

• Account name: Chelmsford City Council    
• Sort code: 60-05-13   
• Account number: 55600018  

You will need to use your tenant reference number as the payment reference if you pay by standing order.

By phone

You can pay your rent by phone using a debit or credit card.

The payment phone number is 0845 002 0686.

In cash

You can pay your rent in cash using an Allpay payment card at a Post Office or PayPoint outlet.

You will need to call us on 01245 606391 to order your Allpay payment card.

You can visit the Allpay website to find your nearest Post Office or PayPoint outlet.

If you lose or damage your Allpay payment card, contact us to order a new card. 
  

We used to send out invoices for rent every two weeks, but we will not be sending invoices anymore. 

Instead, we will send you a rent statement four times a year. You will receive your first statement in July, then another in October, January and April.

You can call us on 01245 606400 for information about your rent payments.

When you moved into your temporary accommodation, we told you how much you need to pay each week.

If you're not sure how much rent you need to pay, you can look at your tenancy or licence agreement. You can also contact us to check how much you need to pay.

You need to contact us if you're struggling to pay your rent or if you miss a rent payment. You can call us on 01245 606400.

If you miss a rent payment, we will contact you within ten working days of your rent payment date. We will either contact you by phone, email or visit you at your accommodation.

We will try to understand why you missed your rent payment, and discuss what we can do to stop it happening again. We will also work out a payment plan for you to catch up with your rent.

If you continue to miss your rent payments, we could ask you to leave your accommodation.

Advice about money and debt

For a guide about managing your money, you can look at the Money Advice Service website.

For free advice about debt and money, you can:

• visit the Citizens Advice website
  
• visit the Step Change Debt Charity website

You need to look at your tenancy or licence agreement to find out what to do if you need a repair at your temporary accommodation.

Your agreement will also include advice about repairs at your temporary accommodation.

You can contact us if you have questions about repairs.

Our Temporary Accommodation Placement Policy explains our approach to allocating temporary accommodation.

The policy also includes information about how we consider the location of accommodation, and the priority for in-city, Essex-wide or any area accommodation.