Paying your Rent

When Do I Pay My Rent?

Your rent is due to be paid on a weekly basis, each Monday. You can however arrange to pay weekly, fortnightly, four weekly or monthly in advance with your local Housing Officer.

Paying your rent regularly and on time is a condition of your tenancy agreement.

How Do I Pay My Rent and Other Housing Charges?

You will be issued with a payment card which you should bring with you when paying rent and other Housing charges at a Council office or Post Office within Aberdeenshire.

Paying Online

To pay your Housing Rent online please ensure you have your Housing Rent reference number to hand.

Paying at a Council Office

You can pay by cash or cheque (payable to Aberdeenshire Council) at your local Housing Office, and will be issued with a receipt which will show the balance on your rent account.

Paying at the Post Office

You can also make payments by cash or cheque at some Post Offices. Cheques should be made payable to Post Office Ltd. The Post Office will not be aware of the balance in your rent account or any Housing Benefit entitlement, therefore the receipt which will be issued will not show the balance in your rent account.

Paying by Post

You can post your rent to us using a crossed cheque or postal order made payable to Aberdeenshire Council. Write your name, address and reference number on the back of your payment.

Please do not send cash.

Paying by Standing Order

You can pay by Standing Order by a choice of frequencies:

Weekly
Fortnightly
4-Weekly
Calendar Monthly, on 1st of month

It is important to check with your Bank/Building Society before completing a Standing Order form.

Some Banks/Building Societies do not allow weekly, two weekly or four weekly payments and some types of bank account are also unsuitable for Standing Order payments.

It is also important to contact your local Housing Office to inform us that you have chosen to pay by Standing Order, as there is an administrative lead in period when payment arrangements need to be agreed.

Please ensure that only your eight digit rent reference number beginning with 7……. is quoted in the rent reference number line. Otherwise your payment will not be automatically transferred to your rent account, and could result in your rent account falling into arrears.

With a Standing Order, you are responsible for telling your Bank/Building Society if you wish to alter the amount of your Standing Order when your rent changes. If you want this to happen automatically, you should consider paying your rent by Direct Debit instead.

Paying by Direct Debit

Paying by Direct Debit you have a choice of payment frequencies:

Weekly
Fortnightly
4-weekly
Calendar monthly on 5th or 19th of the month

The ability to pay by Direct Debit may be affected by the type of bank account you have.

If you wish to pay by Direct Debit please complete the mandate and return it to your local Housing office for it to be set up.

There is an administrative lead in time of a minimum of 14 days before a Direct Debit can start. It is very important that you discuss with a Housing Officer what payments you should make before your Direct Debit starts, to prevent your account from falling behind. When your Direct Debit is set up we will write to advise you of the amount we plan to request and the date the payments will be taken.

All accounts are automatically checked 14 days before each payment is requested and if there are any changes to your rent account such as payments, changes to rent charges or entitlement to Housing Benefit your payments will be recalculated to take the changes into account. If your payments change a further letter will be sent to notify you of the new amounts.

If there are any changes in the two weeks before a Direct Debit payment is requested then these will not be picked up in time to change the payment, so any necessary changes will come into effect on the following payment. If this will cause you any problems you will need to contact your local housing office.

If your rent account is in arrears at the time you request to pay by Direct Debit, you may still be able to pay by this method but you should discuss the situation with a Rent Arrears Officer, who with your agreement, will make a suitable arrangement to pay by Direct Debit.

Once your Direct Debit is activated, there is no requirement to complete another mandate when your payment changes. The change will be made automatically and you will be advised by letter in advance of the change. Payments will only be changed if we send you notification of this.

Housing direct debit mandate (pdf 691kb)
Lock-up rent direct debit mandate (pdf 661kb)

When Do Payments Register On My Rent Account?

Payments made at a Council office or by post are updated to your account at the end of each day.
If you pay at the Post Office you should allow 3 – 5 workings days for your payment to be updated.
Standing Order payments are updated to your account 7 – 9 working days after the money leaves your bank account.
Direct Debit payments are updated on the agreed dates.

Do I Receive A Statement?

Rent statements are issued to all tenants quarterly. The date of the payment shown on your statement will be the date we receive the payment.

If you need an additional rent statement, you should contact your local Housing office.