Your rent statement

Questions about your rent statement

You'll get a rent statement once a year in April, but you can check your balance and transactions at any time via your myB3Living account. We'll also sent you a copy of your statement if we spot any issues on your account. If something doesn't look right, take a look at our FAQs on rent accounts below or click here to send in a query.

Frequently asked questions

We get that it might seem odd that you still need to pay rent, even if you get Housing Benefit.

The reason you need to do this is to get your rent account paid up in advance. Your benefits tend to come in weeks after your rent is due, so you need make rent payments until your account stops going into arrears. Although you get Housing Benefit to help with your rent, paying in advance is still your responsibility.

As well as the legal reasons, paying rent will also help you in the long run.

If your benefits stopped for whatever reason, you could fall into a lot of debt straight away. By paying in advance, you have more time to seek advice and you've shown that you can pay reliably. 

The balance at the top looks wrong

Transferring money isn't always instant. 

Sometimes it can take a few days for money to show in your account - for example, if you made a payment recently or if Housing Benefit has paid.

It might have been a few days since we printed your statement and put it in the post. So try checking your myB3Living account to check for any new payments.

If something still isn't right, click here to let us know so we can look into it.

If you have extra credit on your rent account, we might be able to give you a refund.

But something to remember is that you need to pay rent in advance (this is typical for almost all landlords). This means your account shouldn't go into arrears at any point. If you're still going into arrears regularly, we might not be able to refund your credit.

Also, if you're on Housing Benefit, we will need to check with the Council to make sure your benefit hasn't been overpaid.

We pay refunds by BACS  (so a bank transfer into your account) and it usually takes about 1 week. You can request a refund via your myB3Living account in the 'Rent' section.

Don't have a myB3 account? Click here to request a refund.

Your 'Current charges' show the services you pay for. Depending on what type of tenancy you have and where you live, you'll have different charges.

If you have...

  • A social rent tenancy - you'll see a list of all the services you pay for (your service charges). At the bottom you'll see your rent as a separate charge and the subtotal of your service charges. We combine all these charges together so they show as one row on your statement, called 'Rents and charges'.
  • An affordable rent, intermediate rent, or rent to buy tenancy - then you'll only see a charge for rent.

To find out what type of tenancy you have, take a look at the front of your tenancy agreement. A social rent tenancy is our most common type of tenancy - but you might have an affordable rent tenancy if you've moved into a home that was built more recently.

You can find out more about service charges here. But if you think something doesn't look right, tell us about it here.

If you're on Housing Benefit that gets paid to us directly, it usually gets paid 'in arrears'.

By this, we mean it gets paid afterwards. So your rent will go on first, then Housing Benefit will pay this off afterwards - usually with a delay of 2-4 weeks (depending on which council you're with).

But if...

  • Your Housing Benefit has dropped and you weren't expecting it
  • A Housing Benefit payment is missing
  • You've made a claim and it still hasn't come through 

...then we recommend contacting your local council to find out what's happened. (Click here for Broxbourne Borough Council)

If you're worried this might put you in arrears on your rent account, then let us know what's going on and we may be able to help. Click here to contact us.

I paid in some money but it isn't showing on my statement

If you paid in some money on or close to the date we sent your rent statement, then it might not have had time to show on your rent account. (The 'Statement Date' in the top right corner tells you when we printed out your statement.)

But if the payment was a week or more before that date, then click here to let us know something isn't right.

My account says I owe money but I should have credit

You rent statement is like a credit card statement - but it works the opposite way to your bank statements.

This means your 'balance' on each row shows how much you owe. So if a row shows a minus figure, then this is your credit.

For example,

  • Balance: -£5.00  - this means you have £5 credit on your rent account.
  • Balance: £10.00   - this means you owe £10 rent.

Something not right?

If something still doesn't look right about your rent account / rent statement, raise it with us and our Rent team will have a look into this for you.

Related Links

Money getting tight? Click here to get support