Rent
What is the Rent?
Rent is based on either household income or property value.
Rent which is based on household income provides an affordability guarantee – the lower the income, the lower the rent. Household Income is the gross income (that is, before tax) of each person residing in the house added together. Income based rent is set at 25% of gross income.
Rent which is based on property value is more commonly referred to as “Ceiling Rent”. The rent is comparable to “market rent” and ensures that that the co-operative’s rent on its properties are no more or less than that of private accommodation of a comparable standard.
That said, the rent is higher for higher valued properties and lower for lower valued properties.
The co-operative calculates the rent based on both methods (Income Based and Ceiling Rent) and charges its members the lower of the two calculations.
Incorporated in to the rent is a small levy on each tenancy to cover the cost for water usage.
How Do I Pay The Rent?
The co-operative has a Direct Debit facility with its bank and all new members are required to use Direct Debit to pay their rent. The co-operative does not have a facility by which you can manually pay rent and a bank branch.
The Direct Debit facility is provided at no cost to co-operative members.
The co-operative also has a “common” rent day – alternate Saturdays. Member’s Direct Debit is set up to be deducted from their bank account on alternate Thursdays.
We also suggest members request Centrelink to change their benefit/pension day to the day before the Direct Debit withdrawal to minimise as much as possible any possibility that there are insufficient funds upon which to Directly Debit.