Terms and Conditions
FlexMyRent Terms and Conditions of Service
These terms and conditions reflect the way that the FlexMyRent service works, the laws that apply, and how we will work with you to make sure that you get a positive experience. To use the FlexMyRent service, you must accept these terms.
Besides these terms, we also publish a Privacy Policy. Although it’s not part of these terms, we encourage you to read it to better understand how we manage your data.
Service provider
The FlexMyRent service is provided to you by the Centre for Responsible Credit Ltd. We own the FlexMyRent service, the digital platform and all branding and content.
We are a registered charity, operating under UK law. If you should need to contact us, then you should do so either by e-mail to admin@responsible-credit.org.uk or in writing to:
Centre for Responsible Credit Ltd
27, Cambridge Street
Leicester
LE3 0JQ.
We give you permission to use the FlexMyRent service if you agree to follow the terms set out below. When we talk about ‘we’ or ‘us’ we mean the Centre for Responsible Credit Ltd.
Age and tenancy requirements
To use the FlexMyRent service you must be aged over 16 and have a tenancy in your own name with a participating housing association. You must also have been invited to participate in the FlexMyRent scheme by your housing association.
Your FlexMyRent account
If you meet these requirements you can create a FlexMyRent account. You’re responsible for what you do with your account, including taking reasonable steps to keep your account secure. Make sure that only you know the password to the account.
What you can expect from us
We will provide our service to you for free.
Once you have opened a FlexMyRent account you can use our platform to create personalised proposals for rent payment. We also ask you questions relating to your financial circumstances.
We aim to ensure that you can always access the proposals that you have created and are provided with an opportunity to review these, and to change these as may be appropriate over the course of the year.
We ensure that you can submit your rent payment proposals to your housing association, and they are provided with a means to either approve these or contact you for further information. This is done by providing your housing association with an interface to our platform. However, they can only see information that you have agreed to share with them.
The platform also tracks payments that you make on your rent account against any approved payment plans. We will e-mail you once per month to let you know if you are on-track with your payments or not. If you are behind with your payments, we will let you know this and you can either bring these up to date, reschedule your payment plan or discuss the position with your Housing Association. Your contract for rent payment is only ever with your Housing Association. We do not collect the rent, nor accept any payments on your Housing Association’s behalf.
Finally, the platform also tracks any underlying changes to your tenancy or rent liabilities. For example, it will be made aware of any annual rent increases or if your Housing Benefit entitlement changes. If changes like this occur, then you will be invited back to the platform to create a new proposal based on the updated information.
You can leave FlexMyRent at any time. If you are struggling with payments and need to go back to paying in 12 equal monthly instalments you can either ask that your FlexMyRent account be suspended or deleted, or you can use the platform to generate a proposal with equal monthly instalments. You can talk to your Housing Association at any point about problems you may be experiencing and there is no pressure to remain on FlexMyRent if it isn’t working for you.
Quality of service
We provide our services using reasonable skill and care. If we don’t meet your expectations, please tell us and we’ll work with you to try to resolve the issue.
What we expect from you
Please answer the questions honestly.
Your answers help your Housing Association to identify any support needs that you may have and they can provide assistance to you. For example, they can advise about any benefits you may be missing out on and provide tips about how to cut living expenses. They can also help identify potential grants or affordable sources of credit if you need any essential items.
Please be realistic and ask for help if you need it.
When you generate a payment proposal be as realistic as you can. Think through when the greatest financial pressures are in the year. This could be when the car is due for an MOT, or when you have the children at home for school holidays. Everyone is different. Try to think about how much extra money you might need at these times of year. And then think about the times of the year when it might not be as difficult to find a little bit extra and when you can afford to overpay on your rent account. If, when you are thinking this all through, it appears that you are having to have major financial problems in the year then submit your proposal and we will ask your Housing Association to get in touch, or you can contact them directly.
Help us improve FlexMyRent
We will send you an e-mail at the start of each month advising you of the payment you have agreed to make to your landlord. We will also send you an e-mail at the end of the month to let you know if your payments are on track. On occasion these e-mails will ask you to complete a brief survey, and your answers will help us make sure that FlexMyRent is working for you.
By agreeing to our Terms and Conditions you are providing your consent for your Housing Association to share anonymised information about your rent account for the 12 months prior to you joining the FlexMyRent scheme and for the period that you remain in the scheme. This allows us to evaluate the impact that FlexMyRent is having on rent payments and arrears levels.
From time to time we also work with external research and evaluation partners who are helping us to assess the difference FlexMyRent is making, and to help us improve our service. When we are doing this, we will write to you first and advise you of their details.
We may also share your contact details and how you have been using the scheme with our research and evaluation partners so that they can obtain your feedback. You are under no obligation to participate in these interviews, but if you are contacted by our research partners we would very much appreciate your feedback. We will always write to you directly first and advise which research agency may contact you.
If you choose to give us feedback, such as suggestions to improve our services, we may act on your feedback without incurring any obligation to you.
Finally, we may also share anonymised information with external consultants who are helping us to analyse the impact of the scheme. By agreeing to these terms and conditions you are consenting to your Housing Association also providing the consultants with anonymised information about your previous rent payment history, so they can assess what difference FlexMyRent is making. No personal data is shared during this process. For further information, please see the privacy policy - available from the link at the bottom of our website.
Our Intellectual Property
Although we give you permission to use our services, we retain any intellectual property rights that we have in the services. That means that you can’t download images or text from the platform and use this for your own websites or use it to develop your own products.
About these terms
By law, you may have certain rights that can’t be limited by a contract like these Terms of Service. These terms are in no way intended to restrict those rights.
These terms describe the relationship between you and us. They don’t create any legal rights for other people or organisations, even if others benefit from that relationship under these terms.
If you don’t follow these terms, and we don’t take action right away, that doesn’t mean we’re giving up any rights that we may have, such as taking action in the future.
We may update these terms to reflect changes in our services or how we do business – for example, when we add new services, features, and technologies (or remove old ones); for legal, regulatory or security reasons, or to prevent abuse or harm.
If we materially change these terms we'll provide you with reasonable advance notice and the opportunity to review the changes, except when we launch a new service or feature, or in urgent situations, such as preventing ongoing abuse or responding to legal requirements. If you don't agree to the new terms, you will be told how you can close your FlexMyRent account and how to discuss things with your housing association.
These terms and conditions were last updated on 6th July 2022.