Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

tenant contacts are now recorded on electronic
case files so that when submitting cases for
court online a list of these contacts can be simply
extracted from the system and pasted into the
application . In HA E, by contrast, the electronic files
made this collection process laborious .
In HA E, a new policy had been introduced under
which ROs and SROs had to complete a proforma
detailing the action they had taken before
beginning court proceedings and had the approval
of an RM . The pro-forma was broadly in line
with the requirements of the PAP . The form was
designed to counterbalance the discretion accorded
to ROs because there had been different levels
of compliance with the PAP and the new culture
of prevention/assisting the tenant . Applications
to court have reduced dramatically (also because
of the introduction of home visits) – one RM said
that the number of court applications in July had
reduced to 12 from 26-30 in the same month
last year . One other reason for the decline may
also be that the documents required to support
the application could not be printed out from one
source and there was a laborious process of going
through a number of different screens to print out
the contents . Other advantages were that it ensured
that ROs were adequately prepared to present
cases and answer questions . However, there were
also downsides . An officer, who recognised that
it was a check on the exercise of discretion, also
said “it takes the initiative away from us” and that
they should be given leeway as they “know the
case” . Although ROs and RMs did not make this
correlation themselves, the introduction of the form
may well have lead to the perception that DJs were
making more realistic orders matching the arrears
level; whereas adjournments had been a pattern,
they were not so any more .
Increasing or decreasing use of
the courts?
Whereas HA E could say that the numbers of court
applications had declined, some others were not so
clear . One possible reason for the lack of clarity is
that perceptions can be affected by different legal
“events”, from initiating proceedings, to the hearing,
to the outcome, as well as suspensions . Where
there had been reductions, perceptions might also
have been affected by the fact that, as in HA A, C
and E, the organisation had just cleared a backlog
of cases which had built up (in HA C’s case, it had
been triggered by the merger with another HA
which introduced a backlog of cases) . Only in HA B
could it be said that court cases and evictions had
increased but this was because it was coming out
of a cycle in which cases had not been managed
properly and the organisation was “catching up” .
Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 99