Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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So, for example, in HA A, while evictions have been reducing, the incidence of legal action initiated has risen sharply in recent years . Perceptions of some LAM interviewees were inconsistent with this . Two of the three officers concerned reported that legal action is now being used less frequently than in the past because earlier intervention was enabling emerging problems to be addressed before the necessity to serve a notice or initiate proceedings . However, a third LAM interviewee felt that court action was now being more commonly initiated (if not carried through to eviction) – mainly because of the availability of the PCol system, which enables HAs (and others) to issue possession claims online and thus more efficiently . In HA D, views on the incidence of court action were also conflicting, perhaps indicating more about the attitudes of interviewees than the “real” situation . For instance, one RO felt that court actions were increasing, but that evictions were declining, partly as a result of the economic situation making DJs more reluctant to evict tenants . Another participant thought that court actions were increasing, but this time due to the “nought to court” role of ROs making them more likely to take their “own” cases to court, compared to when specialist court officers were used . However, another (more experienced) RO thought that court actions were declining, 100 possibly due to staff who were new to the role being reluctant to bring cases . This RO also thought that there had been a change in the nature of tenants, with more LA nominations meaning more vulnerable tenants for whom eviction would be an inappropriate course of action . Court officer perceptions of District Judges (‘DJs’) Unsurprisingly, given the findings of other research, our participants talked about the variability of DJ decision-making, although this was usually between different courts (as opposed to different DJs) . Some courts were said to be “tenant friendly”, some were said to be formalistic . In the northern case studies, very different relationships were said to exist between the officers and the courts in the region . The northern case study HAs (HA A-C) were particularly chosen because they were situated around a particular court and this might affect local practice . If we control for use of that particular court, the perceptions of HA A-C were generally of heterogeneity between different DJs, although most were said to be “tenant-friendly” . HA A described one particular DJ at the court who was locally renowned as particularly reluctant to grant possession orders in any circumstances . HA B described it as a court which trusted the organisation not to bring a case unless it had to, and,
as a result, would make an order under Ground 8 because the HA had exhausted all other possibilities (a view shared by HA C, HA A remarking that they have not had “any problem” using Ground 8) . However, the Court was also thorough in checking the application and would always adjourn cases if the tenant mentioned outstanding HB issues . HA C described the court as being more tuned in to the requirements of the PAP than smaller courts . In pursuing legal action for rent arrears none of these case studies employed different tactics when faced with different approaches by different courts or individual judges . As regards applications to suspend warrants for possession, DJs were said to be more willing to do so on the first occasion but progressively less understanding to tenants . More generally, it was said that the economic climate might have impacted on DJs’ willingness to made outright orders for possession . In particular, stays or suspensions of warrants of possession had been affected by this alteration, with few DJs said to be willing to refuse such an application by a tenant . In HA F, it was said that, faced with a tenant friendly attitude by the courts, court action was pointless (HA F/ISTL) . Some manager research participants noted that officers should be more willing to challenge DJs when they made a decision that was plainly wrong . f) The use of Ground 8 Despite a recognition that DJs tend to dislike the use of Ground 8, all case study HAs, except HA F (which was considering its introduction and using the research as a tool in this process), used it . They used it to varying degrees and for different purposes, and approved written policies were framed differently . Most policies were framed so that its use was a last resort, but there were different ways of conceptualising when this arose . In HA A, corporate policy encourages the use of Ground 8 “where appropriate” . This is taken to refer to those cases where, despite deployment of a range of methods, a tenant has failed to make any positive response (or where previous agreements to repay have been breached) . If, for these reasons, staff sees no prospect of the tenant beginning to repay arrears to save their tenancy, Ground 8 may be used to bring the tenancy to an end as quickly as possible . The local Neighbourhood Manager must also approve the use of Ground 8 . A fairly common scenario is abandonment; equally, it is used with tenants regarded as untrustworthy who know how to “play the system” . The Group policy document makes clear that orders will rarely be requested on Ground 8: “We use Ground 8 more as a threat than a promise – it’s a tool for getting people to pay when they’ve been to court before and defaulted Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 101
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Rent arrears management practices i
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Contents Executive summary . . . .
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Executive summary Introduction This
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Key underlying factors were said to
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could, in part, reflect the growing
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overpayments and suspensions were p
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Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Backgrou
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arrears management and related aspe
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“… there may occasionally be ci
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under Article 8 of the Convention,
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y HAs . 37 The Circular informed as
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Pre-action protocol for possession
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The purpose of these interviews was
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Table 1.1 - Case Study HAs Organisa
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Chapter 2 Rent arrears management p
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Pawson et al’s study found that 9
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2.3 Rent arrears management practic
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this with any certainty . 69 Howeve
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authority can also lead to a lack o
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2.5 The use of Ground 8 Although th
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In the Hunter et al study, 97 which
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some comment on the effect of the P
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• Ground 8 provided certainty to
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There was a difference of opinion a
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3.3 The use of Ground 8 Whereas ans
Page 51 and 52: do so early enough, or at all . Cla
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 4 Rent collection and arrea
Page 55 and 56: 4.3 Housing Benefit service perform
Page 57 and 58: Table 4.3 - Housing association evi
Page 59 and 60: As shown in Figure 4 .1, CORE data
Page 61 and 62: were collected for landlords with l
Page 63 and 64: Most associations report initiating
Page 65 and 66: 5.2 Organisation of rent arrears ma
Page 67 and 68: Table 5.2 - Primary structure of ar
Page 69 and 70: Table 5.3 - Recent changes in organ
Page 71 and 72: Table 5.6 - Staff training provisio
Page 73 and 74: Within the transfer landlord cohort
Page 75 and 76: • Where arrears were accrued befo
Page 77 and 78: Table 5.9 - Estimated percentage of
Page 79 and 80: elatively high response rate achiev
Page 81 and 82: The survey sought to collect statis
Page 83 and 84: Ground 8 actions typically accounte
Page 85 and 86: How is the scale of Ground 8 use ch
Page 87 and 88: already routinely exercising the ac
Page 89 and 90: Chapter 6 Case study evidence Chapt
Page 91 and 92: Annex 2 outlines our method, includ
Page 93 and 94: a couple of weeks to three months)
Page 95 and 96: to officers and policies . Officers
Page 97 and 98: RM put it, “caused uproar from te
Page 99 and 100: preferred form of the organisation
Page 101: tenant contacts are now recorded on
Page 105 and 106: use - in these cases, it is viewed
Page 107 and 108: g) The tenant perspective In each c
Page 109 and 110: Ground 8 was generally to scrutinis
Page 111 and 112: Ground 8 was said to be used as a
Page 113 and 114: The key stakeholders regarded the P
Page 115 and 116: ule it would not be used where HB w
Page 117 and 118: Table A1.1 - Evicted households by
Page 119 and 120: uncontactable as a result) . Where
Page 121 and 122: Just under half of all cases in the
Page 123 and 124: Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
Page 125 and 126: Annex 3 Profile of case study housi
Page 127 and 128: However, after a review across its
Page 129 and 130: as developing joint working with th
Page 131 and 132: Annex 4 Case study topic guides HA
Page 133 and 134: 19. What has been your recent exper
Page 135 and 136: 12. How are your tenants helped wit
Page 137 and 138: 9. If RSLs rely on Ground 8, what i
Page 139 and 140: 4 Tenant employment circumstances (
Page 141 and 142: 10 Value (£) of arrears at defined
Page 143 and 144: Our offices Maple House 149 Tottenh
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