Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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Chapter 7 Conclusions This study was commissioned to rectify certain gaps in knowledge about housing association management of rent arrears, including processes and practices around possession proceedings . Most of the existing research had been conducted before the interventions of good practice guidance, Housing Corporation Circulars and regulation, as well as the Rent Arrears Pre-action Protocol (PAP) . While this research demonstrates that much has changed over the past few years it is not entirely certain that this has resulted directly from these interventions . It is, however, clear that rent arrears management practices are not static and ongoing changes can be expected . One significant shift, a continuation of a trend identified in earlier studies, has been the increasing focus on specialist management of rent arrears within HAs – just 27% of respondents to our survey continued to operate a mainly generic model . Specialist approaches are predominant among the largest HAs . The case studies indicated that centralisation was a process through which managerial interventions could be imposed on housing officers to ensure greater uniformity of practice as well as improved performance . As typically construed by senior managers, this constitutes a “more professional” approach to income collection . 110 Additionally, there has been an increasing focus on the provision of income maximisation and welfare benefits advice to tenants either provided in-house or through direct referrals to other agencies . The case studies also demonstrated that value was seen in this advice being provided as early as possible in the tenancy cycle . One potential issue raised by our survey was the comparative lack of internal training on DSS deductions and mental health awareness, which are key features in the PAP . The service improvements noted above have been complimented by a generally rising trend of performance in the administration of Housing Benefit (HB) . Nevertheless, more than a quarter of responding HAs still found it necessary to initiate legal action against tenants to pressurise local authority HB administration to prioritise casework . The case studies indicated that HB issues also sometimes arose after the claim had been successfully processed, for example as a result of suspensions in its payment or the recovery of overpayments . The other issue particularly raised by the case studies was the need for “culture change” amongst tenants in receipt of HB towards accepting responsibility for their rent account .
The key stakeholders regarded the PAP as an important impetus for changes in rent arrears management activity, and three quarters of HAs responding in the national survey asserted that this had been true for their organisation . Such changes were often said to involve the adoption of more structured, thorough and consistent working practices, as well as an increased emphasis on prevention and a greater sensitivity towards tenant vulnerability . The case study HAs had all responded to the introduction of the PAP, although this was not always an explicit impetus (which might, for example, have arisen as a result of disproportionate rent arrears) . Nevertheless, the process and practices now in place in the case studies facilitated compliance with the PAP as well as enabling that compliance to be demonstrated . A further significant shift has been the increasing focus of HAs on initiating personal contact with tenants in rent arrears at an early stage . This was a particular feature of case study HA practice but was also highlighted in our survey, which indicated that as a rule, housing associations expect rent collection staff to seek personal contact prior to serving a NSP . Backing up this finding, evidence from our case file review of recent eviction cases (see Annex 1) indicated that housing officers had typically contacted the tenant five times about their arrears before serving an NSP and that an average of eight further contacts had been made post-NSP (and before actual repossession) . This is completely at odds with any suggestion that possession proceedings may be entered into or pursued by HAs in a casual way . Also particularly significant is the case file analysis finding that three quarters of the sample of evicted tenants had breached previous repayment agreements – thus making them what housing officers considered to be “serial offenders” . The statistical evidence indicates that rates of eviction for rent arrears fell by around a quarter in the three years to 2007-08 (mirroring the trend for local authority managed housing) . However, there is an unexplained disparity between the rates of eviction in the Midlands, which has the highest rate, and London, which had the lowest rate, in 2007-08 . This disparity could not be explained by our research methods in this project and is, perhaps, counterintuitive and suggests the need for further research targeting this comparison . LSVT landlords have the lowest rates of eviction in the sector; the highest rates are probably found among the smaller HAs with between 250-999 properties . Although the reasons for this statistical fall are likely to be related to a range of factors both directly and indirectly related to rent arrears management, and also HA-specific, the Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 111
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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
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do so early enough, or at all . Cla
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Chapter 4 Rent collection and arrea
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4.3 Housing Benefit service perform
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Table 4.3 - Housing association evi
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As shown in Figure 4 .1, CORE data
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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 and 102: tenant contacts are now recorded on
Page 103 and 104: as a result, would make an order un
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: Ground 8 was said to be used as a
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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Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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