Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

evidence whether the existence of “high arrears”
is, in itself, a critical factor .
Duty advisors, who represent occupiers in court
proceedings, perceived a growing use of Ground 8
in courts used by the three north case study HAs
(A-C) and the unwillingness of some HAs and some
of their officers to negotiate before the hearing . All
advisors appreciated that District Judges were more
inclined to side with the tenant, but believed that
presenting housing officers were adversely affected
by their lack of knowledge of law and procedure .
There were also concerns that HAs were paying
lip service to the PAP and were not making early
enough interventions .
As to impacts of the post-2008 recession,
the case study research found that rising
unemployment was already leading to growing
dependency on Housing Benefit in some areas .
However, while the timing of the fieldwork (May-
June 2009) needs to be borne in mind, there was
no strong perception of any recent upward trend
in arrears or possession activity, which could be
attributable to the deteriorating economic situation .
10
Conclusions
This study makes two major contributions, which
should facilitate more informed policy discussion .
First, it provides evidence of incremental changes in
the management of rent arrears over the past few
years and the evidence about the contextual factors,
which back up those changes . Those contextual
factors may well be policy interventions but other
internal factors are likely to be equally important
(such as responding to perceived problems in rent
arrears management) .
Second, it draws together evidence about the
relative use of different grounds for possession
across the sector . In particular, for the first time, it
demonstrates the use of Ground 8 across the sector,
the geography of its use (for example, London has
twice the national average), the reasons for its use
(and factors rarely considered prior to its deployment,
such as Human Rights Act considerations), and the
possible perverse incentive of the PAP . Case study
HAs which used Ground 8 also tended to see their
ability to employ this power as useful rather than
essential . While any removal of the power might
result in a slightly higher exposure to rent arrears it
was not believed that the effect would be substantial .