Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Previous interventions to address rent arrears Across the sample of eviction cases analysed, housing officers typically contacted tenants in arrears five times before serving NSPs, with eight further contacts being made post-NSP (and before actual repossession) . In some cases these numbers excluded “large numbers” of phone calls and texts . The median number of pre-NSP contacts made in cases of eviction actions under Ground 8 was slightly higher at six, with the median number of post-NSP contacts made in such cases being nine . 118 In about three quarters of all cases, previous agreements on arrears repayment had been breached – see Table A1 .6 . In most of the Ground 8 instances not involving breached agreements it was believed that the tenant had abandoned the property or attempts to make contact about rising arrears had otherwise failed to provoke any response . Just over a quarter of cases (26%) had been considered by management panels – the proportion of Ground 8 cases subject to such procedures was similar to that for Ground 10/11 cases . There is no evidence here that taking cases under Ground 8 requires landlords to subject these to special scrutiny . Table A1.6 – Existence of earlier arrears repayment agreements Earlier arrears repayment agreement reached? Ground 8 Ground 10/11 All No 14 11 25 Yes – breached 38 41 79 Yes - not breached 0 0 0 Not known 0 1 1 Total (N) 52 53 105
Just under half of all cases in the dataset (49%) involved tenants who had been subject to previous court hearings for possession . This was somewhat lower among Ground 8 cases at 40% . Initiating intervention Across the sample, as a whole, the average arrears level at the point when NSPs were served was £907 . It is interesting to relate this to the reported practice of RSLs in usually initiating legal action at an arrears level equivalent to six weeks rent . Given that RSL rents averaged £70 per week in 2008 (CLG Housing Statistics 2008), this would imply Table A1.7 – Tenants subject to eviction: average arrears levels and period arrears present a threshold of £420 (although, given the typically higher rents in London, the implied threshold here might be more in the region of £500) . Among those eventually subject to eviction and included in our sample, however, only eight out of 105 were reported as having arrears below £420 when the NSP was served . In fact, a quarter of all cases were initiated at an arrears level of over £1,000 . It seems possible that such instances may have involved large amounts of debt suddenly appearing on accounts due to HB overpayment recoveries . Alternatively, HA staff do not, in practice, always hold to stated policy here . Average arrears level (£) Average no. of months arrears present… When NSP served On date of Hearing …when NSP served …on date of Hearing Ground 8 cases 1,003 2,027 5 .4 14 .6 Ground 10/11 cases 814 1,778 11 .9 24 .6 Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 119
Page 1 and 2:
Rent arrears management practices i
Page 3 and 4:
Contents Executive summary . . . .
Page 5 and 6:
Executive summary Introduction This
Page 7 and 8:
Key underlying factors were said to
Page 9 and 10:
could, in part, reflect the growing
Page 11 and 12:
overpayments and suspensions were p
Page 13 and 14:
Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Backgrou
Page 15 and 16:
arrears management and related aspe
Page 17 and 18:
“… there may occasionally be ci
Page 19 and 20:
under Article 8 of the Convention,
Page 21 and 22:
y HAs . 37 The Circular informed as
Page 23 and 24:
Pre-action protocol for possession
Page 25 and 26:
The purpose of these interviews was
Page 27 and 28:
Table 1.1 - Case Study HAs Organisa
Page 29 and 30:
Chapter 2 Rent arrears management p
Page 31 and 32:
Pawson et al’s study found that 9
Page 33 and 34:
2.3 Rent arrears management practic
Page 35 and 36:
this with any certainty . 69 Howeve
Page 37 and 38:
authority can also lead to a lack o
Page 39 and 40:
2.5 The use of Ground 8 Although th
Page 41 and 42:
In the Hunter et al study, 97 which
Page 43 and 44:
some comment on the effect of the P
Page 45 and 46:
• Ground 8 provided certainty to
Page 47 and 48:
There was a difference of opinion a
Page 49 and 50:
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 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 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: uncontactable as a result) . Where
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
show all

Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?