Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

More documents

Recommendations

Info

one HA was a high user (HA D); one issued a large number of claims on the basis of Ground 8, but made few actual evictions on this Ground (HA E); and one was a non-user of Ground 8 but had indicated in the questionnaire return that it was considering its introduction into their policy (HA F) . Diversity of HA The criteria discussed above have foreshadowed this point to an extent . The transfer/non-transfer criterion mentioned above was reflected to some extent by the inclusion of HA D, although this was an unusual form of transfer landlord . Other case study HAs had taken over stock formerly managed by local authorities, although not a stock transfer landlord per se (eg HA E) . 122 Organisational factors These factors were related to two elements – audited performance of RSLs (ie a mix of high/ low performers and improvers) because this could be beneficial in that our work could build on an existing body of well-evidenced research findings; as well as the organisation of rent arrears management .
Annex 3 Profile of case study housing associations HA A HA A is an area office of a nationally operating HA that owns or manages more than 60,000 properties . Increasingly, company wide procedures are being introduced for housing management activities, including a structure for rent arrears management . The motivation for this change in rent arrears management was to develop more consistent, more professionalised practice across the organisation in an attempt to manage down both arrears and evictions . At the same time, it was believed that, in developing an effective Former Tenant Arrears collection system, the service could be marketed to other HAs . Local Account Managers (“LAMs”) are based in area offices, responsible for individual patches of the territory administered by the area office . LAMs are wholly responsible for monitoring rent accounts and managing arrears from the point of commencement of tenancy . This company-wide policy was a shift from the previous discretion accorded to area offices as to organisation . LAMs are co-located with housing management staff in Area Offices and find this beneficial in sharing information with colleagues responsible for response repairs and estate management . LAMs are line managed by account managers who work from two central offices . LAMs work closely with Centre-based staff, with LAMs’ primary role being to make home visits to tenants in arrears – especially those who Centre-based staff find to be un-contactable by phone . LAMs also liaise with local HB staff and present cases in court . They work “non-standard” hours – including evenings and Saturday mornings – in a bid to improve their “strike rate” in making direct contact with tenants in arrears . This out of hours working is compensated by flexible working rather than higher pay . HA B HA B is a sub-regional HA operating across 14 local authority areas . HA B operated from three area offices until 2008, when two area offices were closed down as part of a restructuring of the organisation . There is now one central directorate and two rent collection teams . The management of rent arrears gradually switched from generic to specialist in 2006 as different area offices changed their practice . As part of the restructuring, rent arrears management became a specialist role held by Income Officers (“IOs”) . They only become involved with tenants when rent arrears arise . The Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 123
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 and 120: uncontactable as a result) . Where
Page 121 and 122: Just under half of all cases in the
Page 123: Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
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?