Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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The motif of the changes has been to establish personal continuity of contact between a revenue officer and the tenant as opposed to a formal process of arrears management . This has been affected by: • Moving arrears management from the Credit Control Team to the Operations Directorate • Establishing that one frontline RO officer will have contact with each tenant from the beginning of a tenancy through to eviction, should the situation arise – described as a “nought to court” approach • Probationary tenancies have been introduced to emphasise the importance of paying the rent from the outset • Cross-training between ROs after the role-change • Establishing links between housing officers and ROs since January 2009 The expansion of the RO role has also been part of a wider emphasis on knowledge sharing throughout HA D . For example, there is increasing integration with neighbourhood services, so that neighbourhood wardens are encouraged to visit tenants in arrears and report back with problems that they uncover . The closer relationship with housing officers facilitates 126 greater awareness of other issues which may give rise to rent arrears (such as domestic violence and relationship breakdown) . An in-house call centre also assists with tracking rent arrears when tenants telephone for some reason, such as a repair problem, and their arrears are automatically flagged . The emphasis on knowledge sharing also met a desire of senior management to increase the “intelligence” that HA D has of its tenants: “you have to create ways for, for capturing it [intelligence] both formal and informal” . HA E HA E works across most of the London Boroughs, and is an established HA with a long history . That lengthy history still affects some of its practices (such as service of notices on front doors of its properties) and culture change is an ongoing process . There was a shift from generic estate housing management to centralisation of services in 2005 together with the introduction of an in-house call centre for generic issues . After a restructuring within the past three years, there are now two teams of Revenue Officers (“ROs”) . ROs solely manage rent collection on patches and are set targets for rent arrears on their patch . ROs are also set projects in pairs, such
as developing joint working with the lettings team to facilitate prevention of rent arrears from the outset . ROs were described as “DIY court officers” because they also present their cases at court . They have targets of a 90% success rate for court cases . A specific RO was recruited to deal with arrears in the sheltered housing stock (which were felt to be unusually high) and HB overpayments (which were unusually complex) . Each team has a Senior (“SRO”), who manages complex cases and the more difficult patches . Each team is also headed by a Revenue Manager (“RM”), who is also responsible for policy development . Most of the senior management post-date the restructuring . There is also a third, newer team of Welfare Benefits Advisors, who are responsible for income maximisation of tenants . They have a service standard of meeting with tenants within two weeks of the commencement of a tenancy . The restructuring was caused primarily by a recognition that the organisation was underperforming against benchmark HAs on rent arrears management, a fact which was brought into focus during preparation for an Audit Commission inspection . The culture of HA E had been to accept tenant’s reasons for rent arrears and to allow arrears to accrue without court action because of its charitable objectives . This lead to some tenants building up significant arrears . Even after successful court action, many tenants would not be evicted . As the new approach has matured, there has been a changed focus towards early intervention, support and sustainability . ROs now have a target of making ten home visits per month, a policy, which was greeted with a little disquiet apparently, but is now warmly accepted . The label attached to the policy has also changed from rent arrears to rent collection . HA F HA F is an organisation within an HA group structure, operating across London and the south east . Rent arrears management is framed by a policy document, which states that the association aims to, “promote a rent payment culture, encouraging early payment and preventing customers falling into arrears” . It also sets out the objective to “engage with customers quickly and sympathetically where arrears do arise and tackle the causes of the arrears” . These aims are operationalised in rent arrears policies, which have become increasingly standardised practices . Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 127
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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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were collected for landlords with l
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Most associations report initiating
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5.2 Organisation of rent arrears ma
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Table 5.2 - Primary structure of ar
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Table 5.3 - Recent changes in organ
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Table 5.6 - Staff training provisio
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Within the transfer landlord cohort
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• 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 and 124: Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
Page 125 and 126: Annex 3 Profile of case study housi
Page 127: However, after a review across its
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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