Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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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 .
Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background to the research This report presents findings from a study of housing association (HA) rent arrears management practice commissioned by the former Housing Corporation in October 2008 . The research builds on earlier studies focusing on social landlords’ use of possession powers – in particular, the 2003- 04 ODPM research on social landlords use of possession actions (published 2005) 1 and the DCA study on judicial treatment of rent arrears cases undertaken in parallel 2 . The research was triggered by discussions associated with the Parliamentary debate on the 2008 Housing & Regeneration Bill . These focused on HAs’ use of possession powers under Ground 8 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 in relation to Assured Tenancies . As explained in more detail below, the key feature of Ground 8 is that it provides HAs, in certain circumstances, with a mandatory right to recover possession of a tenanted property, as opposed to being subject to the discretion of the court . HA rights to claim possession under Ground 8 continue to be seen as a matter of concern by bodies such as Shelter and Citizens Advice who argue that in possession actions social landlords should in all cases be subject to judicial discretion . There are particular anxieties around the possibility that the use of Ground 8 could result in eviction for tenants whose arrears have arisen entirely as a result of flaws in HB administration . For their part, HAs making use of this power have previously contended that they do so “responsibly” . Importantly, it should be stressed that, while its use may have aroused debate, deployment of Ground 8 is not incompatible with regulatory guidance . The broader context for the study is the ongoing focus on improving performance in the management of social housing while, at the same time, minimising any contribution by social landlords to homelessness via eviction . Part of the wider policy backdrop here is the recent official policy emphasis on the prevention of homelessness, with local authorities under pressure to meet a demanding target of halving the use of temporary accommodation in the five 1 Pawson, H ., Flint, J ., Scott, S ., Atkinson, R ., Bannister, J ., McKenzie, C . & Mills, C . (2005) Possession Actions and Evictions by Social Landlords; London: ODPM http://www .communities .gov .uk/publications/housing/203568 2 Cowan, D .S ., Hitchings, E ., Pantazis, C ., Hunter, C ., Blandy, S . & Nixon, J . (2005) The Exercise of Judicial Discretion in Rent Arrears Cases; London: Department for Constitutional Affairs http://www .dca .gov .uk/research/2005/6_2005 .htm details Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 11
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: overpayments and suspensions were p
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
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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
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Table 5.9 - Estimated percentage of
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elatively high response rate achiev
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The survey sought to collect statis
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Ground 8 actions typically accounte
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How is the scale of Ground 8 use ch
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already routinely exercising the ac
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Chapter 6 Case study evidence Chapt
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Annex 2 outlines our method, includ
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a couple of weeks to three months)
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to officers and policies . Officers
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RM put it, “caused uproar from te
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preferred form of the organisation
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tenant contacts are now recorded on
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as a result, would make an order un
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use - in these cases, it is viewed
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g) The tenant perspective In each c
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Ground 8 was generally to scrutinis
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Ground 8 was said to be used as a
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The key stakeholders regarded the P
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ule it would not be used where HB w
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Table A1.1 - Evicted households by
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uncontactable as a result) . Where
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Just under half of all cases in the
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Annex 2 Case study HA selection Our
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Annex 3 Profile of case study housi
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However, after a review across its
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as developing joint working with th
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Annex 4 Case study topic guides HA
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19. What has been your recent exper
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12. How are your tenants helped wit
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9. If RSLs rely on Ground 8, what i
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4 Tenant employment circumstances (
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10 Value (£) of arrears at defined
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Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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