Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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must show not just that the ground is proved but also that it would be reasonable to grant possession in such cases . In deciding on reasonableness, the court is entitled to look to all relevant factors, 9 such as issues with HB, the length of the tenancy, the behaviour of the tenant, the ability of the tenant to meet the rental obligation and the arrears of rent involved . Indeed, the 1988 Act gives the courts extended discretion in such cases to stay or suspend execution of the order or to postpone the date for possession . 10 In such circumstances, the court can impose terms on the payment of the rent and arrears . 11 That discretion and those other considerations do not apply to the mandatory Grounds for possession, including Ground 8 . 12 Ground 8 is satisfied where, both at the date of service of the notice seeking possession and at 9 Cresswell v Hodgson [1951] 2 K .B . 92 . 10 S 9(1) . 11 S 9(2) . 12 S 9(6) . 14 the date of the hearing at least eight weeks’ rent is unpaid . 13 Ground 10 is broader and requires that some rent lawfully due from the tenant is unpaid at the date on which the proceedings for possession are begun . Ground 11 concerns persistent delay in the payment of rent lawfully due (even where there are no arrears at the date on which the possession proceedings have begun) . If the HA seeks possession on Ground 8, the Court of Appeal held in North British HA v Matthews that a claim may be adjourned if, in the proper management of the court list, this would be appropriate . 14 The only other circumstances in which such a claim should be adjourned are where there is a possible defence (such as a defence based on ordinary principles of judicial review, or where the defendant has paid a cheque which has yet to clear) . 15 Where there are extreme cases, an adjournment might be justified: 13 Or, if rent is payable monthly, at least two months’ rent is unpaid; or if rent is payable quarterly, at least one quarter’s rent is more than three months in arrears; or if rent is payable yearly, at least three months’ rent is more than three months in arrears . 14 [2005] 1 WLR 3133 . 15 Id, [11]-[13] .
“… there may occasionally be circumstances where the refusal of an adjournment would be considered to be outrageously unjust by any fair-minded person . We hold that the power to adjourn a hearing date for the purpose of enabling a tenant to reduce the arrears to below the Ground 8 threshold may only be exercised in exceptional circumstances . … But the fact that the arrears are attributable to maladministration on the part of the housing benefit authority is not an exceptional circumstance . It is a sad feature of contemporary life that housing benefit problems are widespread . To a substantial extent, these are no doubt the product of lack of resources . But we do not consider that the nonreceipt of housing benefit can, of itself, amount to exceptional circumstances which would justify the exercise of the power to adjourn so as to enable the tenant to defeat the claim .” 16 The examples of such exceptional cases include where the tenant was mugged on the way to court and had money stolen, or a computer failure prevented the HB authority making the relevant payment . 17 However, as already explained, the court 16 Id [32] . 17 Id [31] . 18 Id . 19 For discussion, see http://nearlylegal .co .uk/blog/?s=midland+heart held that the failure by a HB authority to make a payment is not such an exceptional circumstance and it would not be appropriate to adjourn the matter in such circumstances . 18 Thus, a trial judge is, in theory, left with little room to manoeuvre . One further emerging issue about the use of Ground 8 has arisen in the context of shared ownership claims for possession where the HA seeks to end the assured tenancy element by claiming possession for non-payment of rent . In Richardson v Midland Heart, heard in the Birmingham County Court in November 2007, the Court found that the long lease was an assured tenancy, Ground 8 was proved, and terminated Ms Richardson’s possession . At the time of writing the case is on appeal to the Court of Appeal . 19 Human Rights Act considerations It has been established that there are two interrelated “gateways” of challenge to mandatory possession orders, referred to as Gateway (a) and Gateway (b) . Gateway (a) arises where there Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 15
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: arrears management and related aspe
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
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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
Page 109 and 110:
Ground 8 was generally to scrutinis
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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
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uncontactable as a result) . Where
Page 121 and 122:
Just under half of all cases in the
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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
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19. What has been your recent exper
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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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