Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Enquiries by the Audit Commission found that HAs
most commonly sought possession either as a
precautionary measure when the outcomes of HB
claims were unclear or as a form of inducement for
tenants seen as persistent defaulters who would not
otherwise pay . 65 Research elsewhere has also found
resort to the courts for similar reasons, essentially
using NSPs and, in some cases, subsequent court
action prematurely as an arrears management
device, sometimes as a means to encourage HB
departments to expedite claims . 66 However, it was
found in one study that, in the majority of cases
when HB was an issue, the resulting action of the
court was an adjournment . 67 The use of the courts
is discussed further below .
There have been some organisational changes
to the management of arrears in recent years .
Research has shown that there has been a
tendency for associations to move away from
a system of housing management based
around generic housing officers with general
responsibilities (including rent collection and
arrears management) for their patches . Instead,
65 Audit Commission (2003), op cit .
66 Killeen, A . (2005), op cit; Pawson et al (2004), op cit; Phelps, L . and Carter, M . (2003), op cit .
32
the trend (particularly among larger associations)
has been to move the responsibility for arrears
management to specialist departments,
sometimes staffed by officers with a
background in credit control rather than housing
management . 68 Practice was found to vary in
relation to the point at which specialist staff
becomes involved .
The thinking behind the move towards a more
functionally specialised approach is that arrears
control is an activity which may be de-prioritised
by “generic” staff whose wide ranging housing
management remit entails some discretion as
to the tasks on which to focus . Acting to preempt
and manage rent debt may be viewed
as a relatively “humdrum” pursuit and one (in
contrast to ordering repairs or addressing
antisocial behaviour) unlikely to feature among
top priorities for tenants . Admittedly, however,
hard evidence on this is lacking . Pawson et al
found some indications that generic housing
officers might tend towards leniency over arrears,
but data were too sparse to be able to establish
67 Hunter, C ., Blandy, S ., Cowan, D ., Nixon, J ., Hitchings, E ., Pantazis, C . and Parr, S . (2005), The Exercise of Judicial Discretion in Rent Arrears
Cases, DCA Research Series 6/05, London; DCA .
68 Pawson et al, (2005), op cit;