Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

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Chapter 5 – Arrears management in 2009: national overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 5.1 Survey coverage and analytical framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 5.2 Organisation of rent arrears management service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 5.3 Interaction with Housing Benefit services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 5.4 Arrears management practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 5.5 Use of Ground 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5.6 Recent changes in rent arrears management practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Chapter 6 – Case study evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Chapter summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.1 Chapter background and scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 6.2 Case studies: key findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 6.3 Duty advisor interviews: key findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 6.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Chapter 7 – Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Annex 1 – Recent eviction cases: casefile review analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Annex 2 – Case study ha selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Annex 3 – Profile of case study housing associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Annex 4 – Case study topic guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Annex 5 – Pro-forma for casefile analysis – recent eviction cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 2
Executive summary Introduction This report presents findings from a study of housing association (HA) rent arrears management practice commissioned by the (former) Housing Corporation in October 2008 . Commissioning of the study was prompted, in part, by a debate on the legal powers available to HAs which was, itself, prompted by the Parliamentary passage of the Housing and Regeneration Bill during 2008 . Research was also seen to be needed to assess the operational impact of a range of good practice advice issued in recent years and, in particular, the 2006 Rent Arrears Pre-action Protocol (PAP) . As well as a review of existing research, the study involved: • interviews with key national stakeholder organisations • analysis of secondary data • a nationwide online survey of housing associations (response rate: 70%) • detailed case study work focused on a diverse selection of six housing associations • a case file analysis relating to 105 recent eviction cases Literature review As a backdrop to the original research being undertaken within this study, a literature review was undertaken to establish the current state of knowledge on rent arrears management practices together with possession proceedings, and to identify gaps in that knowledge . Earlier studies on rent arrears management drew attention to a steep rise in possession actions seen during the 1990s . For some, this was seen as resulting largely from the promotion of a performance culture within social housing . Previous research on arrears management practice identified a wide range of landlord approaches . Developing use of IT systems has had an impact, for example, through automated, triggered responses . Since the early part of this decade there has been a shift towards a more specialist model of rent collection services . As regards court action, studies have found that roughly one quarter of notices result in a court hearing . Association practice was, not surprisingly, varied – for example, in relation to the level of internal review of each claim . Provision of money advice to tenants in arrears has been found uneven and concerns have been raised about access to advice and information prior to court hearings . Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 3
Page 1 and 2: Rent arrears management practices i
Page 3: Contents Executive summary . . . .
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
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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
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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
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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 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
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