Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Table 5.1 – Primary structure of arrears management service –
breakdown by HA status
Transfer Non-transfer All HAs
Generic No . 27 34 61
% 22 .1% 33 .3% 27 .2%
Specialist No . 76 55 131
% 62 .3% 53 .9% 58 .5%
Combination No . 18 12 30
% 14 .8% 11 .8% 13 .4%
Other No . 1 1 2
% 0 .8% 1 .0% 0 .9%
Total No . 122 102 224
% 100 .0% 100 .0% 100 .0%
Source: Online survey
Some 27% of associations operated a “mainly
generic” approach to arrears management (see
Table 5 .1) . This usually included housing officer
presentation of cases in court . However, almost
a quarter of respondents who described their
organisation’s model as “mainly generic” reported
that cases were presented in court by a specialist
“court officer”, a senior manager or a housing officer
alongside legal representatives . One association
reporting a “mainly generic” model noted that cases
were presented in court by arrears management
64
staff members “except in Birmingham courts where
they won’t allow right of representation to us” .
In the general move towards “specialist”
approaches, associations could be seen as reinstituting
the historic local authority model
where income management and arrears control
was a Finance Department responsibility –
organisationally separate from other aspects of
tenancy and estate management . As it has recently
been implemented, the “specialist” model has been
justified partly on the basis that arrears control