Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector

Within the transfer landlord cohort there is also
some regional contrast, with the incidence of
SLAs being considerably higher in the central
and northern regions (83%) than in London and
the south (62%) . It is possible that this reflects a
tradition of more effective HB administration in the
latter regions – such that associations have not
seen the necessity to establish SLAs .
Whether or not prompted by the PAP, the vast
majority of responding associations (88%) reported
that staff were required to check a tenant’s HB
status before issuing a Notice Seeking Possession .
However, in preparing to issue a claim in court, only
42% routinely sought an HB service certificate to
confirm that no benefit enquiries were outstanding .
The 2004 ODPM 109 research identified HA
frustration with what was seen as “inefficient” HB
services . For some associations pressurising HB
staff to prioritise resolution of a particular claim
could involve initiating legal action against the
tenant (in the belief that this would lead to speed
up the process) . Here, therefore, in instigating
action against a tenant, the association’s main
objective was to send a signal to the local authority .
As shown in Table 5 .8, more than a quarter of
associations indicated that they sometimes initiated
legal action in a bid to speed up the processing
of HB claims . However, this was much more
common among traditional HAs than among
transfer landlords (see Table 5 .8) . It was also much
more common in London than elsewhere . Among
associations regulated from London, 41% reported
that issuing NSPs in these circumstances was an
occasional practice .
109 Pawson, H ., Flint, J ., Scott, S ., Atkinson, R ., Bannister, J ., McKenzie, C . and Mills, C ., (2004), The Use of Possession Actions and Evictions by
Social Landlords, London: ODPM http://www .communities .gov .uk/publications/housing/203568
Rent arrears management practices in the housing association sector 71