/ RENT COLLECTION AND
ARREARS RECOVERY POLICY
FOR RENT OFFICERS
REVISED January 2010
Susan Crawshaw/Debra Dalton

CONTENTS

SUBJECT / PAGE
Section 1 – Context:
  • Introduction
  • Main objectives
  • Approach
  • Tenancy profile
  • Business context
  • Financial inclusion
  • Continuous development
  • Case management
/ 2
2
2
3
3
4
5
5
Section 2 – Operational action and responsibilities:
  • Rent team – general introduction
  • Rent team – key roles and responsibilities
  • Early intervention
  • Rehousing team role
  • Local Services Team role
/ 6
6
8
8
8
Section 3 – Management of the arrears function:
  • Performance management
  • Performance targets
  • Performance review
  • Performance reporting
  • Team development
  • IT reporting
  • Learning from best practice
  • Additional procedures
/ 9
9
10
10
10
11
11
11
Appendices:
  • Flowcharts for rent recovery process – Appendices 1-9
  • Pre-court protocol – Appendix 10
  • Northwards affordability matrix – Appendix 11
  • Offer letter – Appendix 12
  • Magnificent 7 – Appendix 13
  • Rent section of the lettings procedure – Appendix 14
/ 12–33
34– 37
38– 43
44 – 45
46 – 48
49 - 50

SECTION 1: CONTEXT

1. 0 Introduction

This manual details the policies and procedures adopted by Northwards Housing to undertake its responsibilities for the management of the rent and arrears collection service on behalf of Manchester City Council.

It has been devised with regard to best practice and income maximisation and supports Northwards Corporate policies.

1.1Main Objectives

The main objectives of the Rent Service are to:

  • Ensure a professional, consistent and timely approach to arrears management.
  • Provide timely, accurate and upto date information to enable tenants to manage their rent accounts.
  • To prevent arrears and to provide support and assistance to tenants. This may include a referral to our own Money Advice Service or a referral or sign posting to another organisation.
  • To support community stability, by trying to sustain tenancies. This is done by working closely with Northwards Neighbourhood Support Officers and in partnership with other agencies.
  • To constantly look at ways in which we can improve all aspects our service, including communication.
  • To collect the maximum amount of rental income due from tenants.
  • To adopt effective working practices and polices to achieve value for money.
  • Ensure that all legal statutory requirements are met.

1.2Approach

Northwards Housing believe that early intervention in the recovery of arrears is key to developing effective rent recovery processes and fostering an early and positive relationship with residents.

We have adopted the following approach to ensure delivery of our main objectives:

  • Working with residents to prevent arrears from accruing;
  • Stressing to tenants from the let stage that a regular payment pattern must be established;
  • Ensuring that our tenants are kept fully updated on topics such as Housing Benefits and Money Advice.
  • Providing a regular focus on rent through articles in Northwards Natter and useful informationsheetswith the quarterly rent statements;
  • Providing accessible services to residents by offering nine different ways to pay and working outside regular office hours;
  • Offering value for money by actively promoting payment methods that cost us less to process, particularly bank standing order payments.

1.3Tenancy profile.

Manchesteris the 4thmost deprived authority area in the country. There are high indices of low income, literacy and educational achievement. (Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2007).

In addition, Northwards has an ethnically and culturally diverse population with BME tenants comprising11% of the total number.

In addition, 27% of Northwards tenants have declared a disability.

The Rent Team aims to ensure all tenants receive a fair and equal access to the rents service and that it meets their individual needs. This is achieved by:

  • Carrying out home visits to complete housing benefit forms to assist tenants who have disabilities. The Rent Officers are also mindful of identifying possible disability living allowance claims and make referrals to our Money Advisor.
  • Access to the Big Word which operates a telephone translation service to residents whose first language is not English.
  • Providing information in different formats to meet tenant’s communication needs.

1.4Business Context

Northwards manages 12,500 properties on behalf of Manchester City Council. The annual rent debit for 2009/10 exceeds £39 million.

Rent is collected over 50 weeks per year.Northwards only collect current tenants rent arrears as Manchester City Council have retained the collection of former tenants’ arrears.

As approximately 67% of rent income is derived from housing benefit,Northwards’ relationship with the Revenues and Benefits Service (RBS) is vital to ensure our continuous revenue stream. To assist with this Northwards and RBS hold quarterly operational review meetings and Northwards also attends quarterly liaison meetings with RBS and other Registered Social Landlords. Rent Officers are encouraged to raise policy and procedural issues.

To help with the quicker resolution of Housing Benefit claims, Northwards also works closely with RBS and provides a weekly list of “move on” cases that either require assessment or further clarification on outstanding issues. Northwards also has access to RBS Operational Managers for emergency legal cases. Northwards benefits from policy training for Rent Officers offered by RBS, for example Discretionary Housing Payments, Validation and One Step Claim training.

Joint promotional work is also completed, including the Benefits Bus and articles in Northwards Natter.

1.5 Financial Inclusion.

Northwards aim is to help minimise the effects of rent and arrears collection for those on a low income. This means agreeing affordable repayment plans and where appropriate, offering budgeting advice. Where tenants are found to have debt problems, access to the Northwards Money Advice Service is offered as early as possible. It is also essential to offer sound benefits advice in order to maximise income.

Northwards Housing works closely with the Manchester Credit Union (MCU). This includes MCU operating weekly cash point service sessions from each of the three Local Services Offices. Northwards also actively promotes MCU within Northwards Natter and other promotional material. Northwards gives £20 MCU vouchers to all winners of the Northwards Xtradraw (the tenant incentive scheme) to encourage tenants to open savings accounts with MCU.

Northwards Housinginconjunction with Manchester City Councilhas adopted a Corporate Debt Policy (CDP). The CDP’s main objective is to resolve cases where more than one Council Department is recovering a debt from an individual. The CDP aims to reduce conflict and apportion available income equally between the priority creditors, i.e. rent and council tax. Whilst this option can be utilised, there are also several other options available to tenants with multiple debts; these include repayment agreements,Debt Relief Orders and Bankruptcy.

Cases considered for CDP referral are those where a tenant is in rent arrears of £200 or more and has other council debts. Other debts could include Council Tax and/or Housing Benefit overpayments.CDP referrals are made by the Rents Team or the Money Advice Service.

Northwards also operates a Money Advice Service which is a free and confidential service offered to Northwards tenants who have debt worries. The Money Advisor carries out full welfare benefit entitlement checks with all tenants who use the service helping tenants in reducing expenditure, prioritising debts and completing budgets.When Rent Officers completehousing benefit calculations, this also gives information for maximising income e.g. tax credit entitlements. In terms of money skills, Rent Officers refer to our own in house Money Matter workshops and also to other external agencies such as Cheetham Advice workshops.

Rent Officers sensitively ask tenants if they have any debts during the majority of their phone/face to face interviews.Members of theRents Team have access to book Money Advice appointments, with waiting times usually two weeks at the most. Tenants can also be signposted to the Money Advice Drop In surgeries.

Generally, tenants who have rent arrears usually have council tax arrears. The Money Advisor has good links with the Council Tax Team. As good practice Northwards Money Advisor /Rent Manager can request that debts are returned from a bailiff back to the Council.

1.6Continuous Development

It is our objective to continually improve rent collection rates year on year and to achieve top quartile performance by 2010/11. We aim to deliver this by:

  • Having a well trained motivated and enthusiastic team.
  • Promotion of the Rents Team service provision throughout the organisation and to all our tenants.
  • Promotion of a strong payment culture.
  • Have effective Managers who are pro active in terms of areas of weakness and praise/reward good performance.
  • Learn from best practice and be innovative.
  • Have challenging targets and have robust procedures and performance management processes.
  • Benchmark ourselves againstothersimilar organisations and learn from their best practice.
  • Work with Tenants Forums to promote our service, to understand their needs and feedback of the Rents Service.
  • Ensure strong partnership working agreements with other Northwards sections and externalworking partners.

1.7Case Management

Flowcharts for the day to day management of rent arrears cases have been developed for all stages of rent collection. The flowcharts and notes are attached (Appendices 1 to 9) and specify the processes that should be followed.

Generally the approach is for standard affordable supplements as follows:

  • £3.25 - full benefit cases
  • £5.00 - partial housing benefit cases
  • £15.00 - full amount due weekly cases

Generally, the approach to legal action is as follows:

  • Notice of Intention of Seeking Possession (Nisps) -served if rent arrears are4 times the amount due weekly and over £100.
  • Notice to Terminate (NTT) - served if rent arrears are 5 times the amount due weekly.
  • Court- requested if the arrears are arrears generally in the region of £500.
  • Eviction- requested if the arrears are arrears generally in the region of £1000.

However in conjunction with the above, the pre-court protocol (Appendix 10), and Northwards collection procedure/policy and payment patterns must be considered. It is therefore accepted that not all cases will conform to the values listedabove.

SECTION2: OPERATIONAL ACTION AND RESPONSIBILITIES

2.1 TheRent Team – an introduction

The Team comprises of the Rent Manager, 3Deputy Rent Managers, 10 Rent Officers, 4 Assistant Rent Officers, 1 Rent Support Officer and 1 Money Advisor.

All Rent Team casework is grouped geographically within our 3 Local Service areas – Cheetham Hill, Monsall Street and White Moss. In addition, the team also manage rent collection and arrears recovery for both Shout and Avro Hollows Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs).

The team is responsible for managing the rent accounts for approximately 4500 tenancies each week. On average this will include around 400/450 active arrears cases at any one time.

The Rent Team are supported by Northwards Customer Service Centre who assist by taking rent payments, ordering rent cards and dealing with cases where arrears are less than £100.

2.2 Rent Team – Key roles and responsibilities

Rental income will be maximised by a consistent application of all processes, including early intervention

The Rent Manager - Overseesthework of the whole team.

  • Reviews all performance, sets collection targets and goals and authorises Introductory Court requests.
  • Develops and delivers on strategy and improvement plans.
  • Identifies areas of weakness and ensures additional actions in place to improve performance.
  • Builds on existing relationships with partners. Fosters new links with other agencies.

The Deputy Rent Managers - Directly manage rent collection for one of the three Local Service areas.

  • Oversee the collection performance and the management of arrears in their area.
  • Authorises legal action for NTTs, court and eviction requests.
  • Check NISPS on a weekly basis to ensure that they have been requested in accordance with the procedures.
  • Authorise NTTs as and when required. Ensuring checks of tenancy agreement and procedure guidance are carried out.
  • Reviews performance for their team and provide feedback and support.Completes monitoring of cases actioned – including reviews of priority cases.Be accountable for the rent collection performance of their team.

The Rent Officers - Action/monitor cases on their patch.

  • Support tenants who are experiencing difficulties; take prompt action against those who fail to engage with the Rents Team to resolve arrears issues or fail to adhere to agreed repayment plans.
  • Review arrears accounts in a consistent and timely manner in accordance with this manual and the flowcharts.
  • Meet targets for rent collection and update the performance management system - Covalent.
  • Ensure that tenants receive all the support that they need to assist in sustaining the tenancy. Establish the reason for the rent arrears and offer advice and assistance, for example an appointment with Northwards Money Advisor.Check for any vulnerability before taking court or eviction action.Ensure appropriate referrals are made to Social Services and Money Advice Service.
  • Inform Deputy Manager if a case does not comply with the flowcharts due to vulnerability, or refer any case that they cannot resolve themselves.Promptly act upon and learn from feedback given by Managers.
  • Proactively check information required to process pendinghousing benefit claims utilising Academy and the Landlord line.Work with tenants and liaise with Revenues and Benefits Service, support agencies and any other relevant agencies to get housing benefit in payment.
  • Complete on line benefit claims and validation as required.
  • Work with Money Advisor and Deputy Rent Manager on promotional work as and when required.
  • Agree appropriate supplement levels. If cannot be afforded by tenants the case must be discussed with a Rent Manager.Ensure thatpre-court protocols are correctly followed.

Assistant Rent Officers (AROs) -Carry out the service function for the team.

  • Deal withcases that have rent arrears of less than £200.
  • Complete reception and phone work and deal with other administrative duties.
  • On a rotationalbasis,one of theAROs assists the Rent Support Officer.

Rent Support Officer - Represents Northwards in court.

  • Checks thatall Northwards legal procedures and the Court Protocol have been met before entering the cases onto Possession Claims on Line. Responds to Solicitors letters.
  • Decides what type of order to be requested at court. This is then confirmed by a Rent Manager.
  • Tries to ensure that all benefit related queries are resolved prior to court hearings.If there is a housing benefit query outstanding and the tenant is paying any rent determination, request an adjournment at court.

Money Advisor - Advises tenants in terms of managing their debts including repayment agreements, Bankruptcy andDebt Relief Orders.

  • Completes welfare benefit entitlement checksand makes various grant applications including trust funds.
  • Completes promotional work, including assisting with the Money Matters workshops.

2.3 – Early intervention

Preventing rent arrears from accruing is key in terms of managing the debt and maximising income levels. It is important that all tenants, especially new tenants, are given sound advice to prevent rent and other debts from accruing.

Effective rent recovery begins before the tenant signs for a property and forms an important part of the sign up interview. The Rent Team have worked closely with the Rehousing and Local Services Teams to develop good working practices.

2.3.1 Early intervention - Rehousing Team responsibilities

The Rehousing Team ensure that the following information is sent to all prospective tenants when they receive an offer of a property:

  • The NorthwardsAffordability Matrix (see Appendix 11).
  • An offer letter outlining details of any heating charges which are not eligible for Housing Benefit (see Appendix 12).
  • A copy of the Magnificent 7 detailing the information that is required for a housing benefit application thata prospective tenant must bring to the let (see Appendix 13)

2.3.2 Early intervention - Local Services Teams responsibilities

Neighbourhood Services Officers (NSOs) are responsible for the tenancy sign up (the let) which includes the following rent related procedures:

  • Ensuring the tenant is aware of the level of the rent for the property.
  • A generalhousing benefit entitlement checkis carried out and where applicable an On LineClaim form is completed.
  • Housing benefit declaration and supporting documents are scanned to the Revenues and Benefits Service.
  • The amount of rent due is discussed and a payment frequency is arranged. If it is fortnightly or monthly it must be in advance and not in arrears.
  • Different payments methods are discussed.
  • A payment card is issued and completion of the standing order form is done where appropriate.
  • Encourage tenants to pay their first weeks rent.
  • Advise tenants that if they experience any difficulties making payments they must inform the Rents Team immediately. Failure to do so will result in legal action being taken promptly.
  • Explanation of the responsibility of joint tenants in relation to rent obligations
  • Forward the lettings/validation check list to the rentsteam.
  • Inform the Rents Team of any vulnerability orother support needs
  • NSOs also contact the Rent Team before they carry out the 4 week and 6 month post let visit. Rent officers will then inform the NSO of any rent payments due or housing benefit information still outstanding.

All the above is in accordance with the lettings procedure (Appendix 14).

SECTION 3: MANAGEMENT OF THE ARREARS FUNCTION

3.1 Performance management

As Lead Officers for the company, the Assistant Director of Business Services and the Head of Finance are all accountable for the rental and income due.

The Rent Manager is responsible for income collection and the reduction of arrears and ensuring targets are met.