Rent income and arrears policy

Collecting rent and housing income is vital to the Council's ability to deliver housing services to its residents. We are committed to improving the quality of our homes and neighbourhoods, but rely on income for funding our services.

Great Yarmouth has traditionally had a low level of rent arrears however, from 2016/17, has seen an increase due to the introduction of Universal Credit Full Service into the Borough. Support and other advice agencies form part of the procedure for supporting tenants and residents with rent/housing arrears. In addition, we also use the legal process to deal with tenants in rent arrears. This will remain an important element in our strategy, but will be balanced by a renewed emphasis on prevention of arrears, sustainment of tenancies and maximisation of income.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council (the Council) has adopted the use of Introductory Tenancies from 4th November 2013. This will form part of various methods to help Great Yarmouth Community Housing tenants sustain their tenancies. The twelve-month introductory period is known as the trial period.

The Council's purpose in using Introductory/Secure Tenancies is to provide support for all tenants who experience difficulty in complying with their obligations as a tenant in order to turn failing tenancies into sustainable ones.

In the context of recovering rent owed to the Council, this means that we aim to treat tenants who are in arrears fairly, sympathetically, and in consistent way, while at the same time ensuring that we collect rent that is due.
We will help customers, tenants in arrears to stay in their homes by providing advice and assistance on debt management and pursue a debt collection strategy that sensitively balances the pursuit of debt with the needs of vulnerable tenants.

Former tenant arrears arise in the following circumstances:

• the debtor is no longer the tenant/occupier or responsible for the use and occupation of the property. This definition includes deceased tenants
• the debtor has moved from one Council tenancy to another, leaving arrears on the previous property - the arrears remain on a separate account and are not transferred to the account of the new property, however, remain to be collected

The policy will take into consideration the Equality Act 2010, Public Sector Equality Duty and protect residents from discrimination and will be regularly reviewed. We will assess each case on its own merits to minimise any loss of public funds