Rents configuration management overview
The process of rents management has a number of contributory factors that need to be configured at the outset in order to inform daily activities, operations and functions. These configuration components enable the housing organisation to define specific parameters in line with their own procedures and local requirements. Additional values and attributes can be appended to the records at any time, as required, although maintaining comprehensive information from the start will reap its own rewards. There are several key areas that fall under the category of rents configuration: calendar management, rents setting, arrears, charge elements (asset and account charges), rent caps and Direct Debit originator settings.
Calendar management: All rents charges and payment schedules are controlled by the creation of one or more calendars. The precise number of calendars available is at the discretion of the housing organisation but as a minimum a separate calendar must exist for each individual company. The calendar defines the start and end point for each period in which all rent activities take place.
Rent setting: This process is conducted using two distinct methodologies: Target Rents and Rent Points. Most commonly, a housing organisation will adopt one method only, although it is recognised that a select few adopt a combination of both.
Arrears: The tracking and recovery of overdue balance payments is based on a staged process of escalating actions, with each stage linked to timescales that are in line with documented policies and procedures. Arrears balances are monitored frequently to identify cases where arrangements have been broken, allowing for prompt follow-up action. The creation of an action-focused policy that can be automatically applied to rent accounts and derive outcomes from user defined conditions (rules) is the foundation of arrears configuration.
Charge elements: A rent charge can be a single value, or it can be comprised of a number of related components; hence group charges can be created, consisting of several elemental values. Therefore, adding a charge to the rent price list of an asset transfers all the associated elements automatically, ensuring both consistency and administrative efficiency.
Rent caps: The concept of rent capping is to make the calculation of rents fairer and more affordable, particularly in high-cost areas, therefore placing a ceiling - or cap - on the proportion by which they can be increased, year on year. Any number of rent caps can be created, with each linked to a unique charge type (e.g. Standard, Protected, etc.)
Direct Debit: Increasingly this is the payment method of choice for housing organisations, with significant advantages over employing a letting agent for rent collection, and by far the most practicable method of securing payment in accordance with the expected schedule. Each Originator - an organisation certificated to collect Direct Debit payments - will be assigned an Originator Identification Number (OIN) and must nominate a bank account into which the collected funds will be credited.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of rents configuration management, including: