Eviction prevention work: share your examples and complete our survey
Call for practice to all housing associations, local authorities and housing related support providers in Scotland.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) is working with Neil Morland & Co to develop a toolkit to help housing providers and their partners across Scotland to minimise evictions and abandonments.
The aim is to produce an accessible online resource of policies, procedures and practical examples to share ideas and learning about what works in sustaining tenancies, while, at the same time, maintaining rental income and minimising breaches of tenancy conditions. It is hoped that the new toolkit will be available at the beginning of 2022.
You are invited to tell us about the good work you are doing in this area, for possible inclusion in the final toolkit, by sending your examples of good practice and completing a survey.
If you can share practice in the areas below, which others might be able to learn from, please send an email to protectinghomespreventingevictions@neilmorland.co.uk as soon as possible and no later than 17:00 on Friday 29 October.
Please include a brief description of what you are doing, why you think it is effective and, where relevant, documentation on the policy or procedure. We will be happy to talk this through with you if you would prefer that.
Share your good practice
Examples of work that we are looking for include:
- assessment of risk of potential tenancy failure prior to sign up or at sign up
- sign-up policies and procedures that aim to prevent rent arrears or tenancy breaches in the future
- assistance with benefit claims and income maximisation
- assistance with budgeting
- tenancy sustainment and resettlement support practices
- use of rent account data or other data sources to spot the signs of tenancy problems early
- work to manage anti-social behaviour in ways that minimise evictions and abandonments as well as minimising anti-social behaviour
- good practice in communicating with tenants by letter, e-mail, text or social media, including use of nudging techniques to encourage prompt rent payment
- support for tenants in rent arrears
- identification of tenants who may be at risk of abandonment and work done to address those risks
- partnership working between housing associations, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and whole communities to work with tenants to prevent them getting into difficulty and assist them where they do
- good practice in the issuing of notices and taking people to court
- good practice in handling suspended possession orders and payment plans
- pre-tenancy training
- effective local authority homelessness prevention work for housing association tenants
- timely and effective use of Discretionary Housing Payments
- creative use of transfers and supported housing pathways to avoid eviction and abandonment
- any other relevant areas of practice not included above.
Complete our survey
You are also invited to complete an online survey to help inform the work. The survey is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GVBQ8CQ and will close on Friday 22 October.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss any aspect of the call for practice, then please contact Tim Gray at Neil Morland & Co. by email at tim@neilmorland.co.uk or call Tim on 07533 347316.