Working in partnership with Liberata, the London Borough of Hounslow has recovered nearly £500,000 of Former Tenant Arrears since 2020
Overview
The London Borough of Hounslow, formed in 1965 and formally a part of Middlesex, covers an area of 21.5 square miles to the north of the River Thames in West London and has a population of around 272,000 citizens.
Hounslow borders the boroughs of Richmond upon Thames, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Hillingdon and, in addition, Spelthorne District Council in Surrey. The Borough stretches almost to Central London in the east and includes five major towns: Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth, Feltham and Hounslow
The Challenge
As an authority that still manages social housing for its citizens, Hounslow staff needed to collect rent in a fair and equitable manner and collect rent from former tenants that had left properties owing money.
Previously, the Council had three staff members focused upon this task but that was not sustainable as often the amount of money owed by individuals was relatively low and therefore it was not viable to use key Council assets to try and collect such small amounts or revenue.
However, when this debt was aggregated it represented a significant amount of money, and furthermore, writing it off was considered to be unfair to the majority of tenants that were paying all their rent, on time.
The Solution
Liberata had been supplying a range of managed services to Hounslow for many years, so the Council asked whether their strategic partner would be able to come up with an additional service to manage and recover Former Tenant Arrears.
Using debt recovery specialists, Liberata developed a managed service to recover Former Tenant Arrears on a “risk & reward” basis – the commercial model would mean that a charge would only be made when a debt was successfully recovered.
Liberata offers Hounslow a managed service to identify and recover Former Tenant Arrears that not only collects a high percentage of money owed but allows Council staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.
“As Hounslow has such a positive partnership with Liberata is was decided to ask for an additional service that would resolve issues around Former Tenant Arrears. Liberata provides the Council with a managed service that has recovered a good percentage of monies owed and allowed my staff to focus on other tasks which has been especially important since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic”
Harminder Persad – Head of Revenues & Benefits, London Borough of Hounslow
