Rooftop Housing Association, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, have invested in RentSense to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic, Universal Credit and to reduce workload.
Housing Director, Lisa Nicholls, had already undertaken a review of Rooftop’s income collection process, as explained below:
“Upon joining Rooftop I worked directly with the Income Team to understand our operating position and key issues that related to resources, capacity, workload management, Universal Credit etc that prompted development of a new strategy and linked to this sourcing software that would complement our work in the development of workflows within our new housing management system.”
When lockdown was introduced in March 2020 Rooftop focused on retaining essential services but they also took steps to mitigate the expected decline in income by reducing budgets, as Lisa explains.
“We put in place a new Income Collection Strategy and enhancing the level of support available to our customers through our income team, money advisors and through general welfare calls.”
As a result of lockdown, like other social landlords, many of Rooftop’s tenants were impacted by furlough, redundancy or having reduced hours and needing to apply for benefits for the first time, which in turn resulted in a rise in arrears. But with prudent planning the organisation was ready for this eventuality and now with RentSense they will look to deliver an arrears reduction.
When asked what the main reason for selecting RentSense was Lisa cited there were several, as highlighted below:
RentSense is widely used in the sector with proven success, which I have witnessed first hand. I know it is easy to mobilise and you get great support from Mobysoft. It helps the income management function reduce workload, create capacity as well provides great oversight. Importantly it also provides a good return on investment.”
Lisa Nicolls, Rooftop Housing
“We are looking forward to working with the Rooftop team and helping them to deliver efficiencies and protect revenues whilst giving them more time to support tenants.” Commented Paul Evans, Director at Mobysoft.
