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Five Top Tips for Setting Sustainable Repayment Arrangements with Tenants

Setting repayment arrangements that tenants can reliably maintain is as much an art as a science. Done well, such agreements protect income flows, reduce enforcement costs, and help sustain tenancies rather than undermine them. Below are five top tips, anchored in UK social housing best practice, to help you get more sustainable repayment arrangements in place.

1. First Ask: “Does This Debt Need an Arrangement at All?”

Before jumping into instalment planning, assess whether the debt can be cleared in full immediately. Too often, income teams default to offering repayment without testing whether the tenant has the capacity to settle outright.

When a debt is paid off in full, it removes the need for ongoing monitoring, renegotiation, or potential breaches. That in itself is a win for both landlord and tenant.

This approach aligns with longstanding social housing guidance which emphasises the importance of prevention over reaction in rent arrears management. The government’s Guide on Effective Rent Arrears Management urges landlords to place “increasing emphasis on alternative approaches” rather than defaulting to eviction or reactive strategies.

In practice: when tenants approach with debt, always ask (and document) whether a lump-sum payment is feasible before assuming instalments are necessary.

2. Collaborate: Involve the Tenant in Designing the Plan

One of the strongest predictors of a repayment plan’s success is tenant agency in its design. Instead of prescribing a figure, engage tenants in a discussion around what they can realistically afford. This co‑design approach fosters ownership, increases buy-in, and reduces the likelihood of breakage.

Imposed plans often breed silent noncompliance or resentment; collaborative ones build a sense of partnership. It aligns with principles in income management charters, such as the CIH’s Income Management Charter, which emphasises balancing business needs with tenant outcomes.

In implementation, income teams might offer a “menu” of feasible schedules (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and ask tenants to choose or suggest modifications. That flexibility can make the difference between a plan that lives and one that dies.

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3. Avoid Ultra‑Low Repayments Over Extremely Long Durations

It can be tempting to spread repayments very thinly over long periods to reduce immediate burden. But this often backfires:

  • Extended deadlines increase exposure to life changes — job loss, benefit changes, illness — which may interrupt payments mid‑plan.
  • When the end date is remote, the plan can feel abstract and demotivating to the tenant.

Data from tenancy sustainability initiatives highlights that the longer a plan runs, the greater the chance of drift or derailing.

Instead, aim for a moderate repayment amount coupled with a finite horizon. That balance supports meaningful progress while keeping the arrangement within a psychologically credible timeframe.

4. Always Provide a Clear End Date and Installment Schedule

A repayment plan without a stated end date is fundamentally weaker. Without a tangible target, tenants may deprioritise payments as time passes.

Each arrangement should explicitly state:

  • The number of instalments (or time period)
  • The exact dates or cadence of those instalments
  • The final “completion” date when the debt will be cleared

By giving tenants a clear timeline, you make the agreement more concrete, easier to monitor, and easier for both parties to plan.

This practice is consistent with many landlord policies and sector guidance which emphasise that plans must be transparent in instalment count and duration (not open‑ended).

5. Use Automated Payment Methods to Minimise Execution Risk

Even well-negotiated repayment plans fail when payment execution is left to memory. The gap between intention and action, the “implementation gap”, is where many arrangements collapse.

Automated mechanisms like Direct Debit or recurring card payments significantly reduce the cognitive load and probability of error: the correct amount, on the correct date, with minimal manual intervention.

In social housing practice, Direct Debit is widely regarded as the preferred method because it offers consistency, lower failure rates, and administrative efficiency. For example, many UK councils promote Direct Debit as “the simplest” rent payment method, automatically adjusting amounts when rent changes. Moreover, tenant guides emphasise how Direct Debit reduces arrears risk — once set up, tenants “don’t need to worry” about forgetting payments.

Recurring card payments can supplement where bank access is limited, but they tend to carry higher failure risk (eg. card expiry). Use them judiciously and maintain fallback strategies (eg. alerts, reminders).

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Turning Good Plans into Sustainable Practice: Strategic Levers

Implementing these five tips is only the start. To embed them across your operation, consider the following deeper levers:

  • Intelligence & monitoring: Use your income software (such as RentSense®) to flag broken arrangements early, spot common breach patterns (by repayment size, duration, or cohort), and prioritise interventions accordingly.
  • Predictive flags and risk scoring: Integrate tenancy sustainability or financial stress indicators to identify tenants who may struggle before they do (such functionality is already baked into RentSense®).
  • Performance coaching and feedback loops: Regularly review officers’ arrangement outcome metrics (sustainment rates, renegotiations, defaults) and feed insight into training and performance conversations.
  • Ensure manageable caseloads: Overloaded officers are more likely to default to “safe” (but less sustainable) plans, such as ultra-low repayments without end dates.
  • Embed the tenant journey mindset: Remember that repayment arrangements are not a narrow debt-collection tool—they are part of the broader tenancy sustainment mission. A tenant-centric approach often delivers better long‑term outcomes.
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Beyond Repayments: Reframing Arrangements as Opportunities

Truly effective repayment arrangements aren’t just about recovering debt — they’re about reframing the relationship between landlord and tenant, and creating conditions where both can succeed. At their best, arrangements offer an opportunity: to build trust, restore financial stability, and strengthen long-term tenancy sustainment.

That’s why the most progressive housing providers don’t treat arrangements as isolated transactions. They see them as part of a wider income strategy — one that uses data insight, human connection, and operational discipline to drive both business resilience and better tenant outcomes.

If you haven’t already, take a look at our recent article, Effective Arrangements in Social Housing: Why Getting Them Right Makes a Difference, which explores these themes in greater depth.

And if you’d like to discover how Mobysoft and our team of social housing income professionals can help you improve arrangement success, reduce broken plans, and enhance arrears performance, get in touch. Let’s talk about making arrangements that actually work — for everyone.

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