Bristol City Council Improve Rent Collection Rate by £1.3m helped by RentSense and income service

Bristol City Council, who have around 28,000 council homes, have improved rent collection by over £1.3m in twelve months by being able to offer the right support, at the right time to residents in need, facilitated by using RentSense and their income consultancy service.

Bristol City Council wanted to halt rising rent arrears and offer timely support to their residents to help them avoid unmanageable debt, many of whom had been adversely impacted by the pandemic. They also took advantage of Mobysoft’s complementary income service, that helps landlords optimise their performance. It is delivered by ex-housing professionals that agree and help set out clear objectives with the customer and then advise on how to achieve these.

“Our consultant at Mobysoft, Nick Beasley, knew how to get the best out of RentSense system and had expertise on how to build a high performing team and embed it within a council. So it was trying to use that expertise in a way that suited Bristol.,” explains Mark Kempt, Income & Leasehold Manager at Bristol City Council.

Nick met with the Bristol City Council income team and the team leaders and got their feedback and offered advice on best practice, whilst working with Mark to set the objectives for the project.

“The objectives looked at customer support, collection rates and also officer usage of the system,” comments Mark.

Exceeding Objectives

“Since installing RentSense we have been able to focus on the right tenants at the right time. This has helped us to reduce arrears, and compared to this time last year (Jan 2021 with Jan 2022) we have reduced arrears by £177,000.

Our collection rate is higher, and that has been continual since implementing RentSense in February 2021, we have exceeded 100% in several months over the last year, and our average collection rate is now 99.3% which is 1.1% improvement on the previous year, which is an increase of over £1.3 million. You can see how performance has improved since using RentSense and the consultancy.”

Mark Kempt, Income & Leasehold Manager, Bristol City Council

The income team have exceeded the original objectives and are able to focus their time supporting tenants who are most at need.

“The income maximisation service was a huge bonus as well. We are on a journey in terms of changing our approach and having that knowledge and expertise on hand to support the service and best practice has been great,” concludes Mark.

“Working with Bristol has been a great experience for Mobysoft, as Mark and the rest of the team have worked really well with Nick, and the officers’ hard work in supporting the right tenants has helped the council and its residents in what is a particularly hard time for many.” Stated Paul Evans, Chief Commercial Director at Mobysoft.