PRS configuration management overview
A number of system preferences and custom components can be defined as part of the PRS implementation process, affording end users the opportunity to align these contributory elements with their own working practices. These configuration features enable the housing organisation to define specific parameters in line with the framework of their management service, and whilst additional values and attributes can be appended to the records at any time, maintaining comprehensive information from the start will reap its own rewards. Specific lookup parameters are employed to customise those entry fields intrinsic within the creation and ongoing management of each PRS agreement and charging accounts: PRS Start Reasons (qualifying the circumstances surrounding the creation of each new PRS agreement), and PRS Termination Reasons (the contextual background to the conclusion of a PRS agreement e.g. property purchased by organisation, landlord withdrawing from the arrangement, breach of landlord responsibilities, etc.).
PRS Agreement Types - To classify the range of agreements that will be supported through a PRS management service, any number of custom agreement types can be created e.g. Flat Fee Monthly Charge, Lower Band Percentage Fee, Upper Band Percentage Fee, etc. These are distinguished from other rent agreements employed across Civica Cx Housing using the reserved category identifier 'PRS' - an attribute that allows them to coexist for the same asset record. An additional field - labelled 'PRS Fee' - is also available to identify the calculation method that will be used for the derivation of administration costs in terms of the percentage of rent payments. In contrast, any fees that are to be levied at a flat rate, and therefore independent of the cumulative rental transactions, should typically be specified as a discrete agreement type charge.
PRS Asset Management Types - Identified using the 'Private Rental Sector' attribute, the creation of one or more PRS-focused asset management types defines the responsibility of the housing organisation in respect of assets secured for tenanting from landlords who have enlisted for the devolved management service.
PRS Partial Repairs Identification - The housing organisation can define explicitly which subset of SOR codes will be fulfilled by their appointed contractors, and of those which will be recharged back to the landlord in order to recover the costs. Any SORs outside of this defined subset will generally be regarded as the sole responsibility of the private landlord, and attempts to incorporate these within a repair works order will trigger appropriate end user alert notifications.
PRS Payment Clearance Rules - All remittances received from tenants who occupy properties within the private rental sector will be replicated as payment entries within the charge account of the parallel PRS agreement. To steer the selection of valid payments, the end user can define a series of clearance rules, identifying the latency period between when a remittance is received (i.e. the payment date) and the time taken for it to be classified as cleared funds. Only once that calculated period has elapsed will the transactions then be available for replication across the applicable accounts.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of PRS configuration management, including: