Rents occupation management overview
An occupation episode for an asset is simply a record of who is living at the property. When the tenants change, this constitutes a new occupation episode within the agreement to capture the details of the new occupiers. A new occupation record would store the incoming contact members letting the property and responsible for the agreement, along with details of the previous occupants, specifically their forwarding address, where known, and the circumstances surrounding the change of occupation e.g. tenure change. Only one occupation episode can be effective at any one time, with previous episodes being preserved as a historical record. These records present a chronological view of the occupant members for each residential asset associated with an agreement. A change of occupation episode would also be relevant in the instance where a decant occurs. By way of explanation, 'Decanting' is a legal term used to explain the process whereby tenants have to vacate their homes because their landlord has redevelopment plans for the property, or as a result of emergency repairs. A decant is therefore the process of moving the tenants into alternative accommodation, either temporarily or permanently, and most housing organisations have policies that are invoked in such circumstances.
When processing a temporary decant situation, the alternative accommodation can either be owned by the housing organisation - in which case a new rent agreement would need to be created for that asset and the account charges offset across the two dwellings - or one that is outside their ownership and management responsibilities e.g. a hotel. In the event of a temporary decant, the current occupation episode is terminated and a new one created, with start and end dates coinciding to reflect the commencement of the relocation. Once the reason for the temporary decant has been resolved, and the tenants are able to return to their original residence, the inter-related occupation episodes across the two properties can be updated accordingly i.e. the temporary occupation episode should be concluded and a new one started for the original asset, both with sequentially-aligned dates.
When processing a permanent decant situation, a new rent agreement for the alternative dwelling must be created, with a link being forged to the original agreement via the change of occupation episode. At the point at which the original agreement comes to an end, a void episode will automatically commence for that asset, allowing void loss charges to be calculated.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of rents occupation management, including: