A January of spreadsheets and mail merges
Every year your rents team works out new rents for every tenancy, for each rent type and tenure. Social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership rent, garage rents, and service charges on top. The rules come from policy and your board's decision. The calculation happens in spreadsheets exported from the housing management system. Service charges arrive from another team. Letters are mail-merged and sent in batches.
Then the calls start. A tenant whose rent went up more than it should have. A shared owner whose letter showed the wrong share. A block where the service charge was left off. Each error needs a corrected letter, and some need more than that.
Why errors creep in
The calculation for any one tenancy is straightforward. Errors come from the edges: tenancies with unusual rent types, mid-year changes, properties with caps, missing service charge figures, and the join between the spreadsheet and the mail merge.
- Rent types and rules are applied in spreadsheet formulas.
- Unusual tenancies are handled by hand and sometimes missed.
- Service charge figures arrive late and are merged separately.
- Checks are done on a sample rather than every tenancy.
- There is no single record of which letter went to which tenant.
What errors cost
Corrections take time, but the bigger cost is trust. Tenants who receive a wrong letter doubt the next one. Some errors affect what can be charged, which is a question for your advisers. Contact centres are flooded in the weeks after letters land, and staff spend time on corrections rather than service.
The rent change run we build
- Tenancies, rent types, current rents and relevant property data are read from your housing management system.
- Your rules for each rent type are applied in code, including any caps, limits and exceptions your board and policy set, with the rule used recorded against each tenancy.
- Service charge figures are brought in from your service charge calculations, not pasted in.
- Every tenancy is checked for anomalies before letters are produced: changes outside expected ranges, missing service charges, rent types without a rule, recent tenancy changes. Anomalies go to a person.
- Letters are generated from your templates with the right wording for each tenure and rent type, and your team reviews a sample of each letter type before release.
- The run records which letter went to which tenant, by which channel and when, and the new rents are loaded into your housing management system from the same source.
| Step | Spreadsheet and mail merge | Rent change run |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | Formulas | Written once, recorded per tenancy |
| Service charges | Pasted in | Brought in from calculations |
| Checks | Sample | Every tenancy, anomalies to a person |
| Letters | Mail merge | Templates by tenure and rent type |
| Record | Batch files | What was sent, to whom and when |
Your rent policy, board decisions and the notice requirements that apply are for you and your advisers. We apply the rules you give us and do not give legal advice.
What rent change season looks like
The calculation, checks and letters come from one source. Anomalies are found before letters are printed. The contact centre gets fewer calls about errors. When a tenant questions their rent, the rule applied and the letter sent are on the record, and the same figures are what the housing management system charges.
Is your rent change process like this?
- New rents are calculated in spreadsheets.
- Service charges are merged in separately.
- Checks are done on a sample of tenancies.
- Corrected letters are needed every year.
- You cannot easily show which letter went to which tenant.