A pilot scheme to send rent arrears reminders by text message has achieved better results than those normally achieved by postal reminders.
Fife council tried out the idea in two of its 20 local housing offices in December.

Officers used mobile phones to send messages to 10 people asking them to contact a named person at a given number. No mention was made that the matter related to rent arrears. In both pilots six of the 10 people contacted responded.

Fife is now considering plans to extend the practice throughout its housing offices.

Housing team management leader Gerry McGloin, said the council was checking to see whether the practice breached data protection rules. If the idea got the legal all-clear, he added, software could be installed to text tenants automatically rather than staff sending the messages themselves.

Fears remain, however, that tenants will learn what the mystery messages mean and stop answering.

"It's quite possible that they'll stop responding, but we think it's a worthwhile experiment," said McGloin. "We're thinking of using the same idea with email."

Source

Housing Today