Introducing CREL Rent Reviews in Affinity

Affinity now supports CREL rent reviews, helping housing associations manage cost rental reviews from identifying the tenancies due through to preparing notices and creating new charge schedules.

This forms part of a reworked Rent Reviews area, with a shared starting point for CREL and Differential Rent reviews and a separate workflow for each.

CREL reviews, from selection to charge schedule

Annual reviews involve more than calculating a new rent. Staff need to identify the right tenancies, check the figures, prepare correspondence and ensure the resulting charges are recorded correctly. The new CREL workflow connects these stages while keeping staff in control of each decision.

• Identify tenancies due for review — select a tenancy anniversary period and housing group, check the proposed list and confirm which tenancies to include.
• Calculate rents using HICP data — Affinity checks for updated Irish HICP data nightly, with a manual refresh option. Each saved calculation shows the values used, the permitted increase and the resulting rent.
• Prepare populated rent review notices — generate a notice from the saved calculation using your tenant letter template, review and amend it, then download it for printing or email it through the existing correspondence flow.
• Create the new charge schedule — after reviewing the calculation, create a schedule from the next rent due date on or after the tenancy anniversary. Other recurring charges from the previous schedule are carried forward at their existing values.
• Keep sight of progress — search tenants, filter by housing group or calculation progress, and export matching entries with current rent, new rent and percentage increase.

A clear record of each review

Saved calculations retain the HICP figures used at the time, even when newer data becomes available. Notices remain in tenant correspondence, and charge schedule details link back to the CREL calculation that created them. This gives staff a clear record to refer to when checking a review or responding to a tenant query.

Staff review the calculation before creating charges and check the notice before issuing it. Your organisation remains responsible for notice timing and service arrangements.

A refreshed Differential Rent workflow too

Differential Rent reviews now offer a clearer way to select tenants, prepare up to three income request letters and record returned details. Tenants marked as returned are excluded from subsequent reminders, and letters are generated in the background as downloadable PDF batches. Previous reviews remain available in the historical archive.

Getting started

Open Tenants > Rent Reviews and choose New review > CREL Rent Review. The review type filter lets you switch between CREL, Differential Rent or all reviews. Available actions depend on your user permissions.

Our updated guides cover selecting tenancies and calculating CREL rents and preparing notices and creating charge schedules. You can find all the guides in the Rent Reviews section.

We’d welcome your feedback

As you start using the new Rent Reviews area, let us know how it supports your team and where it could be improved. Contact the Affinity Support Team at support@tiltaffinity.com.

The Affinity Team