Housing Officer
Salary: £29,000 - £33,500 - dependent on experience
37 hours per week: Monday to Friday
Based on site in Luton with a requirement to visit customer properties around Luton and Central Bedfordshire.
Our client is a not-for-profit housing association located in Luton.
As an experienced housing professional, you will be able to hit the ground running. Having responsibility for your own housing portfolio, you will be the main point of contact for your customers; ensuring they receive an excellent service experience.
Full clean driving licence and access to your own vehicle required for work purposes.
Responsibilities: Housing Officer
* Comprehensive delivery of tenancy for a portfolio of homes, including provision of a core management service responding to your customers enquiries as the main point of contact.
* Embed a great service culture that promotes and embraces high levels of tenant and community engagement and involvement; and that reflect business values.
* Providing a flexible and responsive service to meet the needs of our customers.
* Assessing the needs of customers applying for housing through choice based letting and our transfer process.
* Rent arrears control including filing particulars of claim and representation at court.
* Estate inspections: Inspecting communal areas and estates, raising and following up on appropriate corrective actions to customer resolution.
* Estate and facilities management: Providing a responsive and efficient estate, block and facilities management service to ensure residents’ communal areas and neighbourhoods are pleasant, well-maintained and safe place to live.
* Empty homes monitoring and control, including carrying out pre-void inspections.
* Keeping on top of housing sector knowledge: including knowledge around property management, service charges, health and safety, personal safety and working with vulnerable people.
* Lettings and allocation of property, including different types of tenancy agreements.
* Staying up to date with working knowledge of welfare benefits and welfare reforms and ensuring the team is updated.
* Generic housing management queries Ensure effective delivery of new business services by working in a collaborative manner with the wider team.
Skills / Experience: Housing Officer
* Experience of working in a customer centred environment
* Experience of working in social housing sector
* Basic knowledge of tenancy rights & responsibilities, obligations of landlord & tenant
* Experience of a housing software package e.g. SDM,
* Demonstrable experience of working with vulnerable individuals and families with complex needs
* Demonstrable experience of partnership working, liaison and negotiation with external agencies and partners.
* Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of equality issues and legislation and, in particular, how they impact on service(s) provided and able to integrate equality policies into service delivery.
* Experience of supporting colleagues, sharing knowledge and being the first port of call for the rest of the team for queries
* Knowledge and practical experience of serving Section 8, Section 21 through to representing the organisation at court
* Excellent communicator - capacity building, negotiation, Trust
* Presentation skills
* Commercially-minded
* Self-motivated/accountable
* Collaboration with others
* Planning skills
* Good IT literacy, digitally inclusive
* Able to work under pressure, manage competing work demands methodically to achieve targets and meet changing demands and priorities.