Overview
Morgan Hunt currently require a Legal Assistant for Housing Trust based in North London on a Temporary basis. Pay Rate: £26.96ph Ltd. Hours: 35 hrs Mon to Fri – 9am to 5.00pm – Hybrid, minimum 3 days in the office or on site / at court (Tuesdays MUST be in the office), 2 days from home. Location: North London. Duration: 6 month on going contract.
The Ideal Candidate
Law Degree (preferred). Legal background in Housing is also preferred but not necessary in a legal team; could be in the income team, for example, where majority of work comes under income possession at courts. Required to go to court to attend hearings, as and when they come up.
Job Role
* You will form an integral part of the legal team by providing legal support to the operational teams on a range of housing management related issues including tenancy and lease breaches with particular focus on escalated arrears and pursuing effective recovery via legal action.
* You will work closely with the local officers and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams to ensure debt is escalated appropriately, once all reasonable support options have been put in place.
* You will have your own caseload which will be predominately escalated arrears cases that have been referred to you, to drive an effective resolution.
* You will play a crucial role in rent and service charge collection for the organisation. Your decisions will be in collaboration with operational teams, whilst placing the resident at the centre of every decision.
* You will provide training, support and advice to operational teams on tenancy and lease breaches including rent and service charge recovery, to empower them to take decisions that make our schemes great places to live and for residents to live their lives well.
* Lead on rent and service charge recovery cases referred to you by the operational teams, with the goal of maximising income for the organisation.
* Manage other legal cases assigned to you. Provide support to Paralegals, team managers and team leaders as required – particularly those where there is a crossover with arrears to ensure cases are managed in a joined-up way.
* This may include housing and lease management issues including disrepair.
* Work and support paralegals and work effectively with other departments on cases that may require their input to successfully recover service charge debt.
* Represent trust well in external settings such as court, multi-agency meetings, local authority engagement meetings, mediation and casework panels on tenancy and lease breaches.
* Prepare, draft and respond to all necessary legal documentation and bundles, evidence and witness statements as required.
* Work effectively with panel solicitors where cases require external involvement.
* Take ownership and accountability for your caseload in accordance with performance indicators. Seek advice, flag risk and offer mitigations on issues that may rise.
* Work closely with the operational teams and tenancy sustainment and safeguarding teams, to be confident that legal escalation takes place once all reasonable proactive engagement with residents has been exhausted, always focusing on tenancy sustainment objectives.
* Support and advise operational teams to ensure legal risks are identified and mitigated appropriately. Proactively feed into policy and practices to support this.
* Demonstrate adequate legal knowledge for the role, be inquisitive and keep up to date with developments in the law.
* Work alongside legal colleagues to deliver meaningful training, guidance and advice to operational teams.
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