Housing Officer – Fixed Term Contract
Contract: Fixed Term – 6 months / Full Time
Salary: £29,000-£33,500 per annum depending on
experience
Hours: 37 hours per week – (Mon-Fri) agile
working. We work hard to provide flexibility of hours to benefit both our teams
and customers.
We have a great new opportunity for an experienced Housing
Officer to join our team on a temporary basis for 6 months.
At Squared we pride ourselves on being a great place to
work, where everyone feels fairly treated and enjoys their work in a welcoming
and friendly environment. We’re a not-for-profit housing association that has
been providing affordable housing in Luton and South Bedfordshire since 1962.
Our Homes department is a vital division of Squared
providing more than just housing to our customers who are most in need. We work
closely with a range of partners including the Department for Work and
Pensions, Luton Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council. We have
around 370 homes for independent living for people in need in our local
community, spread across Luton, Dunstable, Caddington and Barton-le-Clay which
range from bedsits and one-bedroom flats to houses with four or more bedrooms.
We offer so much more than just a roof over your head. Our
Homes team support our customers to manage and sustain their tenancy whilst
offering guidance and encouragement to inspire them to fulfil their personal
aspirations with the long-term aim of moving into a privately rented or owned
home.
The Role
You will be the main point of contact and will deliver an
end-to-end tenancy management service, proactively managing the customer
relationship. You will ensure our customers’ needs are met and exceeded whilst
searching for innovative ways to enable as many people as possible to benefit
from our limited housing resource. You will provide support and advice to other
members of the team. The role is responsible for all aspects of tenancy
management, and are responsibilities include:-
• Embed a great service culture that promotes and embraces
high levels of tenant and community engagement and involvement; and that
reflect Squared’s 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.
• Closely monitoring void levels, rent collection, rent
arrears and other key performance indicators; taking action to ensure targets
are met and relevant Squared policies and procedures are followed.
• Ensuring risk issues relating to ASB are considered, cases
are proactively managed and that tenants and stakeholders are encouraged to
address conflicts using self-help techniques.
• Ensuring safeguarding issues are addressed in accordance
with Squared’s Safeguarding policy.
• 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.
• ASB: Tackling and reducing the effects of anti-social
behaviour on estates and in communal areas
• Escalating cases through the legal framework as necessary;
including attending and representing Squared as Landlord at court and liaising
with Solicitors when necessary.
• 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
• Liaising with all relevant external agencies, local
authorities and other partners, including other Squared departments and
stakeholders; to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction with our services
Due to travelling between sites it is essential that you
have a full clean UK driving licence with access to your own vehicle for work
purposes. Please note, this role will be subject to a DBS check.
The Person
As an experienced housing professional, you will be able to
hit the ground running to manage our housing portfolio. You will come with
strong housing knowledge having worked in similar roles having managed all the
above listed elements of the role.
You will be used to building strong working relationships,
not only with your customers but with other teams within the organisation and
external partners to ensure we are meeting our business objectives and
providing the best service possible.
So, if you welcome the challenge, and are capable of
marrying strong self-management and administrative skills with empathy and
support for individuals yet capable of being tough when needed, we’d love to
hear from you.
In return we offer a host of benefits including:-
• 33 days annual leave (including bank holidays)
• Health CashPlan
• Contributory Pension
• Life Assurance
• Holiday Buying/Selling
• Perks at Work shopping discounts/cashback
• Free parking at our Bramingham Office
