Leasehold Officer

Post title:
Leasehold Officer
Grade:
I
Responsible to:
Income Services Manager
Staff managed:
None
Directorate:
Community Development
Service:
Housing
Job family:
P&T - Professional & Technical
Date of issue:
January 2023
Job context
· Social housing creates accessible and affordable housing for those most in need. It offers people security of tenure and provides a foundation to put down roots, plan for the future and make a house a home.
· The Housing Services team are responsible for delivering the Council’s statutory housing functions, including the allocation and management of the Councils housing stock, monitoring and recovery of housing related debt and tenant engagement responsibilities.
· The job holder will work as part of a busy team of housing professionals specialising in Income Management across a range of tenure types and chargeable services to provide a comprehensive, high-quality service and ensure our customers can sustain their tenancies. By maximising income collection, it enables us to fund and reinvest in housing related services for tenants in North Yorkshire
· The job holder will be expected to undertake intensive management of leaseholder accounts for domestic properties, garden and garage plots, communal service charges, shared ownership charges, and other housing related debts. Ensuring early intervention before debts get out of control is a primary focus and promoting a ‘payment first’ culture, so customers prioritise their responsibility to pay.
· The key job roles will include the administration of a full range of customer account management, collection and recovery functions, including attendance at Court to ensure all housing related income is paid and take appropriate action in accordance with Policy & Procedure for non-payment to reduce the number of accounts that fail and prevent homelessness.
· You will also provide knowledgeable help and advice to customers who are experiencing financial difficulty and struggling to meet their rent obligations and, support and encourage customers to seek out solutions, access relevant benefits and sign post them to other support providers.

Job Purpose:



The core focus of this role is ensuring that an effective, efficient, and consistent service is provided to all our customers who live in Council owned accommodation. The team are focussed on the management of all rent accounts, leaseholder accounts, income collection and arrears recovery of any tenancy related debt.

Operational Management:

· Manage your own group of leasehold accounts, service charges and shared ownership charges to consistently deliver a broad range of day-to-day management functions, arrears intervention and preventative measures.
· Engage with new customers and liaise with legal to set up new tenure agreements and customer accounts.
· Be responsible for, maintaining and updating customer accounts with the management and collection actions you have taken to ensure complete and comprehensive records are available for future decision making and take appropriate recovery action when required.
· Comprehensive understanding of your customers individual circumstances enabling them to obtain a leasehold or shared ownership property, pay their ground rent, insurance and other service charges to prevent them getting into debt.
· Negotiate payment plans considering the customers income and expenditure and find appropriate solutions to manage arrears ensuring they have the best possible chance of successfully sustaining their lease.
· Identify customers with potential entitlement to: Welfare Benefits, Housing Benefit, Discretionary Housing Payments, Council Tax reduction schemes, discounts, or exemptions to assist with all housing costs and income maximisation.
· Advise and support customers on how to access and manage a Universal Credit claim. Understanding the complexity of how Universal Credit is assessed dependent upon the individual’s circumstances, income, and household occupancy.
· Advise and Support customers on Housing Benefit entitlement, including understanding the impact of other occupants in the property/reporting Change in Circumstances and how they will impact on a Housing Benefit assessment.
· To enforce collection when terms of the lease have been breached in relation to payment of housing charges and progress cases through the legal process and apply to County Court to recover the debt or bring the lease to an end
· Service of appropriate forfeiture paperwork and/or Notice in line with legal requirements and Civil Procedure Rules
· Submit cases to Court for unpaid housing charges and debt recovery proceedings and serve court paperwork on defendants.
· Act on behalf of North Yorkshire Council at Court and present cases at Court hearings to obtain CCJ (County Court Judgement) on the debt, fixed costs and late payment interest or a Possession Order to forfeit the lease and recover the property Attendance at evictions to regain possession of properties.
Financial
Management:
· To take electronic payments and if required to handle cash and cheques in accordance with procedure. Be aware of card payment security requirements.
· Set up new direct debit instructions on customer accounts and calculate payment instalments.
· Administer direct debit recalls, cancelations and any other changes to payments.
· Produce notification letters for new or amended direct debits and recovery notices for failed payments and cancellations where appropriate.
· Managing other Housing related debts to include recovery and payment of recharged repairs, Support Charge accounts and recovery of former debts.
· Assist residents to maximise their benefit entitlements and provide support in making benefit claims.
· Advising customers of additional financial support through the Discretionary Housing Payments scheme.
· Assist with valuations, review annual charges, calculate cost recovery management fees and apportion retrospective billing for relevant costs eg insurance, ground rents and maintenance, sewerage charges.
· Effectively review and manage credit balances on current and former accounts and arrange refunds in accordance with current procedure.
· Identify irrecoverable debt and timely scheduling of bad debts for write off.
Resource management:
· Work proactively, identifying opportunities to put in place realistic payment plans to achieve successful outcomes.
· Utilise effective decision-making skills to determine when further recovery action is required and when to seek advice on escalating formal recovery.
· Ensure good time management when planning visits and awareness of personal safety when visiting tenants in their homes.
· Work in a flexible way to reflect the ‘reactive’ nature of the role.
· Develop and keep up to date a good working knowledge of best practice, changes to housing legislation and welfare benefits.
· Commitment to training opportunities and undertake mandatory and job specific training.

Partnerships working:
· Build and maintain positive relationships with residents to identify customers in need of debt advice and assistance.
· Work alongside our Homeless Prevention Service to ensure customers have access to any additional support they need to sustain their leasehold through income maximisation and other options available to assist with financial stability.
· Develop and maintain close working relationship with the Housing Management and Anti-Social Behaviour teams enabling shared information and holistic support around ongoing housing issues.
· Liaise with external agencies including specialist money advisors, debt collection agencies and County Courts on arrears management issues.
People Management:





· Deal confidently and safely with difficult, challenging, or emotional situations, including conflict situations.
· Understand and manage vulnerable customers with higher than usual expectations or complex needs.
· A willingness to find solutions for all customer needs with a goal of achieving positive outcomes and full compliance with the terms of the leaseholder agreement.
· Understanding of the difficulties and problems of external and economic factors which impact on the lives of our customers and affect their affordability to pay.
· Assist with the training of new team members and support their integration into the team.

Communications:
· Establish and maintain an effective owner/customer relationship in an engaging and approachable manner using a variety of contact streams including telephone calls, written enquiries, emails, texts and other media messaging services, face to face visits to customer’s homes, interviewing them in the office and attendance at court when required.
· Engage and establish positive relationships through oral and written communication with members of the public, support workers, Council Officers, other Local Authorities, Police, Probation and other stakeholders and partners.
· Possess great listening skills to truly understand the issues at hand and show empathy whilst maintaining a professional approach.
· Foster good working relationships within the team to build support and resilience for each other.
· Be mindful that many of our customers have challenges that they themselves are coping with and this impacts on how they interact with you and other officers.
· Customer service and communications should be focused, positive and controlled, with a willingness to find a solution for the customers’ individual needs.
· Contribute to team meetings by sharing knowledge, skills and information and put forward new ideas for best practice and process improvements that will enhance the delivery of an excellent, customer focused service.
· Promote and actively demonstrate a positive and professional image of the Council.
Systems and information:
· Maintain accurate and comprehensive records on all customer accounts, adding case notes for each action taken to enable accurate data is available for reporting and decision making.
· Preparation and service of reminders, Section 166 Notices and service of Court notifications and paperwork in accordance with pre court protocol.
· Prepare and submit applications to County Court and prepare case files for presenting cases at Court to request the relevant order for the debt, costs and interest or possession of the property.
· Update systems with appropriate alerts to inform team members of H&S concerns when visiting/meeting customers, other customer needs or officer requirements relating to the management of the account.
· Assist with year end processes to update the systems and customers records
· Assist in the development and use of systems used by the service.
· Work safely with confidential and sensitive information and ensure that information is appropriately stored, used, shared, and retained in accordance with GDPR and information sharing agreements. .

Safeguarding:
· Undertake mandatory training requirements in relation to Safeguarding.
· Committed to safeguarding and the welfare all our residents, children, young people, and adults, raising concerns as appropriate.
· Ensure duties are carried out with full regard to the Councils policies including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Health and Safety and Information Governance.

Person Specification:

Essential
Desirable
Knowledge and Experience
· Experience of housing management within a Social Housing environment,
· Experience of debt recovery, pursuance of housing arrears and enforcement.
· Experience of working with vulnerable customers in financial hardship
· Experience of delivering customer focused services in a variety of settings.
· Awareness and understanding of Housing legislation and an appreciation of the duties and responsibilities of the Council as a landlord.
· Understanding of leaseholders obligations.
· Experience of working with other agencies.
· Awareness, knowledge, and adherence to Information Governance/Data Protection principles.
· Awareness and knowledge of Equality legislation
· Awareness of safeguarding responsibilities
· An understanding and working knowledge of welfare benefit
· Mediation/Conflict management experience
· Experience of CX or NEC Housing system or other housing management software
· An understanding of court protocol and court attendance

Occupational Skills
· Good standard of numeracy, English language and computer literacy, including the ability to explain policies and procedures clearly
· Analytical and problem solver, brings own ideas and initiatives to resolve issues.
· Ability to listen and be sympathetic to customers, often in stressful situations.
· Able to develop, maintain and contribute to constructive working relationships.
· Ability to follow set procedures.
· Ability to work to deadlines.
· Able to communicate effectively, and with empathy, to a wide range of people with varying needs to ensure the message is understood.
· Plans and organises work to meet individual, team and organisational objectives
· Ability to work under pressure and with customers who have high expectations/ good negotiation skills
· Supports opportunities for positive change and actively looks for ways to improve the service.
· Willing to work flexibly in accordance with policies and procedures to meet the operational needs of the Council.

· Experience of working in a challenging or confrontational situations
· Ability to work in partnership with external agencies

Behaviours
Link

· Experience of developing, maintaining, and contributing to constructive working relationships.
Professional Qualifications
· Educated to GCSE level standard or equivalent with minimum level C, (or equivalent) attained in Maths and English.
· Housing related qualification or working towards ie NVQ 3 or above in Housing or a related field or equivalent
Other Requirements
· Able to meet the travel requirements of the post.
· Ability to adapt to different situations
· Able to persuade and motivate
· Self-motivated and desire to learn
· Good level of mobility. The post is office based but arrangements for ‘hybrid’ working can be agreed.
· Comply with the Council’s Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy
· Full driving licence and access to a vehicle for business use.

Career progression:
· At NYC we value our employees, and as part of this we can provide wider opportunities to progress in your career. Through discussion with your manager identify areas of interest and consider avenues to progress to them, e.g. apprenticeships and work shadowing/coaching.
· As a large council we have a range of roles, across our services, and can provide a wealth of career and development opportunities to help our employees find fulfilling career development opportunities.



Structure

NB – Assessment criteria for recruitment will be notified separately.
Optional - Statement for recruitment purposes: You should use this information to make the best of your application by identifying some specific pieces of work you may have undertaken in any of these areas. You will be tested in some or all of the skill specific areas over the course of the selection process.

OFFICIAL

Leasehold officer / Service charge officer

Assignment length – 3 months initially with a view to extend

Hybrid working – need to be in the office 2-3 days per week initially.

Richmond, Harrogate or Selby office can be the base