Garages Income Officer LBS-007

Southwark Council, The Borough, Southwark

Garages Income Officer LBS-007

Salary not available. View on company website.

Southwark Council, The Borough, Southwark

  • Full time
  • Permanent
  • Onsite working

Posted 2 weeks ago, 24 Jan | Get your application in now before you miss out!

Closing date: Closing date not specified

job Ref: 9d27402e5ad14fea95d5a3617fca8c0f

Full Job Description

Income Officer (Garages)
Grade
7
Division / Unit
Finance & Governance - Exchequer Services
Department
Homeownership Services
Reports To
Homeownership Manager

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

1. To deliver excellent professional and specialist services to residents in line with the Council's vision, values, resources, strategic and service priorities.
2. To collect rental income from the garages, barrow stores and non-residential property portfolio in accordance with prevailing legislation and Data Protection Acts, and in a correct, open and transparent manner in accordance with the required industry and professional standards

3. To be the first point of contact for the Council in respect to all garages, barrow stores and non-residential property rent account queries. By negotiating payment plans and deciding on which cases to instruct legal to sue, the post holder is directly responsible for the non-residential income stream into exchequer services and the HRA and will have a direct influence on the monthly income and arrears totals which are reported to senior management at the corporate income and debt meetings.
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. To maintain appropriate relationships with other departments of the Council, external agencies and the community, and to develop joint initiatives where these add value to service delivery.

2. To follow all policies and procedures and guidelines in connection with the recovery of garages, barrow stores and other non-residential rents and service charges with specific reference to the provision of the services to which the charges relate.

3. Managing and taking ownership of a large portfolio using the council's financial and other housing management software packages.

4. To produce reports for the Homeownership Manager (Income), as and when required.

5. To undertake interviews with customers, site, office and home visits, in connection with the portfolio.

6. To administer in accordance with current policies and procedures and with the authorisation of the Homeownership Manager (Income), instalment agreements, any other appropriate assistance that can be given to your customers to assist them to pay their rent and other non-residential charges in accordance with the terms of their licence.

7. To have real and meaningful ownership of the garages, barrow stores and non-residential portfolio including responding to enquiries from customers, their representatives or other departments. Liaising with colleagues within homeownership services or other council departments to provide a clear, concise and accurate response that reflects our policies and procedures.

8. To operate as an effective team member carrying out additional duties as required ensuring excellent customer service across the team and wider homeownership services.

9. Operating the council's current telephony system, ensuring that you adhere to the procedure for answering telephone enquiries updating notes on the system relating to the call and adhering to the customer satisfaction survey process. Undertaking general administrative tasks as required supporting the team and overall business unit in the administering and collecting of rents and other non-residential charges.

JOB CONTEXT

10. To ensure that you are working with customers to maximise income. Monitoring accounts and proactively chasing payment, contacting customers to discuss missed payments, and encouraging payment. Interrogating accounts to ensure that appropriate action is being taken in accordance with the current policies and procedures.

11. Collecting income due thus contributing to the financial probity of the Councils Housing Revenue Account. Utilising your knowledge and experience to help develop arrears recovery strategies giving consideration to our customer's diverse demographic and innovative strategies to engage with them in a positive and supportive way encompassing the ethos of the behavioural insights project.

12. Manage garage and barrow store rents and other non-residential accounts to maximise income using all available tools including systems reports, escalation policies, automated and ad-hoc communications. Investigating accounts and customers where required using council tax records, Experian and the electoral roll.

13. Escalating cases in line with the courts debt pre-action protocol ensuring that the Letter of Claim is accurate and reflects the true status of the account taking account of standing order, direct debit dates and/or any miss-posted payments. Proactively checking payment history to ensure that letters of claim are not spuriously issued to prevent undermining the integrity of the process and the provision of inefficient customer service.

14. Process requests for refunds, transfers, write-offs and write-backs in accordance with current policies and procedures and within set timescales ensuring quality of information and service delivery.

15. To process and respond to the letter of claim reply forms within agreed targets to ensure the process for enforcing and collecting debts is not frustrated and the customer is aware at all times of their liability to pay.

16. To undertake detailed preparation for court, having undertaken relevant instruction and advice from Homeownership Manager (Income) and Litigation Officer.

17. To operate the appropriate financial controls when dealing with customer accounts e.g. reallocation of cash matters, maintaining schedule of customer details.

18. To ensure that the collection of monies within the portfolio is in accordance with prevailing financial audit provisions and attendant reporting mechanisms.

19. To liaise internally with various departments e.g. legal services, asset management, resident services, customer experience and Financial control and processing etc. and to also liaise with professional agencies e.g. solicitors, financial companies etc.as and when required and with the councils external contractors.

20. To comply with equal opportunities, valuing diversity, health and safety and tobacco policies as revised from time to time

Grade/Conditions of Service

Evaluated as 7
Contractual hours: 36 hours, Monday to Friday
The conditions of service for this post will be in accordance with the National joint Council for Local Authorities Administrative, Professional, Technical and Clerical Services, enhanced by Council conditions.

The person specification is a picture of skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out the job., Substantial experience of income/debt recovery for a portfolio of residential leasehold, and non-residential properties in a mixed tenure environment, Ability to prioritise work effectively, to meet deadlines and to deal with conflicting priorities. Ability to work to set standards and targets. Effective time management skills, Ability to work on own initiative and be self-motivated and committed to providing a service to customers. Evidence of a strong customer focus and ability to contribute to continuous improvement.

  • Facebook

Get new jobs for this search by email