Housing Officer

We value our employees and want them to reach their full potential. Although there is an induction period, you will be expected to learn on the job with the full support of the management team and your peers. Additional training is available if appropriate and as necessary. What is the job? As a Housing Officer, you will be responsible for rent management, ending tenancies, the allocation of new tenancies and tenancy management of social housing tenancies. You will be expected to help tenants meet their responsibilities in order that they can sustain their tenancies as outlined in their tenancy agreement whilst delivering excellent customer service. Housing Officers support their customers by providing budgeting advice and assistance with maximising income. Money Advisor will support the Housing Officer with this task. A Housing Officer will also play an integral part of outgoing residents ending their tenancies and continuing the with the journey of allocating the vacant property to a new resident and starting their tenancy in a successful way.,

• Please write to tell us how you meet the criteria for the role, and attach this as a cover letter in the 'Supporting Documents' section
• You will need to demonstrate transferable skills from your current or previous employment against each of the points described in 'Who is the person?'
• Applicants will be shortlisted based on their ability to use good examples illustrating what they've done, why they've done it and how they went about it?
  
  Demonstrate experience of building a positive rapport with customers.
• Demonstrate an ability of working with customers in a challenging front-line service and be comfortable visiting customers in their home.
• Understand the demands of the customer, prioritise and respond accordingly, whilst tailoring your approach to the needs of different individuals.
• Have experience of using your sound judgement to make informed decisions regarding the cases you manage and being able to consider all the facts of a case, including taking a lead in partnership working with others and utilising other resources to achieve the right result for customers.
• Demonstrate examples of how you would provide help and support to our customers to enable them to meet their responsibilities as a tenant and actions you may take as a consequence of a tenant not adhering to the tenancy agreement.
• Be pro-active and highly motivated with the ability to work quickly, accurately and consistently when under pressure, managing your time effectively and be able to manage conflicting priorities appropriately.
• Be able to keep calm and stay objective when dealing with sensitive / challenging situations and be able to effectively manage challenging customers.
• Be able to work independently in a focused, diligent and transparent manner.
• Be competent with using Microsoft software including Excel, Word and Outlook and be able to use IT systems to keep clear, accurate, concise and methodical records.
• Be able to effectively communicate to customers, colleagues, departments, agencies and councillor enquiries both verbally and in writing. Ensuring your record keeping always acts as a clear audit trail of your decision making, supporting the strong ownership of your patch.
• Be confident with speaking in public, including representing the local authority at Court hearings (usually without legal representation) and at multi-agency case conferences.
• You may be expected to work from any of the 7 area offices and carry out work outside of office hours as per the needs of the service and customer.
• You will need access to a car daily in order to be able to support customers effectively.
  
  Portsmouth City Council is the largest social landlord in the area with responsibility for managing over 17,000 council owned and leasehold properties!
  
  You will be starting on a salary of £29,777 going up to £33,945 as you progress.
The Full-time post is typically worked across 5 working days Monday - Friday between 8:30-17:00. You may need to have the use of a car for the role, but the Council will pay 45p per mile you drive as part of your Housing Officer Role., We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:
• A generous pension scheme
• Up to 31 days annual leave per year pro rata + bank holidays
• Flexible / hybrid working where appropriate
• A range of retail discounts via our reward portal offering discounts at retailers including IKEA, Currys, Tesco
• Free Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellbeing support
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships
• Potential to purchase additional annual leave
• Business travel support and initiatives, including bike loans