Service Charge Specialist

Title:                           Service Charge Specialist

Contracts:                  FTC up to 12 months

Hours:                        Full-Time, 35 hours per week

Persona:                    Agile (20-40% in office and 3-4 days working from home)

Office Location:        Stratford, London                     

Salary:                       £40,649 per annum

 

Role Profile - Service Charge Specialist.pdf

 

Closing date for completed applications: 14th April 2025 at 11:59 pm

 

**Early applications are encouraged as we reserve the right to close the advertisement and interview earlier than stated.

  

Do you consider yourself a proactive problem solver with a knack for financial accuracy and a passion for delivering exceptional customer service?

 

If so, L&Q has an exciting and rewarding opportunity for you to join our Service Charge team as a Service Charge Specialist.

 

About the Role:

Join our dynamic Service Charge team and make a tangible impact on the lives of thousands of residents. As a Service Charge Specialist, you'll play a pivotal role in ensuring fair and accurate service charges for around 80,000 homes. You will manage a portfolio of approximately 8,000 homes, working closely with local neighbourhood teams to address any customer queries.

 

Your Impact in the Role:

• Maximize Recovery: Optimize the recovery of service charge expenditures for approximately 12,000 units, ensuring accurate calculations and timely reconciliations to reduce deficits and meet deadlines.
• Service Charge Expertise: Calculate and apportion service charges accurately, conducting regular expenditure analyses and addressing risks that could impact cost recovery.
• Resident Query Resolution: Take ownership of resident queries and complaints, delivering clear communication and maintaining L&Q’s legal position in complex scenarios within defined service-level targets.
• Legal and Compliance Focus: Represent L&Q in First-Tier Tribunal cases, manage S20b notices, and ensure compliance with sections 18-30 of the Landlord and Tenant Act, alongside other relevant legislation.
• Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement: Work collaboratively with internal teams, external auditors, and stakeholders to manage litigation, resolve risks, and ensure transparent service charge accounting.
• Data and Risk Management: Maintain accurate records in service charge systems, proactively identifying and addressing risks while producing clear, concise reports for stakeholders.

 

What You'll Bring:

• Legislative and Financial Knowledge: In-depth understanding of service charge laws, including sections 18-30 of the Landlord and Tenant Act, and a solid grasp of income/expenditure principles.
• Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to assess risks, handle unforeseen costs, and make informed decisions in challenging situations.
• Customer Service Excellence: Demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional service while managing complaints and queries professionally.
• Conflict Resolution Expertise: Experience in resolving resident complaints, attending court appearances, and adapting communication styles for diverse audiences.
• Organizational Skills: Proven capability to prioritize tasks, manage a high-volume portfolio, and meet deadlines independently.
• Communication and Collaboration: Strong interpersonal skills to effectively manage stakeholder relationships, confidently represent L&Q at tribunals and deliver clear messaging in resident meetings.
• Proactive and Detail-Oriented Approach: Adept at managing service charge systems, producing detailed reports, and working collaboratively to achieve organizational goals.

 

Why Work for L&Q?

L&Q is not just a workplace; it's a community. Recognised as one of the UK's Best Workplaces for Women and certified as a Great Place to Work, we offer an environment where everyone can thrive.

 

The successful candidate will have access to our full suite of benefits, which includes:

• Generous Annual Leave: Starting at 28 days and increasing to 31 days after 3 years of continuous service.
• Excellent Pension Scheme: Double contribution up to 6%.
• Health Cash Plan: Claim money towards different types of medical services, and access other health and well-being offers
• Life Assurance: Generous non-contributory coverage.
• Employee Assistance Programme: Support when you need it.
• Recognition Bonus Scheme: Spot awards for outstanding contributions.
• Family-Friendly Policies: Designed to help you balance work and family life
• Diverse Networking Groups: Join groups like Ability, Kaleidoscope, Inspire & Spectrum.
• Volunteer Time: Up to 21 hours per year to volunteer with the charity of your choice.
• Learning & Development: Commitment to your professional growth.

 

If you’re ready to bring your expertise in service charge legislation, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills to deliver exceptional outcomes, we’d love to hear from you! Apply today!

 

As a charitable organisation, our role goes beyond providing homes and housing services. We are a long-term partner in the neighbourhoods where we work. We hope to build aspiration, opportunity and confidence in our communities through our £250 million L&Q Foundation and our skills academy.

 

Our vision is that everyone has a quality home they can afford, and we combine our social purpose with a commercial drive to create homes and neighbourhoods everyone can be proud of.

 

At the foundation of everything that we do are our corporate values and associated behaviours. Our organisational behavioural framework outlines the core expectations of all employees, which should be demonstrated at all times when representing L&Q.   More information about L&Q’s values can be found on our website and a copy of our behavioural framework can be provided on request.

 

Our commitments:

At L&Q, people are at the heart of our business and our success depends on employing the best people and getting the best from them.  This is why we are committed to developing our people. It's only by investing in a well-trained and motivated workforce that we can continue to prosper and sustain business success.

 

We are committed to supporting your work-life balance and recognise the changing demands and circumstances in life.  Please let us know during the recruitment process if you’re interested in part time working or job sharing.  In addition, should your circumstances change once you have joined L&Q, you can also request flexible working arrangements, e.g. a change to working hours - if it’s feasible then we’ll make it happen.

 

We are recognised externally for our commitment to inclusion.  We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident (Committed) employer and have signed the Time to Change Employer Pledge to demonstrate our commitment to end mental health discrimination in the workplace.

 

We expect all of our employees to support our environmental policy and social responsibility work. We are an employer committed to environmental and social responsibility.