Lettings Officer

The role

We are looking for Lettings Officers to join our Housing team here at Southern Housing. This is a permanent, hybrid role based at our Watch Oak office in Battle 2 days a week.

ABOUT US:

Here at Southern Housing, our vision is to create communities where everyone has a safe home in a place where they're proud to live. We're one of the largest housing providers in the UK with over 77,000 homes across London, the South East, the Isle of Wight and the Midlands, giving over 167,000 people somewhere affordable to call their own. We're big and we're local. Residents are at the heart of all we and we use our size to influence positive change in the areas where we operate.

Our culture is what makes us unique and stand out from other organisations. There are many different cultural elements that are important to us, including:

• Our HEART values - Honest, Efficient, Accountable, Respectful and Trustworthy
• Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I)
• The importance we place on collaborating and having fun together
• Our commitment to great work life balance and positive wellbeing

THE ROLE:

The Lettings team form part of the regional Housing teams. As a Lettings Officer, you will work in collaboration with regional Housing and repair colleagues to deliver customer excellence, providing a performance driven, customer focused empty homes and lettings service, which maxims our income, minimises are revenue losses and allocates and occupies our empty home quickly. You will deliver a service in line with policy and procedures and to agreed performance standards in a professional, empathetic, polite, courteous, and hard working as well as proactively resolving issues when they find them, in a compliant, safe and efficient manner.

Responsibilities will include:

• Providing an effective lettings service achieving high customer satisfaction in line with policy and procedures.
• Maintaining administration systems and accurate records and prepare regular returns and reports as required.
• Advertising and marketing empty properties, shortlist applicants and co-ordinate pre moving out visits.
• Liaising with regional and other internal teams to ensure properties becoming void are processed as quickly as possible ensuring repairs and safety checks are completed in the minimum time, and within agreed targets.
• Ensuring income is maximised through rent and service charges payments in advance, by providing customers with all the information they need.
• Ensuring all identification documentation is provided prior to tenancy start date, undertaking relevant eligibility assessments as appropriate.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

• Ability to meet targets and deadlines, prioritise workloads and work under pressure showing persistence and determination when setbacks occur
• Ability to communicate effectively and concisely, displaying good interpersonal skills in multiple modes (phone, face-to-face, emails and in writing) using customer friendly language

• Ideally you would have some experience of Local authority waiting lists, choice-based lettings schemes
• Effective interpersonal skills and the ability to work collaboratively with stakeholders
• Ability to learn and effectively use multiple IT and communication systems
• A good problem solver with an ability to handle crisis situations focusing on the needs of the residents and the business

Please note, in your supporting statement, it is important that you address how you meet each of the above criteria providing real examples.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Closing Date for this role: Thursday 19th December 2024 at 23:59pm

Please note, we reserve the right to close this vacancy early, should we receive a high volume of applications

About us

At Southern Housing, our residents are at the heart of everything we do. As one of the largest housing providers in the UK with over 77,000 homes across London, the Southeast, the Isle of Wight, and the Midlands, we give over 167,000 people somewhere affordable to call their own!We also understand the difference that safe, secure, and affordable homes can make to people's lives.

A career at Southern Housing will allow you to make a difference every day you come to work. Working in the housing sector with us will bring fresh challenges and give you the opportunity to grow and develop, too.

What's in it for you

Pension

Life
assurance

Healthcare cash plan

Eyecare & dental

Birthday
leave

Retailers discounts

Cycle
to work

Buy & sell
annual leave

Season ticket loan

In-house academy & career development

Flexible working

Inclusion & Diversity

We work hard to create a diverse and inclusive culture and environment where people are respected for who they are. Encouraging inclusion is not just about protected characteristics, it's about celebrating differences of thought, opinion, experience and perspective of each individual.

We're all different in our own way and we want our colleagues to feel comfortable, that they belong, and are safe to be themselves at work, without fear of being judged or excluded, but valued for their contribution to our One Team approach.