Housing & Enforcement Specialist

HOUSING & ENFORCEMENT SPECIALIST

At Great Places the Housing & Enforcement Specialist is a key expert role working within the Housing & Enforcement team; providing a comprehensive, cross tenure, housing management, housing law, ASB and tenancy enforcement service across the Customer Services Directorate.

You will work within the principles of our Service Delivery Framework to ensure sustainable outcomes for both customers and the business. You will have responsibilities ranging from dealing with legal and technical advice queries from front line housing colleagues, undertaking case reviews, providing complex case support to frontline officers on a range of subjects including ASB, breaches of tenancy, residential leasehold and enforcement matters generally. Managing a caseload of the most complex cases across the business, you’ll train and upskill frontline teams to deliver a high level of service to customers, whilst preparing and managing legal cases to resolution.

You will provide expert advice on housing law matters relating to housing management and ASB, and  work to ensure compliance with our policies and processes, ensuring that we provide a high quality, customer focused service which also meets best practice and achieves value for money.

What you’ll be doing

• Providing expert advice and support for housing law and housing policy matters, preparing and expediting legal cases to court, presenting cases in court, where necessary in conjunction with legal services partners.
• Supporting, advising and working collaboratively with key partners and frontline teams to resolve (either directly or by supporting colleagues) customer demands around ASB, harassment, other breaches of tenancy or leases such as tenancy fraud, trespass or more complex housing management issues.
• Undertaking case reviews with relevant colleagues relating to ASB/Tenancy Management demands which have evolved, drifted or become more complex in nature and need a fresh set of eyes to achieve resolution, providing specialist advice and case management support where required.
• To case manage the most complex cases identified through case reviews beyond the knowledge, expertise and support of neighbourhood teams, and which require specialist case management or enforcement action, including legal work as required, maintaining clear communications with colleagues and customers throughout.
• Where legal intervention is necessary take forward all housing related legal processes; ensuring all case work is fully compliant with policy, processes and regulation, that customers are clear on actions being taken and their responsibilities, and feel fully supported through the process.
• Facilitate opportunities for shared learning across frontline teams to strive towards a culture of continuous improvement, improved customer service and value for money, identifying gaps in knowledge and specialist skills for training programmes for front line teams and the HUB.
• Provide training, coaching  and support to frontline teams as necessary to develop skills and competencies that will support them in case management and facilitate legal escalation as required.
• To promote, develop, maintain and ultimately be responsible for effective working relationships with Great Places colleagues and key external partners, ensuring that respective roles and responsibilities are clearly communicated, understood and implemented.
• To keep up to date with any legislative, policy, best practice and regulatory changes, assessing the impact on the business and our customers, communicating as required to the Housing & Enforcement Manager. Using this knowledge to contribute to the development and amendment of relevant policies, procedures and IT support systems. 

What you’ll need

• A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing
• A passion to advocate on behalf of people and communities
• Ideally you will have some legal training and experience of managing a demanding specialist case load.
• Excellent working knowledge of housing law in relation to contractual and statutory provisions relevant to Registered Providers.
• Have a good working knowledge of all aspects of ASB and enforcement legislation and regulation.
• Ability and commitment to keep abreast of legislative changes and a sound foundation for further learning.
• Proven relationship builder and influencer with stakeholders.
• The ability to motivate, inspire and influence a large and diverse workforce by example and persuasion.
• Experience of training, coaching and skills development and the ability to communicate complex information effectively.
• Excellent written and oral skills.
• An ability to recognise, develop and effectively promote new opportunities for Great Places.
• Great Places Housing Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults and expects all our colleagues to share this commitment; this role is subject to a basic DBS check

What we need from you

• Great people skills and able to collaborate effectively with a range of stakeholders and colleagues.
• Effective communicator across a range of audiences.
• Flair for liaising,  negotiating, and influencing.
• Good commercial awareness and insight.
• Not afraid to challenge the status quo / takes a balanced approach to risk.  
• Ability to complete tasks in an accurate and timely manner when working under pressure and maintain attention to detail.
• Self-reliant and resilient.
• Effective problem solver.
• Professional and value led with integrity, inclusivity and respect for diversity.
• Ability to maintain an effective network to support service development and the application of good practice in housing and property law related matters..
• Highly organised with an ability to plan, prioritise and manage deadlines
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Ability to travel between sites and to meet external commitments, and work flexibly and when needed outside normal working hours.

What we give you in return for your hard work and commitment

• Pension ¦DC Scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleague and Great Places)
• WPA ¦Healthcare auto enrolled at no contribution level with £1250 of savings available- option to increase & add on family members
• The Market Place ¦high street, restaurant & supermarket discounts, gym memberships, cycle to work, smart tech loans and much more
• Annual Leave ¦Start at 26 days annual leave, increasing up to 30 days + Bank Holidays
• Lottery ¦ Monthly draw with 1st @ £250, 2nd @ £75 and 3rd @ £50
• Savings Club ¦ You can put aside money each month for 11 months to help you save for that special something (pays out in Novembers salary)
• Sharing Greatness ¦ Our colleague incentive scheme where colleagues can earn £300 by helping the business achieve business targets.
• Help with transport ¦ We offer season ticket loans, an affordable way to purchase season tickets for public transport at discounted rates .

At Great Places we believe the wellbeing of our colleagues is vital to enable them to deliver to great services, all your benefits can be used inside and outside of work.

INDAD