Decant & Housing Officer

CIH International Housing Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 36,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dedicated Decant & Housing Officer to join their dynamic Landlord Services Team. This role involves supporting the decant process, managing voids, and addressing anti-social behavior while ensuring compliance with housing regulations. The ideal candidate will be organized, motivated, and possess strong interpersonal skills to effectively liaise with tenants and stakeholders. With a commitment to transforming lives, this organization offers a supportive environment and numerous benefits, including extensive training programs and a generous pension plan. If you're passionate about making a difference in the community, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Annual leave increasing up to 30 days

Free DBS

Exclusive discounts via Reward Gateway

Fully paid induction programme

Healthcare Cashplan

Cycle to work scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Online wellbeing resources

Generous pension contribution

Quarterly Staff Awards

Qualifications

• Experience managing customer-focused services and working with stakeholders.
• Strong IT skills to maintain housing management systems.

Responsibilities

• Support the Project Manager on various decants and housing management functions.
• Work with diverse tenants and manage the decant process effectively.

Skills

Customer Service

Interpersonal Skills

Leadership Skills

Time Management

Knowledge of Housing Legislation

IT Skills

Problem Solving

Education

5 GCSEs or equivalent including English and Maths

Tools

Microsoft Office

Housing Management Systems

Job description

Decant & Housing Officer

We're looking for an organised, motivated and resilient Decant & Housing Officer to join our Landlord Services Team in Islington

£36,000.00 per annum, working 35 hours per week.

Want to feel like you have an exciting future? You'll feel at home here.
Making you feel at home here means helping you thrive in every way. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits, award-winning Learning & Development and a culture that welcomes all. These aren't token gestures - we've thought long and hard about how best to support our team. After all, our people are doing something amazing: helping to transform lives every day.

Our benefits include:

1. Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
2. Free DBS (take this out if BSW advert)
3. Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
4. Fully paid induction programme and further training
5. ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
6. Healthcare Cashplan through our partner Healthshield
7. Cycle to work scheme
8. Employee Assistance Programme for 24-7 confidential support
9. Online wellbeing resources
10. A generous pension - we will contribute up to 4% and life assurance cover up to £10,000 (T&Cs apply)
11. Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff's commitment and contribution

All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.

The Decant & Housing Officer will be based at Look Ahead's head office in Islington but there will be regular travel across London and the south east. The Landlord Services team provides housing management across all of Look Ahead's owned and managed properties.
Reporting to the Housing Project Manager, the main focus of the Decant & Housing Officer's role will be to support the Project Manager on various decants for the organisation together with carrying out some Housing Management functions.

The duration of this Secondment will be 8 Months.

What you'll do:
Decant Process

1. Work with diverse tenants who require extra support and refer them to appropriate internal and external support services.
2. Supporting the end-to-end residents decant journey communicating regularly and effectively with all stakeholders.
3. Act as a point of contact for Look Ahead in liaising with internal and external partners to ensure that each resident decant is processed in the most timely and cost-effective way.
4. Carry out decant assessments with customers who are due to be decanted by decommissioning or planned works.
5. Carry out viewing for customers being decanted into alternative Look Ahead accommodation.
6. Other functions relating to the decant process.

Void Management

1. Ensure that void inspections are completed in line with tight time frameworks and that void actions on the housing management system are up-dated, including correctly categorising decant voids.
2. Ensure that referrals are requested from our partner agencies and that voids are let within timescales (if applicable).
3. Regular liaison with the voids team to ensure that any issues potentially delaying re-let times such as repairs work, are dealt with effectively.

Anti-Social Behaviour and other breaches of tenancy

1. Support staff with advice in line with housing law and attend court for some cases.
2. Disseminate best practice and ensure that cases are managed proactively and effectively involving external agencies where appropriate for example the police and social services.
3. Ensure Safeguarding cases are escalated and followed up with both internal and external agencies.

Compliance

1. Attend weekly escalation meetings with the compliance team focusing on gas checks, electrical checks and fire risk assessment actions.
2. Ensure the Estates Officer is following up on access issues and completing fire risk assessment actions.
3. Ensure gas capped risk assessments are completed and work with compliance colleagues to reduce the number of gas capped customers.
4. Ensure that annual fire door checks and monthly communal fire door checks completed and recorded.
5. Lead on legal action such as injunctions with our solicitors if there are repeated access issues.

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

About you:
Personal Attributes:

1. Well organised and highly motivated to ensure delivery to strict deadlines and standards.
2. Strong interpersonal and leadership skills to influence and build credibility internally and externally.
3. Professional manner and approach in all areas of delivery.
4. Self-starter, forward thinking and results focused.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

1. A proven track record of managing the delivery of outstanding customer focused services.
2. Experience of working with other stakeholders to deliver demonstrable business outcomes.
3. Good standard of overall education, such as 5 GCSEs or equivalent (level C or above) including English and Maths.
4. Some knowledge and understanding of housing legislation, regulation and best practice.
5. Experience of managing anti-social behaviour cases and liaison with relevant external agencies.
6. Ability to understand, interpret and fully apply processes and policy; including the application of sound judgement and discretion where required.
7. Strong IT skills to maintain and develop the housing management systems.
8. Microsoft confident to use a variety of software packages including excel spreadsheets and presentation packages.

About us:

Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over 100 services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.
We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:

1. We focus on Excellence and innovation.
2. We are Caring and Compassionate.
3. We are Inclusive and Trusted.
4. We work in Partnership and are One-Team.

Look Ahead is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk, and expects all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, but we feel that you would be suitable for another role, we may contact you to discuss alternative opportunities. If this occurs you would not need to submit another application for the alternative role.

We reserve the right to close this advert early if we are able to appoint to the vacancy before the advertised closed date.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion at work and are accredited with Silver in the Inclusive Employers Standard 2021. We are a proud member of the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant and encourage applications from a diverse range of applicants of all backgrounds.