PRS (Private Rented Sector) Lettings Negotiator – AR

Carrington Blake Recruitment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A recruitment agency in Greater London is seeking a PRS Letting Negotiator to secure private rented accommodations at affordable levels. The successful candidate will lead negotiations with landlords, assist tenants with their tenancy applications, and ensure compliance with housing regulations. Ideal applicants will have strong negotiation and customer service skills, as well as a degree level education or equivalent experience. This position is critical in addressing homelessness and managing housing needs within the community.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level standard or equivalent or demonstrable suitable experience.
• Knowledge of legislation and good practice relating to housing advice and management.
• Experience of negotiation and telephone based sales in a sales/procurement environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead on securing private rented accommodation at affordable levels.
• Operate a property finding service generating leads.
• Provide assistance to prospective tenants for tenancy applications.

Skills

Negotiation

Customer service

Communication

Problem-solving

Education

Degree level education or equivalent experience

Job description

Job Title: PRS Letting Negotiator – TO START ASAP!

Department: Housing Service Division: Housing Needs Business Unit:

Grade: SO2

Reports to: Leasing & Lettings Manager (FTC)

Context

Housing Needs delivers a variety of services to our residents to help relief and prevent homelessness. This role focuses on procuring private accommodations to support other departments and residents. The role reports to the Private Sector Lettings Senior Officer.

Job Purpose

To lead on securing through individual negotiations a supply of private rented accommodation at affordable renting levels to use to meet housing need. The post holder will authorise payments and ensure supply by negotiating rents and offering payments from the homelessness prevention fund to secure properties for a range of customer groups, including homelessness prevention and relief cases, move on from supported housing and move on from temporary accommodation. To provide the necessary support for prospective tenants to enable them to start their tenancy.

Responsibilities

• To operate a property finding service by generating leads from a variety of sources including known landlords, web sites, publications and cold calling.
• To provide information to landlords on services available, assist landlords in completing any property related administration and keep accurate records of all landlord contact details.
• To provide information to landlords on their responsibilities, and advise them on how to meet them.
• To carry out inspections of properties and write property inspection reports in order to assess their suitability for households in housing need, investigate any disrepair issues, identify potential health and safety hazards and make recommendations.
• To liaise with Housing Advisors and other Housing Needs colleagues in order to assess prospective tenants’ suitability for private renting by reviewing their housing history and housing needs assessment, confirming their financial circumstances and ability to maintain a PRS tenancy.
• To provide prospective tenants with comprehensive details of suitable and available private rented properties for letting and conducting an innovative “matching” service between prospective tenant and available properties, depending on tenant needs.
• To ensure all available and suitable private rented properties are inspected, advertised and let as quickly as possible, in line with agreed procedures.
• To undertake accompanied viewings with prospective tenants and provide tenants and landlords with expert advice and guidance on all aspects of lettings
• To ensure prospective tenants are fully assisted with applying for Universal Credit or Housing Benefits and fully advised regarding setting up direct rent payments.
• To liaise with the council’s Empty Property Officer, Home Improvement Agency and private sector enforcement service to maximise the take up of grants and opportunities for landlords.
• To attend and actively participate in advertising the Council’s Private Renting Scheme at various landlords and tenants forums, trade events and one-to-one liaison meetings with lettings professionals and landlords and contribute to the design and content of promotional materials.
• Utilise IT systems to update and record information required according to guidance and established procedures. Ensure customer and management information is accurate and up to date at all times.
• Participate in appraisals, one to ones, objective settings, personal development plans and working group meetings and take a full and active role in service development, including service reviews.
• Adhere to Council financial regulations, especially homelessness and fraud prevention.
• Respond to member’s enquiries and draft responses to complaints/enquiries on individual cases or other areas of the post holder’s work, in-line with documented procedures.
• Be self-servicing with respect to general office administration, filing, clerical work and other related duties and to answer telephone and email enquiries and other general correspondence.
• Provide temporary cover, appropriate to the post for the Housing Needs business. If away for a period of time, provide written handover notes, including identification of the location of relevant file/records on the areas of work covered by the post holder.
• Contribute to the delivery of a cost effective service maximising the efficient use of all resources utilised within the business.
• Undertake ongoing professional development and actively participate in training sessions. Keep up to date with legislation, case law, best practice and council policies and procedures and initiatives.
• To take responsibility, relevant to the post, for ensuring that Council statutes and government legislation is upheld. This includes the Data Protection Act, the Health and Safety at Work Act, Equalities and Diversity, Standing Orders and Financial regulations.
• Take responsibility, appropriate to the post, for ensuring compliance with council policies and procedures aimed at promoting and safeguarding the welfare of vulnerable children and adults.
• To take responsibility, appropriate to the post, for tackling racism and promoting good race, ethnic and community relations.
• To work flexibly in undertaking the duties and responsibilities of this job, and participate as required in multi-disciplinary cross-department and cross organisational groups and task teams.
• To undertake any other duties that may be required. These may be varied from time to time to meet the needs of the service.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

PRS Lettings Negotiator (SO2)

It is essential that in you can meet the following requirements for the role and be able to give evidence or examples of your proven experience in each of the short-listing criteria marked Application (A).

You should expect that all areas listed below will be assessed as part of the interview and assessment process should you be shortlisted.
If you are applying under the Disability Confident scheme, you will need to give evidence or examples of your proven experience in the areas marked with “Ticks” () on the person specification when you complete the application form.

Qualification

• Educated to degree level standard or equivalent or demonstrable suitable experience.

Key Knowledge

• Knowledge of legislation and good practice relating to housing advice, homelessness, housing management and the allocation of housing, with a good practical understanding of the range of housing problems people may experience.
• Broad knowledge and understanding of the housing and support needs of homeless and housing applicants and tenants, including benefits.
• To have a good and practical knowledge of property standards, health and safety issues, regulations and legislative requirements including local policies and best practice.

Relevant Experience

• Experience of negotiation and telephone based sales in a sales / procurement environment.
• Experience of working in a service within a pressurised and high profile environment within a multi-disciplinary team, providing a quality service.
• Experience of achieving performance targets and meeting departmental objectives.
• Experience of providing quality advice and information to members of the public and of handling complaints and enquiries.
• Experience of producing high quality written communications to a corporate standard and preparing and presenting reports.
• Experience of using different IT systems in order to manage caseloads, monitor delivery of targets and analyse data to drive improved service.

Core Values and Behaviours

Equity
• Listen to the views of others and ask for their opinions making sure that everyone in my team inputs into the things that matter.
• Ensure fairness and justice is at the heart of my decision making and support to my team and others.
• Take time to build trust, building the respect of our stakeholders and ensuring as a team we take accountability for doing what we agree to do.
• Develop others and ensure we work as one team for Lambeth, encouraging everyone to play their part
• Take positive action to ensure everyone in my team has opportunities to learn and grow at work
• Encourage everyone to be themselves at work and value who they are
• I am inclusive and actively celebrate diversity, recognising everyone in my team as individuals.

Kindness
• Treat each member of my team with respect and dignity just as I would want for myself.
• Encourage each member of my team to do their very best work and am available to them to provide support and guidance.
• Personalise my support to each team members and look out for them, lending a hand wherever I can
• Encourage everyone to try and learn from mistakes and use integrity to take action with my team to put things right together
• Work with empathy seeking to understand each and every member of team, their unique perspective and circumstances and ensure everyone is heard
• Take the time to communicate, being honest, open and genuine and taking the time to get to know team members as individuals.
• Show compassion and patience recognising that everyone in the team has unique experience and celebrating the great work they do for Lambeth.
• Look after the health and wellbeing of my team members and encourage open and regular discussions about the issues that impact on them, working together to find solutions.

Accountability
• I encourage and support my team to do the right thing even when it’s tough and we communicate our decisions in a timely way
• I ensure my team and employees take individual and collective accountability for performance and delivery, making sure that they have clear plans and performance objectives.
• I ensure my team plan ahead, getting the basics right and take swift action when problems arise
• I encourage my team to be risk aware and ensuring that our decisions and actions are informed and understood and communicated to others.
• I provide regular, timely and constructive feedback to my team members on their performance and behaviours and act quickly when performance is not on track.
• I share my learning, knowledge and skills with others thorough coaching and mentoring and encourage others to do the same.
• I ensure that my team and I put residents, communities, customers and their needs at the centre of everything we do.
• I encourage my team to learn and grow and ask questions to find the information they need to do their jobs

Ambition
• Am proud of our borough and my team and encourage everyone in the team to aim for the highest possible standards of excellence in everything we do.
• Encourage my team to be flexible and try new things when it’s appropriate to do so and tell me what could be improved.
• Promote a one team for Lambeth approach reaching out to our stakeholders to face our challenges together
• Encourage and support my team to be courageous for our residents and communities and stop at nothing to ensure they have the best possible outcomes
• I make time for the team to Innovate and look for creative ways to do things better, being curious about possibilities.
• Positively challenge and encourage the team to collaborate and look for solutions together across service and team boundaries.
• Make time for my team to grow and develop taking advantage of opportunities to learn from each other and others. We plan our learning and career growth.