Homeownership Income Specialsit

Role Purpose

• Takes a lead in managing homeownership accounts ensuring payments are received in accordance with liabilities. This covers a number of different homeownership schemes which could include Shared Ownership, Equity Loans, My Choice Homebuy, Managed Leasehold, Managed Freehold and Freehold accounts.

• Identifies differences in lease terms relating to the payment of rent and service charges and take action to reduce any arrears.

• Works as a case management specialist to negotiate clear repayment terms with  customers, ensuring that collection of rental income is a priority whilst demonstrating empathy, rapport building and understanding in order to provide 1-2-1 support to  customers and support them to manage their money better.

Key Accountabilities

1. Ensure that home owners pay their rent / service charges / ground rent / interest / recharges when due by running reports, reviewing and checking agreements.
2. Take prompt and appropriate action where accounts have an arrears balance and reflecting the risk to the business e.g. telephoning, liaising with mortgage lenders and solicitors and all other actions to encourage payment. Agreements made with residents must be affordable and must include an acknowledgement of the debt by the resident.
3. Deals with account queries regarding payment and account balance, and liaises with other staff to resolve service delivery issues.
4. Provide welfare advice to residents in difficulty and assist in identifying cases where residents are unable to maintain the current position and consider whether flexible tenure or mortgage rescue may be relevant.
5. Recommend when penalties should be applied to accounts e.g. My Choice Homebuy.
6. Contributes to the setting up of new accounts by reviewing all new accounts and identifying any source of delays. Liaising with relevant internal teams to resolve any issues.
7. Reviewing lease terms for differences to understand the obligations of both the Leaseholder andHA.
8. Signposting and referring customers to the Gateway, working closely with external agencies such as Housing Benefit, DSS, and preparing case work for the debt advice agencies.
9. Managing the legal process from start to finish by holding NOSP meeting, preparing Ground 8 approval forms, applying to court for possession hearings, representing The HA at County Court hearings and working with solicitors where required.
10. Managing cases affected by Welfare Reform, referring former debts to recovery agents and completing write off requests.
11. Dealing with account queries from residents regarding payment and account balance including advice on how they can maximise their income and minimise outgoings, whilst clearing outstanding arrears.
12. Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with all work colleagues to ensure a one team approach to the delivery of our services whilst meeting individual and team key performance indicators and targets.
13. Working collaboratively with Neighbourhood Experience teams to tackle arrears and to support vulnerable residents.
14. Using the Gateway ‘triage’ model, to identify referrals to the Gateway team and taking ownership of complex cases by working collaboratively with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
15. To support clients with the use of digital solutions to manage their money better.

Provide outreach & home visits to clients and attend evictions where this is required.

About you:
(Key skills, knowledge and experience)

• Proven experience in a social landlord environment of managing a variety of home owner tenure accounts.

• Good working knowledge of home ownership, housing management and welfare benefits legislation and practice, with proven experience of working in a demanding customer service environment.

• Good working knowledge of the arrears recovery process from beginning to end across a range of tenures, with experience of working in a demanding customer service environment.
• Well developed questioning, listening and influencing skills.
• Has experience of dealing with difficult customers, some of who may be demanding, vulnerable or under stress and is able to maintain a professional approach to resolving their concerns/ meeting their needs and managing their expectations as appropriate.
• Demonstrable experience of delivering customer service excellence and knowledge of the benefits system.
• Understands how to achieve value for money outcomes.
• Well developed IT skills including experience of using MSOffice and the ability to proficiently use computerised databases.
• Able to meet targets and deadlines whilst working under daily pressure.
• Good administrative, organisational, planning / prioritization skills and an ability to acquire knowledge and grasp new concepts quickly.
• Provide budgeting support and facilitate digital inclusion to help people manage their money better and anticipate changes to frequency of payments with the introduction of Universal Credit.
• Demonstrate clear understanding of issues faced by customers facing financial exclusion.

Relationship Management

• Works as a key member of a team and understands the wider impact of the work on other departments and teams.
• Must be a flexible and co-operative team player.
• Has significant interaction with other parts of the organisation at a range of levels.
• Liaises with external organisations and partners as appropriate.
• Adopts a one team approach to develop a win / win outcome.

Specific Role Competencies

• Strong negotiating and influencing skills

• Ability to demonstrate empathy, build rapport and an understanding with customers

• Able to understand the difficulties of residents in meeting payments and the different perspectives they have according to tenure. This must be balanced against the need to ensure payments are prioritised.