Leasehold Officer

Our local authority client based in North London are urgently seeking an experienced Leasehold Officer.

*£25.96 an hour umbrella*

Leasehold officers are responsible for:

• collecting service charges (annual and major works), building insurance, ground rent, shared ownership rent and ad hoc recharges across a residential and commercial property portfolio;
• providing a front-line leasehold management service including processing legal notices and applications for alterations, sales, subletting, re-mortgages etc;
• investigating and resolving breach of lease cases.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Collection

1. Provide a comprehensive arrears service on a patch basis or other designated area in accordance with Islington Council’s policies and procedures. This includes carrying out all functions relating to the control and monitoring of arrears (for example, negotiating payments and taking recovery action, including legal action in the County Court or First Tier Tribunal) ensuring that targets and timescales are met.
2. Provide general advice to leaseholders about benefits entitlement and identify suitable cases for referral to the debt advice service provider.
3. Ensure that legal recovery action is co-ordinated in cases where there is both annual and major works service charge debt on accounts.
4. Make payment arrangements with leaseholders to clear their arrears in line with procedures.
5. Investigate and respond within target timescales to correspondence, queries, disputes and complaints relating to the quality and extent of services and work recharged to leaseholders/freeholders, and on the calculation, apportionment and collection of charges where these impact on collection, liaising with the relevant Home Ownership teams and council departments as appropriate.

Leasehold management

1. Ensure a high quality, helpful and friendly leasehold management service is provided including giving advice to leaseholders about their statutory and contractual rights and responsibilities.
2. Ensure compliance with section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 regarding Qualifying Long-Term Agreements by assisting with s20 mailings and having due regard for formal observations submitted within the consultation period.
3. Review block and estate repairs for accuracy (i.e. coded to the correct block/estate) and reasonableness (e.g. identifying duplicate jobs) before they are recharged to leaseholders and freeholders.
4. Conduct welcome visits/interviews with new leaseholders to explain service charges, rights and responsibilities under the lease/transfer document etc.
5. Investigate and take appropriate action in cases of breach of lease, liaising as necessary with the Area Housing Office, Legal Services and the Council’s Planning department etc

Please apply with your updated CV ensuring that any gaps in employment are explained.

At this point, may we take this opportunity to thank you for the interest you have shown in this role. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications that we receive, it is not always possible to respond to everyone. Therefore, unless you hear from us within the next 7 days, your application for this vacancy will have been unsuccessful.