Vacancies Service Charge Disputes and Consultation Manager

Main Responsibility

We are recruiting a Dispute and Consultation Manager to be part of the newly formed Notting Hill Genesis operational Service Charge team.  This role will play a key role in bringing NHG’s customer strategy, particularly our commitments that we fix problems well and fast and that we really listen to residents and act in response.

Reporting into a Head of Service Charge and teaming up with Service Charge Business Partners and Officers, you will support the business to handle Disputes and challenges that may arise during the annual Service Charge cycle.

You will also be the voice at NHG on how section 20 consultation should be delivered effectively.   Your up-to-date knowledge and experience will help us create toolkits, templates, and guides for operational staff to deliver this vision.  You will be directly responsible for delivering consultations for the portfolio wide qualifying long-term agreements (QLTAs).  This will require you to work robustly with other departments and review large amounts of data to achieve this.  You will ensure that any observations received from residents are sensitively considered and meaningfully responded to as resident engagement is important to us.

To do this, you will devise effective processes to support the business in tackling Service Charge Disputes and navigating consultation challenges. Horizon scanning and keeping an eye on the evolving external context will be something you regularly do to ensure NHG practices are in line with this.

Always considering your audience, you will ensure the way residents engage with NHG in respect of Disputes and Consultation is crystal clear – no jargon and communication should be engaging, inclusive and to the point.

You will work with those the operational teams to ensure that key milestones are met and that NHG navigate effectively through any challenges.  You will be comfortable with making decisions that have an element of risk to them and presenting these in a way that is digestible for decision by senior managers.

The Dispute and Consultation Manager role is new to Notting Hill Genesis and is part of our offer to local officers, to support the delivery of Service Charges and make a positive impact by shaping residents’ experience of Service Charges.

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for candidates who have prior knowledge managing Service Charge Disputes in a formal setting and delivering large scale section 20 consultations, particularly QLTAs. We believe that great service starts with great people, and are committed to recruiting and developing passionate, progressive, and enthusiastic individuals who can add value to our thriving organisation. 

You will be proficient with excel and numbers and be confident with landlord and tenant legislation.  You will be aware of Service Charge risks and how to mitigate this for the organisation as we strive to be proactive in offering a transparent Service Charge offer to residents.

You will be as comfortable working with numbers and spreadsheets, as engaging with other departments, residents, and external stakeholders.  A strong communicator, both written and verbal, you will play a key role in motivating and supporting operational staff to respond to formal Service Charge Disputes and Consultation queries.

You can break down jargon and complicated processes and communicate these clearly to operational colleagues and residents alike. You seek solutions and proactively identify risks to flag these to stakeholders.  Above all else, you take pride in your work and seek to establish a culture of service improvement. As a resident advocate, you see how your work affects residents and the part you play.  

Necessary experience and skills -

• Significant experience of working compliantly with varying Service Charge regimes (fixed and variable), directly and through business partnering.
• Significant experience of reading and understanding tenancy agreements, leases, deeds of transfer etc.
• Experience of mediation and dealing with FTTs.
• Proven ability to identify business risk and present recommendations to mitigate against these.
• Evidence of excellent service improvement achievements in a complex service delivery environment.
• A strong understanding and experience applying section 20 consultation, particularly around qualifying long term agreements across a large portfolio.
• Up to date knowledge of case law and legislation that will shape how to respond to Service Charge Disputes and deliver section 20 consultations.
• Experience of building and managing effective relationships with a range of stakeholders, ideally in a matrix way across teams. 
• Experience of effective analysis of complex data to make business decisions.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong IT skills, including advanced Excel.
• Ideally MIRPM – essential to be delivered in 18 months.
• Pending confirmation of legislative changes, this role may require a qualification to demonstrate competence. If not already qualified, there may be an expectation to study towards a professional qualification.

We value and respect difference and are committed to building an inclusive culture by creating an environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work. We support flexible working arrangements that foster collaboration, combined with the power of in-person interactions. Our optimal balance of three days a week in the office or with customers ensures we're at our prime, crafting exceptional customer experiences and achieving outstanding business outcomes. Some roles lend themselves to flexible options more than others and we are open to discussing agile working opportunities during the hiring process.

Benefits

In return we offer:

· Excellent annual leave allowance and flexible working opportunities (qualifying period may apply)

· Generous pension scheme

· Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay - we offer enhanced maternity and adoption pay in addition to statutory entitlements (qualifying period may apply)

· Employee assistance - free confidential advice and counselling services provided by independent specialist organisations

· Health cash plan

· Staff discounts - we give our staff access to discounts at hundreds of major retailers, gyms, restaurants, entertainment, days out, insurance and much more

· Interest free loans: season ticket loan, tenancy deposit loan and training loan

· Cycle to work scheme

· Life Assurance x 4 annual salary

How to apply/selection process

Step 1 – Send your CV and a supporting statement answering the following questions in no more than 1500 words.

1. Please describe an example of when you have had to successfully deliver a large scale (in terms of number of units and cost) section 20 consultation, ideally a QLTA including detailing any risk and challenges that arose and how you responded to them.
2. What are the three biggest risks that landlords (particularly social landlords) have when responding to formal Service Charge Disputes?  What approaches can be taken to mitigate against these?

Step 2 – Successful candidates will be selected for an interview.

Step 3 – Successful candidates will be asked to present to the interview panel or submit a prescribed piece of work – you will be told in advance what you need to prepare for

Closing date: 15 January 2023

Interview date: 24 January 2023

Please review the attached role profile for more information.

Please apply for this role with us online. If you are not able to apply online, please contact our HR team via jobs@nhg.org.uk to discuss your requirements.

If you have any questions that you would like to discuss then please contact Tom Bullock at tom.bullock@retinue-solutions.com 

About the Company

Notting Hill Genesis is now one of the largest housing associations in London and the south east. We own and manage more than 67,000 homes and employ around 1,500 staff. We provide homes across a range of tenures and are committed to continuing to deliver housing that is affordable to all. Our roots reach back to the 1960s when our legacy organisations were established by local people who shared a similar vision – to house west London’s working poor, providing them a home from which to build themselves and their families a secure future. For more information on what we do and what makes us different please visit: https://www.nhg.org.uk/about-us/

Our people

We value our people and both respect and celebrate their differences. We’re proud to say that our colleagues come from different backgrounds, with varied outlooks and are from all over the world. We encourage and are committed to diversity. We know that when people with varied experiences and unique points of view come together, it makes us a stronger organisation and more able to help the wide range of residents that we serve. We want all our colleagues to bring their full selves to work in a culture and environment based on respect and fairness, regardless of role, background or ability.

Our pledges

We are proud signatories of the G15 group’s diversity pledge to encourage more diversity in the boardroom and at senior level.  The pledge on ethnic diversity commits NHG to reflect the ethnic diversity of the communities we work in at all levels and particularly at senior managerial, leadership and board levels.

We have under-representation of ethnically diverse colleagues at this level and are keen to fill this gap. We welcome applications from everyone. For this role, we especially encourage ethnically diverse candidates to join us and be part of an inclusive culture that celebrates diversity, equality of opportunity and provides a place for you to grow your career.

We are also a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Disability Confident employer and have signed up to Harry’s Pledge. We actively monitor the diversity of our workforce and strive to show equal representation throughout all levels of the organisation.

To find out more about Diversity and inclusion at NHG, please visit our website.