Home Improvement Officer - Housing

HYBRID - 1 day in office - 4 remote

We are recruiting a Home Improvement Officer to assist with the effective delivery of home adaptations (funded through the Better Care Fund),.

You will provide a front-line service for the provision of Housing Grants to private sector owner occupied dwellings and Private Sector tenants if those tenants have disabilities . Perform a multi-disciplinary function within the Home Improvement Team, requiring independent and autonomous work. Responsible for the interpretation and implementation of Housing Acts, and other associated legislative powers, as they relate to grant aid. The post holder will also need to give due consideration to the needs of a multi-racial and multi-cultural population.

The work involves inspecting properties, checking applications against eligibility criteria and for completeness, producing and checking plans and other supporting documentation in connection with the Council’s Grant Scheme. Work out eligible expense ensuring works is ‘necessary and appropriate’ and ‘reasonable and practicable’. Process cases to the point where they can be recommended for approval.

This will involve:

• Carrying out thorough inspections of premises
• Measuring-up and preparing outline plans for consultation with the client and/or other agencies
• Preparing scale drawings arranging necessary Building Regulations and Town Planning approvals
• Preparing comprehensive specifications and obtaining competitive tenders
• Checking submitted tenders
• Preparing formal building contracts
• Determining whether payments can be made
• Monitoring ongoing works in accordance with the terms of the contract ensuring that the milestones are being met, the work is of a good standard and that the necessary agencies such as building control and planning have agreed and where necessary signed off all works.
• Issuing certificates of practical completion
• Ensuring compliance with Health and safety legislation
• Agreeing and preparing final accounts and authorising final payment
• Using specialist knowledge to assist service users to explore options available to them for the adaptation and to recommend the best solution
• Provide assistance to service users to complete application forms and where necessary evidence the documents needed as proof.
• Assess value of works completed. Check estimates and progress of work to ensure grant conditions and assessed clients’ needs are being met.
• Provide advice to clients and work with other agencies to include Occupational Therapists to develop practical solutions to client’s needs.
• Provide statements, if necessary, and being prepared to act as expert witness should any matter go to tribunal or court.
• To be responsible for the carrying out allocated projects, ensuring that project tasks are carried out to time and to report any cause of delay or difficulty as necessary.
• Provide a ‘front-line’ customer focused rapid response service to all significant issues related to customer requests, for the repair, maintenance and/or improvements of private houses.
• Strong interpersonal and a high level of organisational skills will be required to manage a diverse workload.
• Ensuring sufficient fee income is generated to assist in covering the cost of administering the service and achieves the Councils aims and objectives.
• Actively promote the take-up of disabled facilities grants and property improvement funded through the Council’s renewals grant policy.
• Have the knowledge and competence to carry out assessments using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) and recommend the most reasonable course of action should there be significant hazards within the property.

Experience required:

• Experience within an organisation dealing with grants and/or other types of financial assistance and related matters.
• Experience of working with vulnerable clients, including people with disabilities, older people and families with children
• Experience in supervising building works on site in a private sector housing or other relevant setting
• Experience of handling large case-loads of repair, renovation and adaptation work.
• Capable of using Information Technology systems to enter and retrieve information
• Able to demonstrate a working knowledge of Housing Standards and related legislation and best practice
• Have an up to date and practical working knowledge of relevant legal, technical and best practice developments within housing adaptations. Able to apply to interpret and apply relevant legislation.
• Experience of inspecting dwelling houses with regard to disrepair and lacking amenities.

Important Notice:

Noble Recruiting Limited, based in Billericay, Essex, is an equal opportunities employer. With over 18 years of industry experience, we specialise in both permanent recruitment and the provision of temporary workers. By submitting your application, you consent to the processing of your personal data by Noble Recruiting Limited. For further details on how we manage applicant data, please refer to our Privacy Policy available on our website.

Application Status: Due to the high volume of applications received, we regret that if you do not hear from us within 14 days, your application has not been successful on this occasion.