Accommodation Officer

Job Description

The London Borough of Harrow is seeking a proactive and customer-focused Accommodation Officer to join the Housing Needs service. This important role is responsible for the day-to-day management of a portfolio of temporary accommodation properties, including Private Sector Leased (PSL) accommodation, ensuring that homeless households are provided with safe, suitable and well-managed homes.

As an Accommodation Officer, you will oversee all aspects of property and tenancy management, including void management, lettings, tenancy sustainment, repairs coordination and landlord liaison. You will also be responsible for managing contracts with temporary accommodation providers, ensuring that suppliers meet their contractual obligations and that accommodation remains compliant with statutory requirements and local standards.

The role involves undertaking regular property inspections to ensure accommodation continues to be suitable for occupation and fully compliant with health and safety legislation. You will monitor tenancies, conduct visits to residents in temporary accommodation and ensure authorised occupation, vacation and repossession of properties in accordance with the Council’s duties under homelessness legislation.

Working closely with households to whom the Council has accepted a housing duty, you will provide practical support and guidance to help residents explore and secure alternative housing solutions. You will also deliver advice and signposting on a broad range of issues affecting residents’ wellbeing and independence, including housing options, employment and training opportunities, welfare benefits, personal finances, tenancy management, mediation, life skills, safeguarding concerns and hoarding behaviours. Where appropriate, you will make referrals to specialist agencies and partner organisations to ensure residents receive the support they need.

This role requires close collaboration with teams across Housing Needs and other Council services to ensure a coordinated and effective approach to supporting statutorily homeless households. The successful candidate will have excellent communication and organisational skills, a strong understanding of housing and homelessness legislation, and a commitment to delivering high-quality services that improve outcomes for vulnerable residents.

The successful candidate will have:

• Experience working in a front facing team interviewing and assessing clients’ housing needs.
• Experience of dealing with complex casework face to face and in writing.
• Experience of delivering a customer focused service, dealing with customer queries by telephone and/ or face to face, achieving satisfactory outcomes.
• Ability to manage properties including dealing with anti-social behaviour and other tenancy/licence breaches.
• Experience of dealing with people in stressful situations.
• Ability to work within a team setting using own initiative with commitment, flexibility and positive approach to achieving results and overcoming obstacles.
• Ability to maintain accurate and concise records with attention to detail.
• Effective numeracy skills to include the ability to assess rent affordability.

For more information, please refer to the Role Profile/Selection Criteria

About us

Harrow Council is the 12th largest London borough and one of the most culturally diverse local authorities in the UK, making it a great place to live, work and visit with a range of cultures, religions and opinions that come together to produce high achieving schools and a close and friendly community. Located 10 miles from the city centre and just 13 minutes to Euston from Harrow & Wealdstone station there are great transport links via the Metropolitan Line, Watford DC Line and national rail service. It is easily accessible to the M1, M25 and A406.

Other information

Support for candidates visit:Harrow.gov.uk Our behavioural indicators roles below G11 and above G11 Here at Harrow Council, the vision is one of 'Working together to make a difference for Harrow' Please click here to view Harrow Council's benefits

Important Note

To deliver our commitment to equality of opportunity in service provision, all staff are expected to promote equality in the workplace and in the services the Council delivers. All sections of the population will have equal access to jobs at the London Borough of Harrow. No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender, reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy, or maternity unless a Genuine Occupational Qualification applies. As such, we value diversity and welcome applications from all backgrounds. For further information, please read our equality statement.

As a disability-confident employer, we are committed to making our recruitment practices barrier-free and accessible to everyone. This includes reasonably adjusting the recruitment process for those with disabilities or long-term health conditions. For further information, please contact us at resourcing@harrow.gov.uk

London Borough of Harrow is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Harrow operates stringent, safer recruitment procedures.

Due to the high number of applications received for some posts, we may close vacancies before the stated closing date if sufficient applications are received. Therefore, please apply as soon as possible.

Harrow redeployees will be given priority consideration.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, any your data protection rights, can be found by visiting www.cifas.org.uk/fpn