Homes & Communities Officer - Essex

**About Sage Homes**

Sage Homes is an innovative Blackstone and Regis business addressing the housing crisis in England by making good homes affordable for people across the country who need them.

Since 2017 we have delivered around 10,000 new homes across affordable rent, shared ownership and social rent for individuals and families. In 2021 Sage Homes became the largest provider of new affordable housing in England, and by 2030 we have committed to deliver 30,000 high-quality affordable homes across the country.

We have invested more than £3 billion into high-quality affordable housing. Our entrepreneurial spirit combined with our technical expertise has got us to where we are today and will enable future sustainable growth.

**About the role**:
As a Homes & Communities Officer you will be the face of Sage Homes and work within a hub of field-based teams to have a key impact on people's day-to-day lives, delivering a direct service unique to Sage. This involves delivering a customer-focused tenancy management service that meets the needs of all customers.

**You'll be home based with regular travel required to visit our homes in Essex, and attend occasional meetings in our Covent Garden office.**

Key duties include:

- Act as an advocate for Sage customers on housing management issues and liaise with relevant departments to ensure housing enquiries are resolved.
- Deliver an effective customer focused service to customers, ensuring support and advice is provided to help customers sustain their tenancies.
- Report household repairs and any communal block repairs or health and safety concerns
- Deliver a tenancy management service tailored to the needs of our customers, including sign ups of new tenancies, and enabling amendments to existing tenancy agreements.
- Identify breaches of tenancy agreements, such as ASB, illegal occupancy or sub-letting.
- Maximise rental income through management of rent accounts and advising customers about rent arrears.
- Contribute to service improvement and resident involvement to achieve resident satisfaction with services.
- Develop and maintain effective internal and external stakeholder relationships to ensure our customers are the heart of what we do and the service we provide is excellent.
- Conduct home visits and tenancy reviews and visits within a customer's first year of being a Sage tenant and beyond
- Refer concerns of safeguarding to the relevant agencies
- Work alongside statutory agencies to encourage tenancy sustainment

**About you**
- Experience of working as a Housing/Neighbourhood Officer for a Housing Association, Affordable Housing Provider or Registered Provider
- Experience of providing an excellent housing management service
- A good understanding of housing law and legislation.
- Customer centric and ‘can do' attitude
- Excellent communication skills and organised.
- Good people skills and empathetic as you will be supporting customers who are often facing difficult situations
- Hold a full valid UK driving licence and access to a vehicle suitable for business purposes

We are committed to ensuring you have the best career here at Sage. As well as regular support and guidance from your manager you can expect to receive a variety of learning and development opportunities to support you as you grow within our business. This includes internally and externally delivered development programmes and opportunities to study for professional accreditations and qualifications.

**About the culture**

We truly care about the outcomes we deliver; creating safe and environmentally friendly places for people to flourish. And we're curious, passionate and inventive in the way we create social change.

Sage is a fast-paced and supportive environment where ambitious and proactive employees thrive. People are empowered to use their pioneering efforts to grow themselves and our business.

We are proudly committed to creating an inclusive workplace, where the diversity of our people and their ideas are truly valued and we love to see applicants from diverse backgrounds and different walks of life.