Service Charge Officer

As a leading Housing Association, Sovereign is committed to developing great homes and communities and is taking big steps towards our growth ambition of building 1,900 homes a year. What we do makes a real difference to people's lives and by joining us you can share the satisfaction of doing something that really matters.

We have a great opportunity for a Service Charge Officer to join our team on a fixed term basis until October 2024 to support in the delivery of complete and accurate service charge information to our customers. Service charges cover the costs of maintaining communal areas for properties and can be quite varied depending on the property and type of services provided.

Working in service charges provides an exciting opportunity to collaborate with almost all other teams across the organisation, and really get to understand the business and increase your network. The role will give you the chance to showcase your problem solving and analytical skills, while being able to make decisions to provide great service to our customers. It's these transferable skills, along with your ability to organise your workload and have attention to detail, which will make you a successful officer with us.

We're all working from home right now, but when we do start safely returning to the office, your base location will be in our Basingstoke office with some flexibility for remote working too.

What you'll be doing

Working collaboratively across the team, your role will include:

• Calculating and preparing estimated service charge budgets for properties in your designated area, and issuing accurate statements to customers
• Annual reconciliation of service charge accounts against estimate, calculating and applying balancing adjustments accurately, and informing customers
• Collating and analysing a variety of data, checking for accuracy and completeness and exploring any anomalies
• Providing a great customer-focused service. Acting as a first point of contact for service charge queries from customers, providing understanding and resolutions to complex queries and disputes, either over the phone or in writing

What we need from you

To be successful in this busy role you'll need to:

• Demonstrate thorough analytical skills with strong experience in Excel
• Have high attention to detail to ensure data is accurate and reliable, with good numeracy skills
• Be a collaborative team member, but also able to work independently and under pressure to achieve team and individual goals
• Plan and prioritise your workload to balance deadlines and competing demands from stakeholders
• Be an effective, confident and solution-focused communicator
• Work with others to resolve complex queries quickly and clearly

Previous experience in a service charge or accountancy type role, or within a housing environment (including leasehold and property management), would be advantageous.

What you'll receive from us

• £450 flex-pot annually, discounted shopping & cycling scheme
• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays (with an extra day every year up to 30 days)
• Company pension scheme matched up to 12%, life cover at 4x your salary
• Flexible working - we're committed to giving people flexibility as widely as possible
• Private medical insurance, dental insurance & critical illness cover
• Wide range of training courses available to support your career development

It's an exciting time to be joining Sovereign so if you're looking for a fresh opportunity then we'd love to hear from you!