Interim Right to Buy Officer – Housing

Reference no:  St Albans 5224527

Pay Rate: £20.00 per hour PAYE

This opening assignment is for 6 months

Basic DBS disclosure required for this role

The purpose of the role is to provide a comprehensive Right to Buy service to Council tenants from application to completion. The successful candidate will undertake property-related transactions and to provide legal advice to interested parties.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and administer the Council’s Right To Buy process including post completion matters and ensure this work is completed within the required statutory timescales. This will involve providing advice and solutions on both routine and complex matters and include by persuasion requiring colleagues in other departments to carry out work of relevance to the Right to Buy function.
• Provide guidance on Right to Buy procedures and legislation to tenants and Council officers. This will involve providing technical legal advice on the interpretation and application of statute, case law and government guidance.
• Conduct property-related transactions, producing appropriate legal documents, to ensure that the aim of the client is achieved in a timely manner and to ensure efficient use of the Council’s property assets.
• Act as systems manager for the legal section’s computerised case management system, including the provision of training of new users and support, and to develop computerised workflow systems that aid the legal section to operate more efficiently and effectively.
• Maintain the Council’s deeds and deeds register and manage the legal section’s archive to ensure efficient use of the Council’s property assets and effective access to information held to assist Council officers and, where appropriate, the public. To ensure that information is up to date, particularly by the registration of notices relating to leasehold properties to enable the correct parties to be billed for service charges.
• Maintain the legal section’s legal library including liaising with publishers and on-line service providers, ensuring that the library is up to date and enabling legal officers to provide correct legal advice.
• Carry out Land Registry searches for the legal section and other Council officers to ensure that up to date land ownership information is provided to enable officer to carry out their functions. To act as administrator for the Land Registry business e-service, including training to new users and support.
• Undertake legal support duties for the legal section and to assist other members of the section in the conduct of their matters. This would include the collation and preparation of Court and Public Inquiry document bundles and researching legal cases and land title issues.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

1. 5 GCSE A to C grades or equivalent qualification and at least one A level pass or equivalent qualification.
2. NVQ Level 4 Legal Diploma, or willing to successfully obtain which includes a module on property related law or conveyancing or significant and relevant practical professional experience in Right to Buy processes and conveyancing.

Skills & Experience:

1. Experience of solving complex and unusual procedural and legal problems on Right to Buy and conveyancing matters.
2. Experience of producing effective and legally binding documents.
3. Experience of and/or ability to act as system manager for the legal section’s case management system to create files, accurately store all generated documents therein, create and update the individually programmed chains for the benefit of the legal section.
4. Ability to identify any legal irregularities or potentially fraudulent activities when handling a case or RTB application and refer any matters causing concern to the appropriate body.
5. Ability to interpret and analyse historical documents often written in complex legal language.
6. Proven track record of communicating at a high standard both orally and in writing with all contacts, including officers and members of the Council, members of the public, solicitors, banking personnel.
7. Experience of providing accurate and appropriate legal advice on varied aspects of RTB and property law and procedures.
8. Ability to negotiate with and persuade members of the public, external solicitors and internal clients to follow a course of action to achieve the most appropriate result for the Council.
9. Ability to be diplomatic when dealing with all contacts, especially when informing them that the Council cannot or should not deal with a specific matter.
10. ICT Skills: Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

Knowledge:

1. Expert knowledge of the system of primary and delegated legislation and case law.
2. Expert knowledge of general land law.
3. Expert knowledge of and ability to adhere to common conveyancing practices and procedures.
4. Expert knowledge of Housing Act Right to Buy procedures and conveyancing transactions.
5. In depth knowledge of specific acts of parliament such as the Housing Acts Landlord & Tenants Acts and continually update that knowledge following any amendments made thereto.

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.