About Us:

In Kensington and Chelsea, we have an ambitious Council Plan which sets out our priorities for the next four years. It is directly shaped by the Council’s biggest ever ‘conversation’ with residents and puts community involvement at its heart. Embedding lessons learnt and recovering from the pandemic will be top priorities.

Kensington and Chelsea understand the opportunity as well as the necessity for positive innovation and change. We are reviewing our property portfolio and management to ensure it delivers social value and aligns with our ambitions on equality, diversity and inclusion. 

The Role:

Leasehold service charges are an important income stream for the Council, and we deploy a wide range of tactics to ensure they are collected in a timely and efficient manner. Our range of customers is diverse, from owners of property investment portfolios to individual leaseholders whose property is their sole residence, this requires a variety of different approaches. One day you could be negotiating a payment arrangement with a portfolio landlord, the next, providing financial management support to a vulnerable homeowner to help them deal with arrears. In every case you will offer a strong customer focus and a first-class, professional level of service.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

Your experience of debt recovery and management may have been gained in a variety of contexts, but knowledge of collecting service charges for property services and major works would be particularly useful. Empathic, ethical and focused on finding solutions, you will need excellent customer care skills and the ability to apply policies sensitively and appropriately. With knowledge and/or experience of the litigation process for the recovery of arrears, you will also be ready to negotiate payment arrangements. Highly numerate with excellent all-round computer skills, you will be systematic and thorough in your attention to detail. As more and more of our interaction with residents is via email, your written communication skills will need to be of the highest standard i.e. professional, clear and adhering to our ethos of service and value. You will have a strong drive to add value and a keen awareness of your frontline role in creating positive perceptions of the Council. 

In return, you can look forward to a package that includes a competitive salary, a high-quality pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays.

Role Requirements:

We work in partnership with Hampshire County Council (HCC) who deliver many transactional services on our behalf. Although most communications will be from HCC, all selection and appointment decisions will be made by RBKC. Certain services are shared across more than one Council area to nearby neighbouring Authorities. This enhances delivery and reduces costs. Your recruitment information will advise if your remit extends beyond RBKC.

We will primarily contact candidates by e-mail throughout the recruitment process, please monitor your email junk / spam folder as our system generated emails may be allocated to these folders by your email settings.

We engage our staff with a variety of learning types including face-to-face and virtual learning because we want to ensure our staff understand our values and behaviours, grow their skills and develop their careers.

Additional information

RBKC is currently inclusively reviewing its pay, reward and benefits framework.

This post is covered by the Fluency Duty, as outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers.

We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.