Rent & Service Charge Manager

Rent & Service Charge Manager

Salary £49,491 - £50,557

Location Didsbury, Manchester

Permanent, Full Time

You’ll provide, and further develop, a comprehensive and professional rent and service charge function to Great Places Housing Group and its subsidiaries and embed compliance, financial planning, and budgetary control. This role is one of two Rent and Service Charge Manager roles within Great Places Finance Team with this one focusing predominately on service charges, however there is an expectation that this role will also be responsible for providing appropriate cover for rents as and when required.

What you’ll be doing

• Managing and training the service charge team and providing cover for the rents team when required.

• Ensuring the financial information in relation to service charge income and expenditure is accurately accounted for within the financial systems and that detailed analysis of variances are prepared and understood. Including preparation of information and reconciliations for the annual statutory accounts, internal and external auditors, relevant Board, Committee and Executive Management Team Reports.

• Responsible for preparation of data for circa 27k rent and service charge budget letters and circa 13k service charge actuals letters to be sent to customers.

• Monitoring the monthly management accounts for service charges and all other related income and expenditure, in line budgets and forecasted projections including analysing variances, preparing balance sheet reconciliations and proposing corrective action if required.

• Providing expert advice and guidance on all matters relating to Rent and Service Charge setting and reporting to the wider organisation.

• Keeping the team informed of current and proposed legislation and regulations relevant to rent and service charges, and positively engaging with networking groups to learn and help implement best practice.

What you will need

• Experience of managing and leading a small team effectively within a finance setting, and embedding of a high performance culture, ideally within a regulated environment. Experience of working in social housing is desirable but not essential.

• Extensive experience of preparing rent and service charge budgets, forecasts and monthly management accounts commentaries with specific experience of rental income and service charges.

• Excellent IT skills and highly proficient in excel and the ability to manipulate large volumes of data for multiple scenarios.

• Experience of identifying continuous improvement with the potential for delivering efficiency savings and driving business decisions.

• Experience of liaising and influencing colleagues across the business for the preparation of rental/income and service charge information and in ensuring that accurate charges are made to customers.

• Proven experience of interpreting and implementing legislative and regulatory changes specifically in a rent and service charge environment.

What we need from you

• As a line manager you will need to actively support your colleagues with their development and well-being, some experience of this is desirable but not essential as we offer full support to people transitioning into a management role

• A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing

• A passion to advocate on behalf of people and communities

• A commitment to work in partnership with others for the benefit of Great Places

• A commitment to continuous learning and improvement

• Ability to work flexibly and when needed outside normal working hours to ensure service continuity

• An ability to work in uncertainty.

• To be professional and work with integrity, inclusivity and respect for diversity