What you can expect from us
- We offer a competitive salary of £59,800 per annum.
- 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks.
- Salary Finance - access both short and long terms loans, plus provides access to a savings facility.
- Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or though the holiday purchase scheme.
- Immediate entry to our Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%).
- A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies.
- Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family. Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more.
- Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
- Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme.
- Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme.
- Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.
Onward Homes is a leading provider of quality, affordable homes for rent and sale in the Northwest managing over 35,000 homes right across the Northwest region. We offer help and support to vulnerable people facing a range of challenges and create strong and vibrant communities that our customers can be proud to be a part of.
We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own and are committed to building more new homes throughout the Northwest for those in housing need.
As a result of the demand for our services, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Housing Management Solicitor to work within the in-house legal team. The main areas of work will include delivering a high quality professional in-house legal advice and representation services to the Onward Homes Group and acting as a business partner providing guidance and support for tenancy enforcement and general housing management.
About the role
We're looking for a qualified legal professional with strong housing management expertise and a passion for delivering excellent client service. This role is home-based, where there is no daily requirement to attend an office but with flexibility to attend as required according to business need.
Key responsibilities will include:
Legal case management
To personally handle a case load of routine, complex and potentially sensitive legal cases made up of contentious and non-contentious matters including advice on anti-social behaviour and landlord & tenant related matters. To operate according to the Legal Service standards and systems including time recording and file keeping.
Legal knowledge & research
To maintain a personal working knowledge of all relevant law and practice which affects the organisation. To undertake legal research as required. To keep the organisation informed of developments in the law with appropriate timeliness including the provision of training.
Legal advice
To provide specialist and responsive legal and procedural advice to the organisation, colleagues and members as appropriate and directed to ensure the organisation acts within its common law, statutory, regulatory and constitutional obligations.
Legal representation & advocacy
To provide legal representation for the organisation and act as professional legal advocate in courts and tribunals. To participate in any rota to provide an out of hours legal advocacy service.
Leadership role
Under the direction of the Interim Head of Legal (Housing Management), to develop a lead role for the following areas of law and practice which align with the organisations activities in anti-social behaviour, tenancy enforcement, injunction and general housing management advice. To liaise with related senior colleagues building an effective business partnering role. To support the Interim Head of Legal (Housing Management) to ensure that caseloads are managed efficiently and to achieve value for money.
What we require?
Skills, knowledge and experience
- Experience of supplying expert legal advice and representation within the social housing sector.
- A track record of delivering high performing and customer-focused legal advice and representation services.
- Experience of working effectively as a legal advisor within a multi-disciplinary environment and collaborating with other professionals.
- Experience and ability to handle large, complex and demanding legal caseloads with competing deadlines.
- Ability to work efficiently to deliver value for money.
- Ability to work as part of a team and independently.
Desirable:
- Experience of working with external legal service providers.
- Experience of operating a legal case management system.
- Experience of providing supervision and support to junior colleagues.
Qualifications:
Essential:
- Admitted Solicitor or Legal Executive.
- Current Practising Certificate.
About Onward
Onward Homes is one of the largest registered providers of social housing in the Northwest, with 35,000 properties across the region.
We believe that everyone deserves a place to call their own, which is why we’re committed to building 500 new homes each year. We do more than just provide a roof over our customers’ heads, we’re here to make a real difference.
In addition to creating positive spaces for our customers we continuously strive to create a positive and progressive workspace to enable our colleagues to achieve their full potential.
We embrace diversity and strive for diverse teams to create an inclusive culture which enables Onward to thrive and be representative of the communities that we serve. We want to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be part of our recruitment processes and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with our recruitment process via the email address below.
If candidates have any concerns / questions in relation to the role at any stage of the recruitment and selection process they can contact the HR team on [email protected] and a member of the HR Team will be in touch.
