The Housing Team in Barking and Dagenham has a proud history of managing Council tenancies and will continue to strive to put residents at the heart of what we do. We deliver more than bricks and mortar and will use our influence to deliver positive change across the neighbourhoods we represent.  We strive to raise the standards of social housing, meeting the aspirations of our tenants and fostering a culture of excellence. 

A key role of our Housing Officers is to understand the needs of customers and respond to these, at both an individual and neighbourhood level. This will help us provide a good quality housing management service, which meets the needs of our tenants.

The Housing Officer will act as a single point of contact for tenants for any matters relating to the terms and conditions of their tenancy agreement.  The Housing Officer is the custodian of the estates and neighbourhoods which they manage. They will ensure that tenancy agreements are upheld by both parties and provide an important first point of contact for tenants who require support with tenancy matters. 

There are currently 17 Housing Officers allocated to approximately 17,000 social housing stock. 

Responsibilities

Housing Officers are responsible for the following tasks:

• Responsible for letting social housing properties and collection of keys and termination of tenancies. 
• Conducting Settling in visits for new tenants, within the first twelve months of their tenancy to ensure that they are provided with the best start 
• Undertake tenancy audits, collecting and maintaining up-to-date information about our tenants and using this as an opportunity to resolve any tenant or property-related issues  
• Conducting property inspections for mutual exchanges and right-to-buy applications.   
• Provide an effective tenancy management service including dealing with issues of succession, change of name, changes in circumstances and breaches of tenancy conditions in accordance with legislation and Council policy. 
• Identifying improvements across their estate/patches and attending organised community days with our tenants    
• Facilitation of ward walkabouts with elected members  
• Ensure that tenants are maintaining their gardens and properties to a satisfactory standard.  
• Give permission for tenants to carry out alterations to their property or to keep a pet.

Enquiries that we are unable to assist with:

• It is the responsibility of tenants to report their own repairs to our Repairs Service, please book at Housing Repairs
• Provide timescales of when improvement works will be undertaken in your property or influence works being brought forward. Further information can be found at Planned Works
• Approve works that fall outside of our Repair obligation.  
• Deal with neighbour nuisance or Anti-social behaviour which are dealt with by our Anti-Social Behaviour team.
• Provide advice or housing options for tenants that are overcrowded. Apply for social housing
• Make arrangements with tenants to clear rent arrears, these will need to be done via our Rents department which can be contacted on 0208 215 3000.
• Cleanliness of your blocks these will need to be directed to our Caretaking service by calling our Contact Centre on 0208 215 3000.