Head of Rent and Service Charge

Robertson Bell are partnering with a large housing organisation to appoint a Head of Rent & Service Charges on a permanent basis. This is a pivotal opportunity to join an organisation at an important stage of integration and transformation.

As Head of Rent & Service Charges, you will play a central role in strengthening the operational effectiveness of the function, ensuring rent and service charge processes are accurate, compliant and efficient while helping to create a more proactive and collaborative team culture. Working closely with senior leaders across Finance, Asset Management and other operational teams, you will provide expertise and challenge while leading improvements to systems, processes and performance.

The role

• Lead the rent and service charge function, providing clear direction, strong operational leadership and effective performance management across the team.
• Bring together teams and ways of working inherited from two legacy organisations, reducing silos and creating a more collaborative, proactive and accountable culture.
• Lead the operational input into a significant new service charge systems project, ensuring processes are configured effectively and that the new technology delivers improved efficiency, accuracy and customer outcomes.
• Oversee the annual rent and service charge setting process, ensuring calculations, billing and communications are accurate, timely and compliant with relevant legislation and regulation.
• Take ownership of year-end service charge statements, ensuring the function delivers accurate information and meets key deadlines.
• Review and improve existing processes, identifying opportunities to remove unnecessary complexity, increase efficiency and strengthen controls.
• Provide expert advice on rent regulation, service charge legislation and associated housing requirements, ensuring the organisation remains compliant and manages risk effectively.
• Develop a proactive approach to performance and issue management, ensuring potential problems are identified and addressed before they become customer complaints or operational risks.

The role offers the opportunity to join a housing organisation at a significant point of transformation, with genuine scope to shape the future of the rent and service charge function. With the opportunity to influence a major systems project, integrate teams and improve processes and performance, this is an ideal role for an experienced housing professional who wants to make a tangible operational impact. This is a permanent, full-time position operating on a hybrid working model, with a minimum of two days per week in the office. The role can be based across two accessible locations within the wider Home Counties region, with flexibility to work remotely for the remainder of the week.

Essential criteria

• Significant senior-level experience across both rent and service charges, ideally within a social housing or housing association environment.
• Strong knowledge of rent regulation, rent setting, service charge legislation and the wider regulatory environment affecting housing providers.
• Proven experience leading teams and managing through managers, with the ability to set high standards, develop people and create a culture of accountability and ownership.
• Demonstrable experience of change management, process improvement and implementing or adopting new technology and systems.
• Experience working through organisational change, ideally including the integration of teams, systems or processes following a merger or significant transformation.
• Strong understanding of annual rent and service charge setting, year-end statements, billing, cost recovery, financial monitoring and associated customer communications.
• A proactive, inquisitive and solutions-focused approach, with the confidence to identify issues, challenge existing processes and drive improvements.
• Strong Excel and data analysis skills, with the ability to interpret information, identify trends and use data to improve operational performance.

Apply now

If you’re an experienced rent and service charge professional looking for a senior leadership role where you can bring teams together, improve processes and lead technology-enabled transformation  we’d love to hear from you.