Property Acquisitions Officer temp: West London

A fantastic opportunity has emerged for a Property Acquisitions Officer to join one of Adecco's key public sector clients in a temporary role for the next 6-9 months. A car driver/owner is not essential.

The right candidate will increase the supply of private rented properties available to clients of the Council's Housing Options Team. You will proactively develop links and positive working relationships with private landlords and letting agents to source homes in the private rented sector. By doing so, you will contribute to a proactive service for people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, by maximising opportunities for them to rent privately.

Based near to Heathrow Airport in West London but with a requirement to travel around other boroughs locally, this is a full time role (37 hours per week, Monday to Friday). You will ideally have experience in local authority housing and preferably in a similar role where you have assisted customers in seeking and securing privately rented accommodation.

Other key elements of the role include:

• Building and maintaining relationships with private landlords and letting agents to identify and secure accommodation for clients at risk of homelessness.
• Negotiating tenancy terms and promoting landlord incentive schemes such as rent deposits, bonds, and rent in advance.
• Supporting clients to secure their own accommodation through affordability advice, tenancy readiness, and budgeting support.
• Skilled in mediation with landlords, friends or family to prevent eviction or homelessness.
• Sound understanding of tenancy rights, welfare benefits, and local housing pathways.
• Being able to carry out home visits, working with vulnerable individuals, and collaborating with internal teams and partner agencies.
• Sourcing suitable, affordable private lettings with new and existing landlords that would enable the Council to discharge its full homelessness duty into the private rented sector where this is considered appropriate.
• Assisting with the provision of tenancy training for clients referred by the Housing Options Team to enable them to prepare for and then sustain their tenancies.
• Liaising where necessary with support providers and voluntary agencies to ensure that appropriate support is secured for clients so as to prevent homelessness.
• Carrying out visual property inspections (condition, safety checks etc.) with potential landlords to assess the suitability of their properties and make recommendations where remedial works are required in liaison with the Council's Housing Standards Team.
• Assisting in maintaining a database of information on private landlords who have been engaged by the post holder, for use by the Housing Options Team.

The successful candidate will not need to come into the office everyday (only 2 days each week), but will need to be prepared to travel across different boroughs as they will need to attend property inspections etc as well as meeting with customers and other members of staff.

Only applicants who are available to start on short notice (2 week's maximum) and feel they meet the above criteria need apply for this role.