Discover what it’s like to work in our Housing team
Housing Officer, Anna, has been at Hastoe for eight years now and as she puts it, her job consists of anything and everything to do with housing.
She deals with the works: from managing residents’ rents accounts, collecting arrears, dealing with antisocial behaviour cases, handling mutual exchanges, attending tenant sign ups and dealing with empty properties. Here, we find out what a work day looks like for Anna on one of the two days a week she spends visiting properties and their residents.
9:00am: Anna's patch covers Wiltshire, Dorset and Sommerset so her visiting days can often involve a lot of driving. She starts her day by checking her emails before planning her route.
10:30am: Her first visit is to one of our estates in Chickerell so she starts by travelling there.
11:00am: She's visiting their site to carry out emergency lighting checks and check for fire-risks in communal areas. She takes photos of any risks she notices so that she can follow this up with residents once she is back in the office.
12:30am: After her checks, more driving is on the cards for Anna, who travels to one of our schemes in Sommerset. Here, she is checking some work that a gardening contractor has carried out. Once Anna has looked at the work and taken photos, she logs the results of her visit onto an online form so it can be revisited if needed.
1:30am: After visiting a few more of Hastoe’s homes in surrounding villages for more fire safety checks, Anna has a quick lunch and coffee stop.
2:30pm: Anna heads to an empty property to check the outside areas whilst the final checks of the inside are being carried out by another contractor. She says:
As a Housing Officer, I'm involved in reviewing the shortlist of applicants and making sure they fulfil a Section 106 requirement, which means the applicants have to have a local connection to the area. I then arrange visits to the home and chat to the applicants to ensure they'll be suitable tenants. Once all that's done, I go back to my manager where we approve the applications and I'll then start working with the Property Services team to make sure the homes are ready for the new tenants to move into."
3:30pm: Anna returns to the office and catches up with her team about any urgent developments that arose during the day. She then starts working through any jobs that have arisen from her visits.
4:30pm: Anna finishes her day by sorting out some paperwork for a recent tenant sign up. She says:
My favourite part of my job is when I’m doing a sign up and the tenant is so excited and happy. That’s the nicest part of the job because you know they need the home. Recently, a woman burst into tears when she found out she was getting a house because she was so relieved. It’s so rewarding knowing I’ve been able to help them.”
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