Private Sector Housing Officer - Yate

As a Private Sector Housing Officer, your primary focus will be to improve standards within the private rented sector. You will bring your construction knowledge and housing enforcement expertise to effectively manage stakeholders in the enforcement process, including tenants, private landlords, accommodation providers and external agencies such as fire service, police and council departments.

The Private Sector Housing team work across a diverse housing sector to deliver adaptations and improve standards, supporting people to live in safe, warm and good quality homes, enabling a positive impact on their health.

What you will be doing:

• Maintaining a case load, you will offer support to tenants and provide advice to owners on required works and available services to improve and repair their property, ensuring all actions are accurately recorded on a database.
• Investigating tenant complaints about property conditions, you will conduct inspections under the Housing Act 2004 and the Renters Rights Act 2025, serving notices and taking enforcement action for breaches, including prosecutions and civil penalty notices.
• It will be your responsibility to identify unlicensed HMOs that fall under the mandatory licensing regime by using existing data, site visits, and co-ordinating small-scale surveys when necessary.
• Regularly, you will carry out inspections and take appropriate enforcement action against unlicensed HMOs, including prosecutions and the use of civil penalty notices.
• You will support the development and improvement of systems and procedures to enhance standards within the private rented sector across South Gloucestershire.

What we need from you:

• It is essential that you hold a degree in environmental health or equivalent relevant qualification, or be able to demonstrate an equivalent level of relevant knowledge in the private sector housing field.
• You will be qualified in the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), with the experience and competence to assess properties, including HMOs, in line with HHSRS requirements.
• We require you to be experienced in drafting and serving Statutory Housing Act Notices and producing witness statements and case files to support attendance at court and tribunals.
• Having a proven track record of enforcement action, you will be fully knowledgeable of the Housing Act 2004, Housing and Planning Act 2016 and other private sector housing legislation, for single and multi-occupied properties.
• Bringing experience in private sector housing processes and procedures, you will have a good understanding of the service delivery environment, alongside the investigatory and people skills required to take enforcement action, with a clear drive to improve conditions in the private rented sector.
• You will be able to manage and prioritise your own workload, responding to competing demands to ensure both customer satisfaction and legislative requirements are met.

What you need to know:

• This is for a two year limited term contract.
• You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel.
• This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office in Badminton Road office, Yate and from home.
• You may be required to work outside normal working hours as the need arises.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different:

• As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
• We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
• We invest in the careers of our people, and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps our people make the greatest long-term difference in their work.
• Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of.
• We're planning for the future; building and improving the roads, railways, schools, green spaces, and houses. We're providing essential services across our communities to ensure they are safe and well maintained.
• We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.

To view the full job description, please click this link: Service Officer role profile.