Service Charge Accountant

Service Charge AccountantOne day a month in the office. The rest, remote.

Hubs in Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, North East, Lancashire

I'll get the unique bit out of the way first: one day a month in the office. The rest is yours to work wherever suits. In 2026, that is genuinely not easy to find.

This is a newly created Service Charge Accountant role with a multi-site housing association I've worked with for years. Full disclosure — I've placed several people there over time, and the ones I'm still in touch with are all still there, with no expression of interest in exploring opportunities elsewhere. That doesn't happen by accident. It's a combination of how they not only embrace home working, they actually do it well, without compromising on building strong team relationships. They just know how to do it beyond physically being sat next to someone.

Why this role exists Nobody's left. Nothing's broken. No mess to clean up. They're adding capacity because the function is growing and they want to do it properly. You'll get to shape how the role runs rather than inherit someone else's habits.

What you'll actually be doing A proper service charge role.

Leading the budget process across all schemes, with accurate cost allocation to schemes and account codes

Year-end scheme accounts through to audit sign-off, including all year-end adjustments

Monthly forecasting of service charge income and expenditure in the management accounts

S20 data, S21 accounts and S22 provision

Balance sheet reconciliations including reserve funds and associated bank movements

Coaching and mentoring a Service Charge Officer - a leadership element without a big team to weigh you down

Developing system-based reports that give internal stakeholders genuine insight

Leading on customer complaints and enquiries with a responsive, customer-focused approach

What you'll bring

In-depth understanding of service charge legislation and regulation, especially around leaseholders and homeowners

Comfort with budget preparation under tight deadlines

Audit and year-end experience

Knowledge of leasehold, shared ownership and freehold tenure types

AAT minimum, with study support if you want to push on to CIMA or ACCA. Already part-qualified or qualified? Even better — but they're buying the service charge knowledge first, the letters after your name second.

Strong Excel and the ability to handle large data sets

The package Worth reading the whole list — this is one of the more generous benefits packages you are likely to see:

Salary - £38,000

35 hour working week

A Defined Benefit pension scheme (7.5% colleague contribution). Only around 4% of DB schemes in the UK are still open to new members. As a finance person, you'll know exactly what that's worth — or there's a 4% matched DC scheme if you prefer

28 days' holiday + bank holidays, rising to 33 with service

Your birthday off — every year, on top of everything else

10 extra paid medical days for treatment relating to serious illness, fertility, menopause, gender reassignment and similar — without needing to make the time back

Life assurance at 3x your salary

Health Cash Plan — claim back on dental, optical, physio, prescriptions, consultations and more

Enhanced family leave: 6 weeks full pay then 20 weeks at 50% + SMP for maternity/adoption/shared parental; 2 weeks full pay paternity

Buy up to 2 extra weeks' leave; sell up to 3 days back

Online GP, gym discounts, cycle-to-work, discounted eye tests, flu jab contribution

24/7 Employee Assistance Programme including counselling, legal and financial support

Hardship fund for unexpected costs

A paid volunteering day each year

Lifestyle savings platform, salary sacrifice for home tech and car leasing (including EVs, hybrids and pre-loved)

A genuine learning culture, qualified internal coaches, and an organisation that invests in people developing — not just delivering

What this isn't If you want a bustling office and a desk you sit at every day, they can still provide that — but you'd need to be close to one of their hubs mentioned above for it to make good commuting sense for you.

If you want the autonomy to get your head down on the technical work, run your patch properly, and reclaim the commute time — let's have a conversation.