If we can't deal with your enquiry as a 'service request' or we have dealt with a 'service request' and you are unhappy with the outcome we will enter your complaint at Stage 1 of our Complaints Procedure.
A complaint is defined as:
- an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by us, our colleagues, or those acting on our behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.
There are some complaints we are unable to consider, as set out in our Complaints Policy and if your complaint is one of these, we will tell you, explain why and advise you on the next steps we will take.
We have to handle complaints in line with the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and you can view this by clicking here.
Our complaints process
We have a two stage complaint process to deal with your complaint.
Your complaint will be acknowledged within five working days (so that doesn't include holidays or weekends) and we will contact you to discuss you complaint and the resolution you have requested.
A complaint handler will then investigate your complaint and provide a written response within ten working days.
Sometimes, this might take a little longer and we would let you know and ask you for some extra time. The Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code allows us to take up to a further 10 working days if needed.
We'll provide a written response to your complaint, to tell you what our findings are and any further action we'll take to resolve your complaint.
If you feel the response has not fully answered your complaint, or you disagree with our findings, you can contact the complaint handler to discuss any concerns.
If after talking to them you're still unhappy, you can ask for you complaint to be 'escalated' to Stage 2 of our process.
If you don't agree with out findings, you also can seek guidance from the Housing Ombudsman Service at any stage of our process. However, they do ask that we have had the opportunity to look at your complaint at Stage 1 and Stage 2 before they will investigate your complaint themselves.
If you are dissatisfied with our findings and resolution at Stage 1 , you can ask us to ‘escalate’ your complaint to Stage Two. We ask you to do this within 20 working days from the date of the Stage 1 response letter.
This means an independent review of your complaint will take place by a senior manager in our Customer Relations Team. They will discuss your complaint and agree how we can resolve it for you with the Service Director or Executive Director responsible for the service.
We will acknowledge your request to investigate your complaint at Stage 2 within five working days and we will then investigate and send you a written response within twenty working days.
Sometimes, this might take a little longer, and we would let you know why and ask you for some extra time. The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code allows us to take up to a further 20 working days if needed.
The written response to your complaint, will tell you what our findings are and any further action we will take to resolve it.
Throughout the process we will make sure that you are aware of the Housing Ombudsman service. They can investigate further on your behalf if you are still not happy with our response after Stage Two.
We have to do what the Housing Ombudsman Service tells us to resolve your complaint, if they think we have not done things right.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent organisation set up by the government to resolve disputes between tenants and social landlords.
As a social housing provider they have power to hold us to account and force us to take action if they decide that we haven’t handled your complaint properly.
You can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate your complaint if you are not happy with our response as long as you have allowed us the chance to use our two-stage complaint process first.
However, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service for help, support and advice at any time, and in fact they strongly recommend that you go to them for free advice rather than using solicitors (who will take a fee, often out of any compensation that may be paid to you).
Other Regulatory bodies
Depending on what your complaint is about you may also be able to contact the Building Safety Regulator or Energy Ombudsman. If this is the case, we’ll let you know when we acknowledge your complaint and provide you with their contact details.
Complaint form: Fill in the online complaint form
Phone: 0300 111 3000 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 9 am to 5 pm and Thursday 9 am to 3.30pm)
Write*: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston, PR2 0ET
*Please note: The Housing Ombudsman Service strongly encourage customers to the online complaint form rather than sending post to their PO Box address as there will be delays. Please do not send original documents by post as they are unable to post them back to you. Also note that they will not be able to deal with large bundles of documents by post.