We’re committed to providing the best possible service. But we’re not perfect and there will be times when we get things wrong or you're not happy with our service.
If you aren’t happy, we want you to tell us - it’s okay to complain. We’ll do our best to put things right for you and we’ll learn from your complaint. Your feedback is important to us and helps us improve what we do.
Our housing complaints policy sets out how we deal with and learn from complaints and the standards you can expect when you make a complaint.
How to complain
You can complain to us online, in writing and over the phone. Find out how to submit a complaint.
What you can expect
Once your complaint has been submitted
If we cannot respond straight away we will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. A full response will be made within 10 working days (20 working days for very complex cases, or where key people are not available). If it will take longer, we will contact you to explain why and keep you informed.
If you are not satisfied with the response you have received you can contact us to escalate your complaint through the two stages. However, if we feel that your complaint has been considered fully at an early stage and it would not be of benefit to either party to pursue internally, we will instead let you know how to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman or Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
You are free to contact the Housing Ombudsman or Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman yourself for advice at any point, though they will usually expect you to have allowed the Council the opportunity to have dealt with your complaint before they will investigate it.
The two stage complaints procedure
Stage one
As a first step you should take your complaint to the office or person who dealt with your enquiry, or who deal with the service you want to complain about. Our staff will do their best to resolve your complaint without you having to do anything else.
if we cannot respond immediately, we will send an acknowledgement within five working days
we will respond to you within 10 working days (20 working days for very complex cases, or where key people are not available) or if we are unable to do so will explain why
if we have made a mistake we will take action to put things right.
Stage two
If the person dealing with your complaint has not been able to put things right, or you are not happy with the way they dealt with your complaint, you can ask for it to be considered at stage 2, we would expect you to ask for this within 20 working days of the date of the stage 1 response, but will use discretion if we receive this later.
We would not consider any stage 2 request received more than six months after the stage 1 response, unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
Your stage 2 request should include your reasons for wishing to progress to the next stage and what your desired outcome is
Your request will be acknowledged within five working days. An appropriate member of staff who has not had any previous involvement in the case will carry out an investigation. This will be done within 20 working days, but where a case is more complex and will take longer we will keep you informed of timescale.
If we are confident that we have followed policy, procedure and legislation and that you have not been unfairly disadvantaged, we will not progress your complaint to stage two and we will instead let you know how to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
On completion of a stage 2 investigation the Council will consider the matter closed and will not enter into any further correspondence on the issue, unless significantly new and relevant information is provided that may alter the outcome of the complaint.
You should contact the Housing Ombudman if you are still unhappy.