tell you how to complain and are clear about the ways in which you can do this
will ask you whether there are any vulnerabilities within your household that we need to be aware of
say sorry when we get things wrong
commit to putting things right, where we have made a mistake or overlooked something
respond to your complaint within our agreed timescales, and in exceptional cases where this is not possible, we will contact you before the date on which your response was originally due to inform you that an extension is required, and explain the reasons why
inform you about the actions taken to investigate your complaint, any future actions being taken to stop it happening again or to resolve your specific issues
make it easy for you to reach us using the methods accessible to you
provide a clear and simple process for granting third-party consent to raise complaints
consider your individual circumstances or vulnerabilities in determining the right resolution to your complaint
keep you updated about the progress of your complaint, and the actions we need to take to resolve it, including providing you with timescales
make sure we address every aspect of your original complaint when we respond to you and engage with you empathetically
maintain the key values of our complaints policy and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code
take account of any service failures, explain the reasons for the failure and hold ourselves accountable
handle your complaint with care and impartiality
are open and transparent when dealing with your complaint
explain lessons learned and any changes made following your complaint
value your input and demonstrate how feedback from your complaints have resulted in improvements to our service
We will know when we are getting it right by:
improving the proportion of tenants who report making a complaint in the last 12 months who are satisfied with our approach to complaints handling
responding to at least 90% of all complaints within the timescales in our policy which are, from acknowledgement to response:
10 working days for Stage 1
20 working days for Stage 2
seeing a reduction in the proportion of stage 1 complaints that escalate to stage 2
identifying the lessons from what went wrong, and explain what these are to you, so we can avoid making the same mistake again
using your complaints to not only resolve issues but improve our services