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We are delighted when our customers tells us we’ve got it right, and if you’d like to compliment us on any of our services, you can do this by writing, emailing, phoning or making a personal visit to our office – please see the contact page for details.

Sometimes though we may get it wrong – and we have made it as easy as possible to complain, so we can put things right.

Examples might include:

• A request for a repair that has not been completed
• Failing to respond to initial enquiries
• Failing to achieve our published standards
• Unhelpful or discourteous staff
• The attitude of an LHA contractor

Enquiries about a service, a report that a service is required, and the first report of a defect are not considered to be complaints.

 Making a complaint

Anyone who has anything to do with us can make a complaint about the service they receive.

There are three stages: 

STAGE 1

Register your complaint by writing, phoning, emailing or seeing any member of LHA staff.  We will acknowledge it within two working days of receiving it, and pass it to the appropriate Head of Service who will arrange for an investigating officer, for example an Area Manager, to look into it and respond in writing, normally within 10 working days.  If we can’t do this, we’ll write to let you know when to expect a reply.

STAGE 2

If you are not satisfied with the reply you get at stage 1 you can ask the appropriate Head of Service to review our decision.  The review will take up to 10 working days, and we will send you a full reply in writing.

STAGE 3

If you are still not satisfied with the outcomes of stages 1 and 2, we will arrange an appeals panel within 28 days of receving your request to do so.  This panel will include two independent representatives.  The appeals panel does not investigate your complaint again.  Instead it takes an independent look at the findings at stages 1 and 2 and looks at the issues you are still concerned about.

At each stage in the process you have 20 working days to respond to our full written replies.  If you do not respond at any stage within 20 working days, or if you ask for more tiem, we will consider your case to be closed.

 If you’ve pursued all three of these stages and are still not satisfied, you can take the complaint within 12 months to:

The Housing Ombudsman Scheme, 81 Aldwych, London WC2B 4HN.  Telephone: 020 7421 3800.  Minicom: 020 7404 7092.  Email: info@housing-ombusman.org.uk.

You can get details of the Ombudsman service and a form for making your complaint from any of our offices.  You can also visit the Ombudsman’s website at: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

 Dealing with your complaint    

We will:

• Deal with your complaint as quickly as possible
• Be fair, courteous and helpful
• Treat your complaint seriously, confidentially and in line with our commitment to diversity
• Keep you informed
• Keep written records
• Monitor all complaints

If your complaint shows we’ve failed in some way and are at fault, we may offer an apology, an explanation, action to put things right, or compensation (especially if you’ve experienced financial loss).

All comments are registered and monitored so we learn from our mistakes.  Our tenant reps and board consider our performance on complaints.