Housing complaints – a guide for tenants and leaseholders
The social housing functions undertaken by the Council’s Housing Service is regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing and falls within the jurisdiction of the Housing Ombudsman for complaint handling compliance. This is different to the rest of the Council’s service areas which are overseen by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
All the Council’s Housing Services teams are committed to delivering excellent service. Whilst we always strive to meet your needs, on occasions we recognise that our services may fall short of your expectations. In such circumstances we would always encourage you to contact us at the earliest opportunity as we may be able to simply resolve or put the issue right for you.
Residents that express dissatisfaction with the landlords’ approach to resolving the substantive issue, or the outcome, have the opportunity to make a complaint through the Council’s complaint handling policy.
What is a complaint?
An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents’
A complaint is not a request for service and it will be handled in line with our Complaints Policy. If however a resident expresses dissatisfaction with the response to a service request, even if this is ongoing, then this will be logged as a complaint whilst efforts to address the service request remain ongoing.
A service request is a request from a resident to the landlord requiring action to be taken to put something right.
If you have reported an issue to us and you do not think we have taken the appropriate action or responded in a suitable way and remain dissatisfied, you can make a complaint to let us know what you think has gone wrong. A resident does not have to use the word complaint for it to be treated as such (they will be given the opportunity to make a formal complaint if they are dissatisfied).
Who can complain?
Any tenant or leaseholder who feels that they have had a poor service from the Housing Service or from someone providing the service for us can make a complaint.
We understand that you may be unable or reluctant to make a complaint yourself. Therefore, we can take complaints from a friend, relative, or an advocate, on your behalf. If you ask someone to make a complaint on your behalf, we will ask you to give formal consent for them to discuss your personal information or send any documents containing personal information to you directly, for you to share with your advocate, should you wish to. You can also have someone attend any appointments with you or on your behalf.
If you are not a tenant or leaseholder of the Council you cannot use the housing complaints procedure to complain about someone who is a tenant or leaseholder. However, the housing team will still assist you with attempting to resolve your dissatisfaction and you may be able to make a complaint about service provision, which would fall under the jurisdiction of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
How to make a formal complaint
We aim to settle all issues to your satisfaction when they are first raised. However, if you feel unhappy about the action taken to resolve your issue, you can make a complaint to the Council by:
- completing online Complaints Form
- emailing: housing@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
- calling: 01229 876578 and requesting a copy of the complaints form
- writing a letter of complaint to:
Westmorland & Furness Council
Democratic Services
Town Hall
Barrow-in-Furness
Cumbria
LA14 2LD
What happens when you make a complaint
Complaints will be investigated in two stages, as set out within the Housing Ombudsman Service’s Housing Complaints Code
If the landlord decides not to accept a complaint, an explanation will be provided to the resident setting out the reasons the complaint is not suitable for the complaints process.
STAGE 1
Once submitted, the complaint will be acknowledged in writing within five days of receipt and investigated by the appropriate manager. You will receive a written response to your complaint within 10 working days from the date the complaint is acknowledged.
The stage 1 complaint response must set out:
- what stage of the complaint procedure you are at
- a summary the issues you have raised
- our decision on your complaint and our reasons
- any remedies we have offered to put things right – this could be an apology or compensation
- details of any actions we will take to put things right
- details of how you can take your complaint to the next stage of the process if you are still unhappy
The landlord is not required to complete all outstanding actions offered in resolution to the complaint before providing its stage 1 response. With the stage 1 response, the landlord should provide an action plan for any actions or remedies to resolve the issue(s), detailing the date the resident can expect the action to be completed
Escalating a complaint
If you remain dissatisfied with the stage 1 response, you can request that the complaint is escalated to the final stage - stage 2. If you are requesting to escalate the complaint to stage 2, you should clearly set out:
- why you are unhappy with the response provided at stage 1
- what you would like the landlord to do to put things right
Additional complaints made during the investigation that relate to the open complaint will be incorporated into the Stage 1 response if it has not been issued. Any new issues would be logged as a new complaint.
STAGE 2
You can request your complaint to be reviewed if you remain dissatisfied.
The escalation will be acknowledged in writing within five working days of receipt and a full review of the case will be undertaken, and a written response will be provided within 20 working days from the first working day from the acknowledgement of the complaint.
Please note: In expectational circumstances and depending on the complexity of the complaint, we may need longer to investigate and fully respond to all of your areas of dissatisfaction. If we require an extension, we will notify you as early as possible, explain the reasons why, and advise you when you can expect to receive a response.
The stage 2 response should be a full and final response to the complaint and should clearly set out:
- the final decision on your complaint
- that it is the landlord’s final response
- details of any remedy offered or actions it will take
- details of how to bring your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service for investigation
- contact details for the Housing Ombudsman Service
If you remain dissatisfied with the findings at stage 2, you can refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman for independent review.
Housing Ombudsman
You can take a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service for investigation if you have completed the complaint process and the issues have not been resolved or if you have not received a response to your complaint
The Housing Ombudsman will only consider a complaint for investigation when they have received evidence that the landlord has supplied a full and final response to your complaint.
Should the Housing Ombudsman decide to undertake an investigation into a complaint, they will liaise with us to request any information they require to support their investigations. This will typically include copies of any relevant documents, policies and information that supported the decision making at each stage of the complaints process.
Once the Housing Ombudsman has completed their investigation, they will communicate their decision to both the complainant and the Council in order that any recommendations can be actioned or implemented, where necessary.
The Housing Ombudsman Service contact details are:
- telephone: 0300 111 3000
- email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
- postal address:
Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484
Unit D
Preston
PR2 0ET
You can find out more information about the Housing Ombudsman on its website: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/when-to-get-help-from-the-housing-ombudsman/
Housing Ombudsman complaint handling code: Self-assessment
The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code sets out their expectations of how member landlords should manage complaints received, that fall within their jurisdiction. All areas of the Code are mandatory; where a landlord is unable to comply with an element of the Code they will have to explain the reason why they are unable to comply and what action they are taking to work towards compliance. Compliance with the code is a statutory obligation, which means all social housing landlords have to comply with the code, by law.
To demonstrate compliance with the code, the Housing Ombudsman requires all member landlords to complete and publish an annual self-assessment against the code, along with an annual complaints performance report, both of which should be shared with Managers, Elected Members, and Tenants.
The Council’s latest self-assessment against the Complaint Handling Code can be found in the social housing performance section.
The Council's latest Annual Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report along with the feedback from the Director of Thriving Communities and Lead Member for Housing can be found in the social housing performance section.