At Hastoe we aim to deliver excellent services to residents but we recognise that sometimes things go wrong and, when this happens, we want to put things right to stop it from happening again. We value feedback from residents and will use this to improve our services.
If there is cause for complaint, we want to make sure the process is easy, and our aim is to resolve any issue as quickly as possible. We will thoroughly investigate and review all complaints.
What is a complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by Hastoe, our own staff, or those acting on our behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.
What is not a complaint?
Some areas of dissatisfaction fall outside the scope of our complaints policy and we will not investigate them as a complaint. These are when:
- The issue that is being complained about happened over twelve months ago. If there is a good reason why the issue wasn’t raised prior to this time we may consider this as a complaint, but this will be at our discretion.
- Legal proceedings have started and a claim has been filed at court.
- Matters have previously been dealt with as a formal complaint.
Ways to make a complaint
You can make a complaint in a number of ways:
- By completing our online complaints form
- Contacting us by phone, text message, or letter
- Through MyHastoe
- In person
- Through a third party such as an MP, councillor, advocate, friend or family member. The complainant will need to give permission in most circumstances.
Housing Ombudsman
At any stage of your complaint, you can access the Housing Ombudsman Service by contacting them in a number of ways:
- Online: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
- By phone: 0300 111 3000
- In writing to: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 1484, Unit D, Preston, PR2 0ET
Building safety complaints in high-rise buildings
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has legal powers to help make sure high-rise residential buildings are safe. If you live in a building that is more than 18 metres or 7 or more storeys high, then you are able to escalate your complaint to the BSE, if your complaint is in relation to:
- the structural safety of the building
- the spread of fire, or
- the performance of Hastoe in relation to either of these two things.
If you remain dissatisfied following the end of our complaints process. They can be contacted at:
- Tel: 0300 790 6787
- www.gov.uk/guidance/contact-the-building-safety-regulator
If you are unsure whether your home or complaint falls into this category then please contact us and we can advise you.
Reasonable adjustments
Throughout the complaints process, we will make reasonable adjustments to accommodate your needs in accordance with the Equality Act 2010. This may include changes to the complaints policy, procedure or process.
Learning from complaints
We publish our complaints performance, and any improvements made as a result of the complaints we receive, in our Annual Report for Tenants.
We invite residents to scrutinise our complaints performance. This enables us to learn from resident experiences and to improve our services.
Hastoe also carries out regular self assessments against the Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and takes appropriate action to ensure complaint handling is in line with the framework.
Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC)
A member of the Board is designated as a lead in complaints. The MRC does not deal with the investigation of individual complaints. They promote the importance of good complaints handling in the organisation, monitor complaints performance and attend resident scrutiny sessions.
Residents' Complaint Scrutiny Group
We have developed a number of groups which enable residents to scrutinise key areas of our service and identify where improvements can be made. This includes the way we manage our complaints process. Board members with responsibility for complaints also join our Residents' Complaint Scrutiny Group. If you are interested, please get in touch.
How we deal with complaints
When you request to make a complaint, a member of the Customer Services team will contact you to make sure we know what you are dissatisfied with and what you would like as an outcome. Within 5 working days of you making the complaint, they will then acknowledge your complaint in writing and allocate it to a complaint handler.
Stage 1
When you make a complaint it will be dealt with at stage one of our process. This will be investigated by a member of staff from the department responsible for the service being complained about, who hasn’t been involved in dealing with the issue previously.
The complaint handler will contact you to introduce themselves, confirm their understanding of your complaint and what you would like as an outcome. They may also ask you some additional questions to help with the investigation.
A full written response will normally be provided within 10 working days of your complaint being logged by the Customer Services team. If the complaint handler is unable to provide a response within this timescale, they will let you know when it will be responded to. This will not normally be longer than another 10 working days unless there is a good reason. The reason for any extension will be explained to you.
We will respond to the complaint when we know the answer. This may be before any actions to resolve the complaint have been completed. Where this is the case, the complaint handler will keep your case open until all the actions have been completed.
Stage 2
If you remain unhappy with the response you received at Stage 1 you must let us know within a month of our response and we will review your complaint. We will acknowledge the review of your complaint within 5 working days.
The stage 2 complaint handler will be a Director, normally the Director responsible for the area of service you are complaining about, but may be any Hastoe Executive Director. The complaint handler will contact you to understand why you remain dissatisfied and what you would like as an outcome. They may also ask you some additional questions to help with the review.
A full written response will normally be provided within 20 working days of your complaint being escalated. If the complaint handler is unable to provide you with a response within this timescale, then they will let you know when it will be responded to, this will not normally be longer than another 20 working days, unless there is good reason.
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint at the end of this process then you can escalate your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service, or the Building Safety Regulator, depending on the nature of your complaint.
Compensation
Please read our compensation policy for more information.
