Making a Complaint

How to make a complaint – or pay us a compliment
Definition
What can I complain about?
What can I not complain about?
How to complain or compliment us
How will you deal with my complaint or compliment?
Our three-stage complaints procedure
The Independent Housing Ombudsman
Our service standards
Other useful links
Swan Housing Association Complaints Procedure Flow Chart

How to make a complaint – or pay us a compliment

We know we occasionally make mistakes. We know you might feel unhappy about the service we provide. When this happens, making a complaint can help us solve the problem. And by solving the problem, we can learn from our mistakes to make sure the same problem doesn’t arise again. This will help us to improve the services we give to all our residents.

At the same time, when we do something well, we like to know about it. This helps us to understand what you think is a good standard of service – and it means that our staff know when they’ve done a good job.

Definition

What is a complaint?

A complaint is defined as “an expression of dissatisfaction with the quality of services, with an action or lack of action by the Association or the Association’s staff”.

What is a compliment?

A compliment is ‘a statement of praise: something said to express praise or approval’ and in this context a compliment should be recorded when a customer has made a specific effort to give praise such as telephoning or writing to show their satisfaction or appreciation for a service.

What can I complain about?

Examples of a complaint might include:

Failing to provide a service;
Providing a poor standard of service;
Failing to meet our published service standards;
Treating you unfairly;
Failing to follow our own policies or procedures.

What can I not complain about?

Examples of other complaints raised by customers that will not be dealt with through our complaints policy and procedure include:

An initial request for a service or information – for these use our contact form
Complaints about neighbours or anti-social behaviour, which are dealt with through separate policies and procedures.
Suggestions or Ideas – for these we suggest you use our suggestion scheme

How to complain about or compliment us

You can make a complaint or pay us a compliment in a number of ways:

In Person – You can contact us by phone or talk to us in person at one of our offices; Or you can contact our Customer Feedback Co-ordinator on : 01277 314 341
In writing – Send us your comments by letter, or by using the form in our complaints & compliments leaflet
On Line - by e-mail or through our on-line form

Complaints leaflets are available in all of Our Area Offices, they will also be included in the new tenants’ sign-up pack, or can be downloaded from here. You can also use our contact form on this site or the complaints & compliments contact form on web4residents.

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and we will aim to resolve your complaint within ten working days. However, if the problem is particularly complex, this may take a little longer. We will let you know if this is the case and then keep you informed of progress.

How will you deal with my complaint or compliment?

Compliments: All compliments will be recorded and the particular service areas notified. All compliments will be acknowledged within three days of receipt.

Complaints: Swan Housing Group will take all complaint seriously and will monitor those complaint to ensure the service is improved as a result. We have a three stage complaints procedure which is outlined below

We will:

send you a response within our agreed targets;
apologise to you, explain what happened and aim to put it right as soon as possible;
keep you informed at all times, and let you know if you are entitled to compensation;
learn from our mistakes, so they don’t happen again;
tell you about any improvements we make as a result of your complaint and suggestions;
ask you how you felt we had handled your complaint at the end of the process.

Our three-stage complaints procedure

It is Swan’s intention to resolve all complaints at the earliest possible stage. Wherever possible, we will aim to resolve the problem immediately.

At each stage of the procedure you will receive a written response to your complaint. The response will give the decision, the reason for that decision and explain who you should contact if you wish to move to the next stage.

Stage one

After making a complaint, your feedback will be passed to the relevant manager to investigate and resolve. The manager will discuss the problem with you, and ask you how you would like your problem to be dealt with. Wherever possible, we will try to resolve your problem immediately. At the very least, we will aim to send you a full response within ten working days.

Stage two

If you are unhappy with the manager’s response, you can contact the customer feedback co-ordinator to request that your complaint is reviewed by one of our directors. The director will then look at how your problem has been managed, and decide whether there is more we could do. We will send you the director’s full response within ten working days of you asking for your complaint to be reviewed.

Stage three

If you are still dissatisfied, you can ask the customer feedback co-ordinator to arrange for a special appeals panel to review your case. This panel will include at least one member of our board of management and, unless you do not want them to hear your complaint, at least one Swan tenant or leaseholder. You will be offered the opportunity to meet with the panel personally, so that you can explain why you are still unhappy. The panel will meet within fifteen working days of your request, and will send you a full response within five working days of meeting.

The appeals panel will provide our final response to the concerns that you have raised.

The Independent Housing Ombudsman

If, after going through all three stages of our complaints procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the Independent Housing Ombudsman. The Ombudsman should be written to at the address below:

The Independent Housing Ombudsman
81 Aldwych, London WC2B 4HN

Telephone: 020 7421 3800

Normally, the Ombudsman will only deal with your case if you have followed all the stages of our procedure.

Our service standards

Each of our service standards has been agreed with a group of residents. They tell you what level of service you can expect from us.

We will regularly measure our performance against these service standards and let you know how we are doing. If you feel that we are not meeting these standards, please phone us on 0300 303 2500.

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