Our Complaints Policy

We welcome our members indicating issues where we can improve. If there is something we could get better, then we want to hear about it by:

• an informal complaint – which means we will try to address the problem you are raising as quickly as we can or
• a formal complaint – which means we will also try to address the problem quickly, but we will also manage the complaint formally in accordance with our complaints policy (which you can download from here).

We need complaints to be set out on our complaints form (also downloadable from here), but we can assist you in completing the form if you want us to. Complaints should be raised through our service provider Pinnacle Group who will address your concerns in the first instant.

There are various parts to our complaint’s procedure, but a formal complaint involves the following:
• an investigation of the complaint, which will probably involve interviews with the complainant and anyone else involved
• us formally stating our position on the complaint – ie. whether we think the complaint was justified or not and what we are going to do about it
• if the complainant is not happy with our position – they can request a review of the complaint and someone different will hear the review.

There are different types of complaints:
Management complaints – where a complainant wishes to complain about one of our housing services. These complaints will be dealt with in accordance with our complaints policy.

Anti-social behaviour or harassment complaints – where one or more complainants want to complain about the behavior of one of our members, their families or their visitors, or about someone else who they consider is causing them problems. These complaints will be dealt with in accordance with our Anti-Social Behaviour Policy. If a member is not satisfied with the way we have managed an Anti-Social Behaviour issue – they can then make a complaint using the Complaints Policy.

Neighbour disputes – where two or more neighbours have disputes with each other. These will also be dealt with in accordance with our Anti-Social Behaviour Policy.
Governance complaints – where a complainant wishes to complain about how one or more of our committee members is behaving in relation to their role on the committee. This will be dealt with in accordance with our Code of Conduct.

If you are not happy with the outcome of your complainant, then the matter can be raised with the Housing Ombudsman and we will comply with what they say on the matter.
Finally, the Housing Ombudsman has published a Complaint Handling Code which sets out their expectations of how we should manage complaints. Part of that is that we should do a self-assessment of our complaints policy and the complaints we have received. We have done a self-assessment, and this is also downloadable from here

For more information check out this guide from the Confederation of Co-operative Housing