Our scrutiny team reviewed communications within the complaints process.
We are always happy to hear that we did something well. We really appreciate compliments about our services and staff and share them with our colleagues to ensure we continue to get things right.
Compliments will be recorded and passed to the member of staff or team being complimented. Managers will acknowledge individuals or teams who are being complimented.
Compliment information will be reported to the Selwood Housing board of management. Compliments will be shared bi-annually at staff briefing and corporate events.
We are sorry when things go wrong, and we want to hear from you if you are unhappy with us in any way.
The Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code defines a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.
Selwood Housing will use complaints learning to train staff and where applicable review policy.
All dissatisfaction will be treated as a complaint in the first instance and will start as an expression of dissatisfaction. In some instances depending on the nature of the complaint, the investigator may start the complaint at Stage 1 of the complaints process. This is usually determined by the time needed to complete the investigation and availability of people we may need to involve.
Stage 1 complaints will be assigned to a member of staff with the most relevant knowledge and expertise, usually a team manager. They will hold an investigation and write to you.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint you can go to stage 2 of the complaints process. You must tell us why you are not satisfied with the outcome and include any additional information you would like us to consider.
The final stage of the complaints process will be considered by our complaints panel, which is made up of three board directors. Anyone who has a relationship with us as a landlord can escalate their complaint to stage 3. This includes applicants for housing. You will be contacted to arrange a mutually agreed date and time for your complaint to be heard by the panel. Staff who have been involved in the complaints process up to this point may also be present. You can bring a relative or advocate with you to the hearing if you want to.
Customers of our sewage treatment plants or those who rent a garage from us cannot go beyond stage 2 of our complaints process.
Residents and landlords can contact the Housing Ombudsman at any time while a complaint is going through the landlord's complaints process for advice and to help find a resolution. The Housing Ombudsman cannot make a formal decision on a case at this stage.
Once you've been through our complaints process, if you remain dissatisfied with our response you can ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate how we dealt with the matter. To contact the Housing Ombudsman Service, you can ask one of the following to refer your complaint:
You can also contact the Housing Ombudsman Service directly at:
More information can be found on the Housing Ombudsman's website.
Complaints about our financial services or regulated complaints, including hire agreements will be logged at stage 1 of the complaints process.
Financial services complaints must be dealt with within 8 weeks, to include stage 2 of the complaints process.
More information can be found at:
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Compliments and complaints can be sent from any source. This includes letters, emails, telephone, face-to-face conversations, satisfaction surveys, Facebook or other social media.
If an ongoing complaint should fall into one of the above categories, the complaints process will be split and any element relating to the above will be dealt with separately and not form any part of the complaints process.
We accept that there will be times when you may disagree with one of our policies. Complaints about policy will start at stage 1 of the complaints process.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the stage 1 investigation, the complaints process will stop. Instead, the relevant executive team director will consider the complaint and decide if a review of the policy is required.
A small number of people may persist unreasonably with their complaints or make complaints in order to make life difficult for Selwood Housing rather than to resolve a genuine grievance. If a member of staff believes that a complaint falls into this category, they will discuss it with their manager, who in turn will raise the matter with their executive director.
When a decision is made to treat a complaint as vexatious, the customer will be told in writing, why the decision has been made, what the restricted contact arrangements are and for how long these restrictions will remain in place.
Our scrutiny team reviewed communications within the complaints process.
If you can't find what you're looking for please contact us at info@selwoodhousing.com