The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) published a new Complaint Handling Code in April 2022. This became statutory on 1 April 2024, meaning that landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirements.
You can read more about this here.
The key areas of the Complaints Handing Code (CHC) include:
- Universal definition of a complaint.
- Providing easy access to the complaints procedure and ensuring residents are aware of it, including their right to access the Housing Ombudsman Service.
- The structure of the complaints procedure – only two stages are recommended, and clear timeframes set out for responses.
- Ensuring fairness in complaint handling with a resident-focused process.
- Taking action to put things right and appropriate remedies.
- Creating a positive complaint handling culture through continuous learning and improvement.
- Demonstrating learning in Annual Reports.
All landlords are required to self-assess and publish against this new Code every year. Our 2024-25 assessment of this is here.
This has been reviewed by our Complaints Review Panel, which is made up of involved residents, as well as our Resident Experience Committee and Board.
The feedback we receive from complaints or compliments are really important to us. We learn from these what we need to fix to deliver a better service, as well as what works well.
We know from the complaints we receive that communication and not taking ownership are common themes, and we’re determined to improve this. We’re making a number of changes this year to support this, more of which you’ll hear about over the summer period.
For further information on making a complaint, or to feedback on the good service you’ve received from us, please click here.