During stage 1 of the Housing Complaint Procedure we will:
- acknowledge your complaint within five working days – our team may contact you to gather more information
- allocate a manager to your complaint who has 10 working days to investigate and respond to you – please note, they may contact you before a written response is provided
- communicate any target date extensions if our investigations are likely to exceed more than 10 days – we aim for delays to be a maximum of 10 additional working days, although on some occasions this may be extended and you will be advised
- let you know the next steps, if you would like to escalate your complaint on to stage 2 of the process – you have 20 working days to request an escalation to stage 2
Stage 2 is discretionary and will be applied fairly and appropriately. Escalations may be refused where there is valid reason to do so.
Stage 1 complaint: our response
A stage 1 response will be issued to you when our response is finished. This may mean that some of our actions are outstanding and require further updates to be sent to you.
Our response will address all points raised in your complaint, its definition and provide the reasons for our decisions.
- If you raise additional concerns about your complaint during our investigation, these will be added to our stage 1 response.
- If you raise a new issue which does not relate to the original complaint issue and where the stage 1 response has been issued, the new issue will be logged as a new complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our stage 1 response, you can request the issue to be moved (escalated) to stage 2. The timescales to escalate are discretionary and will be applied fairly and appropriately. Escalation may be refused where there is a valid reason to do so.