At the end of the Trust's complaint process, a customer may choose to ask the Housing Ombudsman Service to investigate their complaint if they still are dissatisfied.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about the housing organisations that are registered with it. The service is free, independent and impartial. It can advise customers at any stage of the complaint process, even if you are unsure about whether to make a complaint.
You can read more about the service on the Housing Ombudsman website.
During the year, we received 5 full file requests about complaints that went to the Housing Ombudsman but only received determinations from 2 of the 5 cases referred within the reporting year.
Changes to the code
In February 2024, the Housing Ombudsman confirmed changes to the Complaint Handling Code. All Landlords had to be compliant with this Code by 1st April 2024 as it became statutory from that date. The Trust completed an annual self-assessment of compliance with the Code.
There were several changes to the complaints process due to the updated code. The main change was the removal of the ‘quick fix’ stage (2-day response). Instead of this we offer ‘service requests’ where we will respond to your complaint within 3 working days if it is the first time you have let us know about the issue.