Ombudsman corner

By Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman

Residents shouldn’t face a postcode lottery when making a complaint. This means our Complaint Handling Code performs a crucial role in driving consistent, fairer and higher standards across the social housing sector. It’s also an important tool for landlords to assess whether they’re delivering a positive complaint handling culture. This culture should promote learning and empower complaint handling teams to ensure they have the resources and respect to do the job, as well as raising expectations of them.

In March, we published an updated Code based on the feedback we’d received, as well as our own experience. The fundamentals remain unchanged. However, the new Code has strengthened in three specific areas. It’s increased the obligations on landlords to raise awareness of the complaints process and of our service. It sets out good practice for a member of the governing body to be identified as having lead responsibility for complaints and for all landlord staff to have a standard objective related to effective complaint handling. It also reinforces the importance of learning from complaints by being explicit that the self-assessment should be completed as an annual exercise.

Here are six things you need to know. 1. The language has changed to be clear where something is mandatory and where landlords are to use their discretion to achieve the best possible results. 2. To improve access, the revised Code encourages landlords to provide as many routes as possible through which complaints can be raised, as well as

a new requirement for landlords to publicise the Code. 3. Where landlords need to extend the response time to a complaint this has to be done in agreement with the resident and, if it cannot be agreed, the resident is given our details so that the landlord’s actions can be assessed and appropriate action taken to progress the complaint where necessary. 4. The Code is clear that the response to a formal complaint must be provided at the point the answer to the complaint is known, not when the outstanding issues, such as repairs or decorating, are completed. This affords the resident the right to challenge those solutions if they do not feel that they’re the right ones, before they’re undertaken. 5. It raises the bar on learning from complaints. To further strengthen the learning aspects of the Code, we’ve now asked landlords to appoint a governing body member to have lead responsibility for complaints to support a positive complaints culture. 6. The revised Code seeks to strengthen the focus on positive cultures even further. It asks landlords to set out standard objectives for employees to encourage collaborative working both within and across teams, as well as to encourage a collective responsibility towards managing and resolving complaints without apportioning blame.

Finally, landlords should self-assess and make any necessary changes to their complaint handling practices by October, as well as publish the outcome of that assessment.

With rising costs across a range of sectors including energy and repairs, there’s never been a better time to consider SMART solutions for this post-pandemic industry sector.

A certified assessment of tenanted properties is gathering pace, with a number of housing clients seeing a clear difference with a Property MOT® certifying the health of their properties. In addition, the process serves to enhance the education of those working to resolve reports of damp, condensation and mould.

With a demonstrable outcome for solving disrepair complaints, the unique framework offers a uniform

David Bly, Director of Cornerstone Professional Services (UK) Ltd, the organisation behind the Property MOT®, explains why social housing providers are requesting further details and sample MOT surveys aligned to this unique framework:

“The MOT survey demonstrates a user-friendly yet detailed algorithmic assessment of a structure alongside elements controlling the internal atmosphere, with each assessment aligned to a respective property and its residents upholding bespoke outcomes. This approach aligns to the housing stock within the UK as a whole whereby a myriad of stock types, ages and periods, plus geographical location and orientation, can and do affect the structural behaviour alongside the internal atmospheric management.”

“In addition, recognising the net-zero journey is upon us, the assessment of each property includes air permeability and appropriate measures to manage heating and ventilation. That said, the current drive to ‘Insulate Britain’ cannot be a broad-brush affair – rather, an individual assessment to determine efficacy and anticipated outcomes such that, with a vastly differing structural type and construction age perspective across the UK, in the absence of specific assessment criteria prior to installation, we will have to consider ‘Ventilating Britain’.”

aspects. This has enabled the client to focus on the highlighted issues and where repairs are indeed required, cost effective solutions are in place. In addition, where ventilation measures are deemed ‘adequate’, pertinent and recognisable guidance has been made available to the residents.

With SMART Knowledge embedded in the MOT application process, the best way to understand more about this opportunity and how your team could be more informed is by requesting complimentary MOT surveys for properties of your choice. This limited opportunity will allow you to learn more of your stock and how it’s being utilised.

 023 9200 1374  propertymot@cornerstone-ltd.co.uk  www.propertymot.uk