COMPLAINTS PROCESS MAKE THINGS RIGHT CAMPAIGN

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is working with social housing providers across the country to drive better housing standards.

Everyone deserves a home that is safe, secure and well maintained. However, many social housing residents either don’t know what to do if they have an issue with their home or lack confidence in how to go about tackling it.

DLUHC has launched a campaign to inform social housing residents that if they have a problem, it’s now easier to make things right. On the right hand side of this page and on subsequent pages you will find information on our complaints process as well as contact details of the Housing Ombudsman if you are not happy with our response.

Your experience matters to us, so whether we get it right or wrong we want to hear from you. We are committed to providing excellent customer service and we welcome positive feedback from our customers. It’s important to understand what we are doing well.

However, we recognise that sometimes things do go wrong and on occasions our services have not been good enough, giving residents cause for complaint.

We often find that issues are resolved quicker and with better outcomes when using an informal complaints process. So we’d really encourage you to get in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can work together with you to put things right. The easiest way to get in touch with us is through our website

We also recognise that sometimes an informal approach will not work, which will mean our formal complaints process will need to be implemented. You can find out more about our formal complaints process on our website and on next page.

We continually appraise our complaints process and performance to ensure that we are not making the same mistakes again. One area that previously needed improving was faulty boilers, which were attracting high levels of compensation. In order to resolve this issue, over the last two years we have replaced over 990 boilers, which equates to 28% of our stock with a gas supply. Our investment in boilers has meant breakdowns and customer complaints have reduced. We will continue to invest in our boiler stock in the coming years.

We have also recently identified that decanted customers account for a relatively high proportion of our complaints. The complaints typically centred around a lack of communication specifically around how long customers would be in temporary accommodation for and the fact that they were receiving extensions to their accommodation late. In order to resolve this issue we have reviewed our decant policy and procedure and have limited who can approve decants and under what circumstances. Our Head of Housing Operations oversees our decants register and ensures that clear communication is provided to residents to keep them up to date with progress.

Anyone who uses or receives a service from Shepherds Bush Housing Association can complain.

You can read our Complaints Policy here: ComplaintsPolicy

Examples of Complaints:

• We have failed to respond to your initial enquiries

• Our staff or contractors were unhelpful or were not polite

• We gave unclear, misleading or unsuitable advice

• Our services were not to a good standard and we did not rectify this

• The length of time taken to provide a service and resolve an issue exceeded our service promise

• Failure to keep you informed of a decision we made

If we log your enquiry as a formal complaint, we’ll get back to you within two working days via email. We will respond fully to your complaint within 10 working days. If we need more time to carry out an investigation or to gather more information, we will let you know.

We will not log your enquiry as a formal complaint if it is about:

• A repair, provision of service or action, if the target completion date has not yet passed

• A request for information

• A first-time service request

• Neighbour disputes (please read our AntiSocial Behaviour policy). We will check if our ASB policy and process has been followed correctly

• A problem that you have known about for over six months before making a complaint about it

• Legal action which you are currently taking against us and which has to do with the same complaint you have made

• Service charge disputes

If you would like more information on our complaints policy, our complaints process or how to make a complaint, please visit our website.

If you’ve been through our complaints procedure and are still unhappy, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service which was set up to resolve disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords. The service is free, independent and impartial.

You should be aware however, that in the majority of cases the Housing Ombudsman will only consider a complaint once it has been through our internal complaints procedure.

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at:

Housing Ombudsman Service PO Box 152

Liverpool

L33 7WQ

E14 9GE 0300 111 3000 www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

In February you will have received a letter stating that your rent from April is going to increase. We normally set rents in line with the Government Rent Standard which allows rent increases of Consumer Price Index (CPI) +1%. CPI is a common measure of inflation. In September 2022 CPI was 10.1%, which would normally mean that your rent could be increased by a maximum of 11.1%.

However, this year the government has announced a cap on increases to social rents of 7%, which will save the average tenant, in England, £200 next year. We support the government’s cap on social rent increases which is significantly below CPI. This increase will help us to maintain your home to a good standard, provide an improved service to our customers and hep fund our building safety work, making sure you are safe in your home.

Depending on the type of tenancy you hold with us, this increase will either be inclusive or exclusive of service charges.