Complaints, Suggestions and Compliments

This section deals with complaints you may wish to make about the service you have received from Cirencester Housing Society, or about our staff or contractors. It does not include complaints about repairs, neighbours, anti-social behaviour or enquiries about rent or housing.


Complaints
Complaints, if dealt with correctly can be a positive way of improving services, and we would like our residents to feel that we will listen if they do not feel that they have received the standard of service they would expect.
In order that complaints can be dealt with effectively and quickly, we have set out our complaints process in three easy stages.

Stage 1
You can make your complaint in writing, in person or by telephone. There is a form for you to complete if you prefer. You should receive a response to your complaint within two working days. This response may ask you for further details, ask you to make contact with the Office, or it may offer a resolution to your complaint.
The complaint will be dealt with by the relevant officer, unless it is a complaint about a member of staff, in which case it will be dealt with by the Chief Executive.

Stage 2
If you are not happy with the response to your complaint, you can appeal to the Chief Executive for a review. Your complaint will be further investigated and you should receive a response within five working days. The Chief Executive will look at your original complaint and at the outcome of stage one and will assess whether the complaint is justified and whether it has been dealt with correctly.
 
Appeal
If you still feel that your complaint has not been resolved the third and final stage is an appeal to the Board. The Board of Cirencester Housing Society oversee the work of the Society. They meet once a month, but it may not always be possible to schedule your complaint into their next meeting. You will be advised of the date that your complaint will be discussed, and within five working days following the meeting, you will be advised of the outcome.
The decision of the board is final.

After stage three, you can of course take further advice, either from the CAB, a solicitor or from the Housing Association Ombudsman.Generally the Ombudsman will not deal with complaints because you simply don’t agree with what the Society is doing. In most cases the Ombudsman will expect you to have gone through the whole complaints process before you contact him.

The Housing Association Ombudsman’s address is:
Independent Housing Ombudsman ltd
81 Aldwych London WC2B 4HN
Telephone: 020 7421 3800
Fax: 020 7831 1942
Local: 0845 712 5973
Minicom: 020 7404 7092
ihol@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

It is inevitable that we sometimes make mistakes, however before you make a formal complaint we would ask that you try and resolve the situation through discussion with the relevant officer. If we have made an error we will apologise, try and make amends, and take steps to make sure that the same problem does not occur again. 

Suggestions
The Society likes residents to be involved in the way it works and in the homes that we provide. If you think of an idea that could improve our service, or could improve your local environment then please let us know! Obviously we are limited in the funding that we have available, but we promise to give consideration to any ideas that you put forward. If we do use one of your suggestions you will be featured in our newsletter and will receive a small token of thanks. If anything occurs to you, don’t keep it to yourself, give us a call, drop us a letter or e-mail or call into the office, we welcome all suggestions however small or trivial. If it could make a difference to your estate, block of flats or to the service we provide we would like to hear from you! 

Compliments
Like everyone we do like to receive compliments! If you think we have done something well, or you are pleased with the service you have received, please let us know. It just takes a quick phone call, letter or e-mail and lets us know that we are getting things right!
When is a complaint not a complaint?
Sometimes the word ‘complaint’ is used for other purposes:
For example: when you want to report a repair
"I want to complain that my central heating isn’t working"

Or when you want to talk about our neighbours:
"I want to complain about noise from my neighbours flat"

Or about your housing conditions
"I want to complain that we are overcrowded"

These types of issues are within the day-to-day work of the Society and do not fall into the remit of this complaints process. Sometimes the reports above will overlap. For example ‘I want to complain about my central heating’ may lead into a complaint against the contractor. ’I want to complain because the contractor was abusive’ It is sometimes difficult to make the distinction between the two situations. If you are in any doubt please talk to any member of staff. As a basic rule, a complaint that follows this process is about the Society itself, the service we have provided, or the staff or a contractor.