Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code

The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) published a new Complaint Handling Code in April 2022, meaning that landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirements.

All landlords are required to self-assess and publish against this new Code every year. You can view our latest self-assessment in the download panel at the bottom of this page. This has been reviewed and signed off by our Cabinet on 12 June 2024.

The key areas of the Complaints Handing Code (CHC) include:

• Universal definition of a complaint.
• Providing easy access to the complaints procedure and ensuring residents are aware of it, including their right to access the Housing Ombudsman Service.
• The structure of the complaints procedure – only two stages are recommended, and clear timeframes set out for responses.
• Ensuring fairness in complaint handling with a resident-focused process.
• Taking action to put things right and appropriate remedies.
• Creating a positive complaint handling culture through continuous learning and improvement.
• Demonstrating learning in Annual Reports.

Alongside this self-assessment, we have produced our annual complaints performance and service improvement report which sets out how we performed in 2023/24, which can be viewed in the download panel at the bottom of this page.

How do we use the feedback?

The feedback we receive from complaints or compliments are really important to us. We learn from these what we need to fix to deliver a better service, as well as what works well.

We know from the complaints we receive that communication with our tenants, improving our repairs processes and better contractor management are key issues for our tenants and we’re determined to improve this. We’re making a number of changes this year to support this.

How to make a complaint 

To make a complaint or leave feedback about our services you can fill in our online feedback form.