Getting it Right - Complaints, Compliments & Comments
RFHA aims to be an excellent landlord and provide the highest level of service to its customers. When our service is not as good as it should be, we want to know about it so we have the opportuntity to put things right. It is also nice to be told when we do something well! We also welcome your comments abut any aspect of the service that we provide. We see this as an opportunity to listen to our customers and use their feedback to continually improve our services.
What Is A Complaint?
You can complain if you feel we have:
- done something wrong;
- done something we should not have done;
- failed to do something we should have done;
- behaved unfairly or discourteously;
- not carried out a service to an agreed standard;
- not responded to your request within our stated timescale.
You can contact us in a variety of ways:
- Telephone or fax;
- letter;
- in person;
- email.
How Do You Complain?
Stage 1
If you are unhappy about any aspect of our service, please tell us. It is helpful if you can provide as much detail as possible in order to help us to resolve the problem promptly. You should contact:
Customer Services Team
Rockingham Forest Housing Association
St Peter's House, 101 Wellingborough Road,
Rushden, Northants, NN10 9YL
Telephone: 01933 411400
Fax: 01933 411420
email: complaints@rfha.org.uk
We aim to deal with most problems at the point at which you first contact us and most are dealt with within 5 working days. If we think that your complaint will take longer than 5 working days to resolve, we will write to you to tell you. When we have dealt with your complaint, we will write to you to tell you of our decision. We will seek to complete our investigations within 10 working days unless we have advised you otherwise.
Stage 2
If you are not satisfied with what we have done or the problem continues, you can ask for a review of our decision. A senior manager will be able to assist you with this if you wish. You should tell us why you are unhappy with our decision and how you would like the matter to be resolved. This should be done within 28 days of our initial response. We aim to acknowledge your response within 5 working days. We aim to complete our investigations within 10 working days. We will write to you stating whether or not this review has upheld your complaint. Reasons for our decision will be given in this letter.
Stage 3
If you are still unhappy with our decision, please tell us. Your complaint will be dealt with by a Complaint Panel made up of members of our Board of Management. You should outline the reasons why you are unhappy with the decision we made following our investigation of your complaint and how you want the matter to be resolved. This should be done within 28 days of our response to you in stage 2. A meeting of the Complaint Panel will take place at a mutually convenient time. We will aim for this to be within 28 days. You can attend this meeting to put your case forward in person if you wish.
Following this meeting, the Board of Management will aim to write to you within 10 working days to advise you of the decision of the panel.
What Happens Next?
If you remain unhappy with the decision of the Association, you can contact the Independent Housing Ombudsman at: Housing Ombudsman Service
81 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4HN
Tel: 020 7421 3800
Lo-Call: 0845 7125 973
Minicom: 020 7404 7092
Fax: 020 7831 1942
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
The Independent Housing Ombudsman will not consider a complaint unless you have already used our complaints procedure.
A copy of our Complaints Advice leaflet is available.