Kensington Housing Trust aims to provide good quality housing and services. If we have not performed as well as you would like us to, it is important that you tell us. This page explains how to make a complaint, and the steps we will take to resolve the problem.

On-line complaints form

Complaints

Making a complaint

We aim to provide good-quality housing, services and amenities but sometimes things can go wrong. You can use our complaints procedure when you feel we haven’t achieved the high standards we set.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is a report you send or give us about poor service, such as staff or contractors:

• behaving unhelpfully
• treating you or others unfairly
• taking too long or failing to provide a service
• failing to achieve our published standards.

Who can complain?

Our complaints procedure is open to everyone who receives or requests a service from us, and people who act on their behalf. This includes:

• residents
• applicants for housing
• neighbours of our properties
• councillors, MPs, solicitors and advice agencies
• staff from other businesses that we deal with.

How do I complain?

We would prefer you to put your complaint in writing as this helps us understand your grievance and deal with it quickly and effectively. To make this easier please use our on-line complaints form

You can complain:

• by completing a complaints form
• in person at our office
• over the telephone
• by using our online form.

If you complain in person or by telephone, we will complete a complaints form for you and send you a copy.

Stages for complaints

We have three stages for complaints within Kensington Housing Trust:

Stage 1 - Manager level

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and tell you who is dealing with it. The manager will:

• investigate the matter to find out what happened and why
• contact you if they need more information
• send you a full reply to your complaint.

You should receive a full reply within 10 working days. If we can’t reply within this time, we will tell you when we expect to do so. If we uphold your complaint, we will offer you an apology, and compensation or other redress as appropriate.

If your complaint is about a member of staff, their manager will deal with it. We can’t normally deal with a complaint about something that happened more than three months ago, but in exceptional circumstances we will look into a complaint about something that happened up to six months ago.

Stage 2 - Senior Manager level

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you can take your complaint to stage 2. You can do this by email, letter or complaint form. You must do so within three weeks of our reply at stage 1, and tell us why you are still dissatisfied.

When you have done this, we will acknowledge your complaint and pass it to the relevant senior manager, who will investigate afresh. As with stage 1, you should receive a written response within 10 working days.

Stage 3 - Complaints panel

If you are dissatisfied with the response at stage 2, you can progress your complaint to the final stage of our complaints procedure. You can do this by emailing us, sending a complaint form or writing to the Managing Director. You must do so within three weeks of our reply at stage 2.

We will set up a complaints panel to hear your complaint. This will comprise of at least three people: the Managing Director, a Board Member and a Chair. If the you wish, you may request to make the appeal to the Panel in person. You may bring someone, including your tenant representative, to help you put forward your case.

The Chair of the panel will write to you within a week of the hearing to tell you the outcome. We aim to complete stage 3 within six weeks of receiving your complaint at this level.

What if I am dissatisfied with what the complaints panel decides?

You may contact the Housing Ombudsman Service if you are still dissatisfied. This is an independent service that investigates complaints when you have gone through the whole of the landlord’s procedure. If you contact the Ombudsman before going through our complaints procedure, they will refer you back to us. You can contact the Ombudsman at:

Housing Ombudsman Service
81 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4HN

on 020 7421 3800 or 0845 7125 973.

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.ihos.org.uk/

The Independent Housing Ombudsman cannot take any action unless you have been through all three stages of our complaints procedure.

How do I complain?

We would prefer you to put you complaint in writing, as this helps us to collect relevant information to deal with your complaint quickly and effectively. To make this easier please use our on-line complaints form.

Other methods of submitting your complaint include:

• completing the complaints form available from all local offices
• in person at your local office
• over the telephone.

If you complain in person or by telephone a complaints form will be completed on your behalf and you will be sent a copy.

On-line complaints form

For more information on complaints please download our leaflet below.

 Complaints (382KB / 8 pages)