Stadium - Building foundations for life

We operate a quick and easy complaints and appeals procedure, for your convenience.

When dealing with complaints and appeals, we will: 

·           make it easy for you to make a complaint or appeal;

·           respond to you quickly;

·           sort out the problem efficiently and fairly;

·           be polite, helpful and fair;

·           help you to fill out the complaints/appeals form if you have difficulty;

·           keep you up to date with the progress of your complaint/appeal;

·           treat your complaint/appeal confidentially and in line with our equal-opportunities policy; and

·           ask a manager to review the issues you have raised

Complaints and our residents

Anyone living in a property we own or manage, or anyone acting on their behalf and with their permission, can complain.

Anyone who wants to receive a service from us can also complain, for example, someone applying for housing.

Neighbours of our properties can also complain to us about the way we have dealt with the behaviour of our residents and visitors; and about any damage caused to their property by us not repairing our property.  It should be noted that neighbours cannot take complaints to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

Areas of complaint

You can use the complaints process when you have told us that you feel something is wrong and we have then not put it right.  The process is not for everyday matters such as reporting repairs or neighbour disagreements.  It gives you the opportunity to have put right something we should have done.

You may want to complain because:

·           we have failed to carry out our legal duties as your landlord;

·           you feel that our policies and practices are unfair or unreasonable;

·           you believe that we have not carried out our own rules properly or have failed to act efficiently in delivering a service; or

·         you feel that a member of staff has behaved improperly or has been rude

We may not deal with a complaint, or choose to deal with it in a different manner from that outlined in this procedure, where it is pursued unreasonably or the circumstances otherwise merit it.

How to make a complaint

If you want to complain, it is important that you tell us what you want us to do to put things right

Before we will consider the matter as a formal complaint, we will try to quickly put right anything you feel has gone wrong.  If we cannot sort out the matter to your satisfaction at this stage, you can then use the formal complaints procedure, which has three stages. 

·              Stage 1 helps you to complain to the manager of the department you are complaining about

·              Stage 2 takes you to the Service Director. 

·              Stage 3 takes you to the Chief Executive and the Board.

Our response at each stage will tell you how you can move to the next stage of the process if you are still

dissatisfied.

The frist step

If you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service, we first expect you to discuss the matter informally

with the member of staff who deals directly with your enquiry.  In most cases, this will be the quickest

way to sort out any problems, and it will help you to avoid delays in us dealing with your enquiry or

complaint if you take this step first. 

If you are not sure who to contact, phone the Customer Relations Team on 020 8451 7526, or talk to your scheme manager, who will tell you who to contact if they cannot help you themselves. 

If your first contact is unsuccessful, you can ask the Customer Relations Team to arrange a personal interview with a member of the department concerned and, if you want, a friend or member of your family can come with you.  You will be asked to provide details of the issue you wish to raise before the meeting.

Formal Complaint:  Stage 1

If you are not satisfied with your initial contact, you can make a formal complaint to the relevant department.  There are a number of ways that you can do this:

·           Via email to stadium@stadiumha.org.uk

·           Completing our complaints form (copy in your Residents Handbook or available from our office) - any member of staff will help you to fill out the form if you want them to

·           Speaking with us via the telephone - any member of staff can take the details of your complaint and will forward them to the Customer Relations Team for them to register your complaint and confirm back to you

·           Writing a letter to the Customer Relations Team setting out the details of your complaint

·           Speaking with your Scheme Manager who will forward the details of your complaint to the Customer Relations Team for them to register your complaint and confirm back to you

·           Speaking with a member of staff directly when you see them if they are carrying out an estate inspection or visiting your home.  They will take details of your complaint and if they are unable to resolve your problem for you they will forward the details of your complaint to the Customer Relations Team who will register your complaint and confirm back to you 

Please address any correspondence about your complaint to the Customer Relations team (details in the ‘Useful contacts’ section of this handbook).  Please do this within 10 days of first contacting the officer you have spoken to or their department. 

We will respond to your complaint in writing and will reply within a reasonable timescale, depending on how complicated your complaint is.  This will usually be within 10 working days.  If, for any reason, it will take much longer than this to reply, we will write and tell you why there has been a delay and when you can expect a full reply.

We will not usually consider formal complaints at stage 1 unless you have tried to sort out the matter as set out in the paragraph ‘The First Step’.

Formal Complaint:  Stage 2 

If you have followed Stage 1 and are not satisfied with our formal reply, you can contact us again, setting out your objections to the Stage 1 decision and telling us what you would like us to do to sort out your complaint.  Please do this within 10 working days of receiving your response at stage 1. 

The Service Director, or a senior manager nominated by the Service Director, will consider your complaint personally and you can expect a response in writing within a reasonable timescale, usually within 10 working days, or we will let you know when you can expect a full reply.

At this stage, we may suggest getting an independent outside organisation involved if the type of complaint makes this a suitable option.

We will not consider complaints at this stage unless you have followed stage 1.

Formal Complaint:  Stage 3

If you believe that your complaint has not been settled fully at Stage 2, you can make a final appeal to a panel of our board of management.  The panel will usually comprise two or three Board members, and the Chief Executive, at least one of the Board members will be a resident.

If there is time before the next scheduled Panel meeting the Chief Executive will review your complaint; it may be that a solution may be found that is acceptable to you, and this could give you a quicker result than a full panel meeting.

If no solution is found, and the panel needs to meet, it will look again at your complaint and the way it has been handled.  You can present your complaint to the panel in person if you want.  A friend or family member can come with you (but not a professional advisor).

To move to stage 3, write to the Customer Relations Team within 10 working days of receiving our stage 2 response.  Say in your letter why you disagree with our stage 2 response and whether you want to present your complaint in person or not.  Please provide a phone number and, if you are writing to us, mark your envelope ‘private and confidential.

The Customer Relations Team will:

·                Contact you within 15 days of receiving your letter;

·                Agree a convenient date for you and the panel to meet;

·                Write to you to let you know exactly what will happen; and

·                Make sure that the panel has the necessary documents to enable them to considering your complaint

Our board members are volunteers.  As they do not work for us finding a suitable date and time quickly may sometimes be difficult.  We will book Panel hearings as required, and certainly within 28 days of you lodging a stage 3 request.  The meetings take place at our office at Electric House and may be held in the early evening or during the day dependent on complainant and Panel Members availability and preference.  We will let you know the arrangements for the meeting at least 10 working days before the meeting is due to be held.

We will write to you within three weeks of the panel meeting to let you know the panel’s decision or notify you of any delay and the reasons.

Paying compensation

If we award you compensation and you owe us money for another reason, we will take your debt from the

compensation you have been granted and pay you the rest.

Lettings Appeals

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of a transfer banding decision we have made, you have the right to appeal the decision.

We have introduced a Lettings Appeal Panel within our appeals structure to ensure your appeal is heard by officers with specialist knowledge of lettings procedures.   We will hear appeals from residents who feel that they have been discriminated against or disadvantaged in some way by our decision.

The panel will comprise two members of our Senior Management Team drawn from our Directors and/or Heads of Service having responsibility for tenancy management services.

Processing your Application

Upon receiving a transfer request, we will award you a transfer banding in accordance with our lettings procedures or that of LOCATA, as appropriate.

You will be notified in writing of the outcome of our assessment within 15 days of receiving your application.  We will explain the grounds on which your priority banding has been awarded and give you a copy of the banding criteria.

Lodging an Appeal

There are two stages to our lettings appeal procedure;

Stage1:  If you disagree with our initial decision, you can ask for a review by contacting us by any of the methods listed above for making a stage 1complaint:   Please do this within 10 days of receiving our notification.

A review will be conducted by the Head of Housing Services and the outcome will be notified to you within 15 days of receipt of your request.

Stage 2:  If you remain dissatisfied, you should contact our Customer Relations Team to request a hearing, detailing the grounds upon which you are appealing your banding.   Please provide a phone number and, if you are writing to us, mark your envelope ‘private and confidential’.

The Customer Relations Team will contact you within 15 days of receiving your letter to agree a convenient date for you and the panel to meet and write to you confirming details of the meeting

We will write to you within three weeks of the panel meeting to let you know the panel’s decision.

The Panel’s decision will end the internal appeals process. However you have the right to make an independent complaint if you are still not satisfied. Your options are given below.  

Where do I Complain?

Please address your complaint or appeal to:

Customer Relations Team

Stadium Housing Association

Olympic Office Centre

8 Fulton Road

Wembley  HA9 0NU

Phone:           020 8451 7526

Fax:               020 8459 6447

Minicom:        020 8451 0873

What if I am still not satisfied?

Stage 3 completes our complaints procedure. If you are still dissatisfied, you have two options to complain outside of the association.

Housing Ombudsman Service

You may ask for your complaint to be independently examined by the Housing Ombudsman Service.  The Ombudsman will usually only consider complaints that have been through our own internal complaints procedure.  The Ombudsman’s address is:

Housing Ombudsman Service

81 Aldwych

London  WC2B 4HN

Phone:          020 7421 3800

Minicom:     020 7404 7092

Email:         info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

 Please Note: The Ombudsman will not look at cases about the level of rent and service charge or matters that are about to go to a court or tribunal (or have already done so).We support the Ombudsman’s role, and are committed to fully co-operating with the Ombudsman

Legal Advice

You can consult a solicitor or seek advice from an advice centre (such as citizens advice bureau or law centre) if you feel we haven’t fulfilled our legal duty.  Citizens Advice might be able to help you write a letter of complaint.  In the case of repair problems, you can seek help from the council’s environmental health department.

You have the right to make complaints of discrimination against us in the county court.  You must make your complaint within six months of the event leading to the complaint.

Equality & Diversity

To ensure we are meeting our commitment to provide equal access to services for all our residents we will visit residents at home as part of our investigations and to conduct panel hearings, if there is a need.