English Rural is committed to providing quality services and support to all residents. If you are not entirely satisfied with our services, a robust Complaints Policy is in operation to help resolve any concerns you may have.
Service Request
We encourage you to get in touch with us about anything you’re not happy with so that we can understand where things have gone wrong and can look to resolve or improve the situation.
We can often resolve matters quickly on first contact once the problem is brought to our attention and without the need to escalate the matter to a formal complaint. This can often be the quickest and most effective way of resolving an issue. Service Dissatisfactions are dealt with by our Customer Services team and are often used to resolve service request issues, such as repairs or grounds maintenance services.
Formal Complaints
If we have been unable to resolve your issue in the first instance via the Service Dissatisfaction route or you have requested a formal complaint, a complaint will be raised in line with our stage one complaints process. We encourage residents to submit formal complaints in writing and within a reasonable timescale, we will aim to respond and resolve complaints as quickly as possible and in line with the timescales within our Residents Complaints Policy and Procedure.
Responsibility for investigating and resolving formal complaints will be handled by the appropriate manager in consultation with the appropriate head of department. All formal complaints received by the Association will be logged and monitored via a Complaints Register. Complaints help us learn and understand what has gone wrong and we look to use complaints feedback to make improvements to our services.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint under stage one of our process and you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, then the complaint will be reviewed in line with our stage two complaints process and Resident Compensation Policy.
Please take a look at our Complaints Policy and Procedure for Residents for further information here. Please note that for non-residents we have a separate ‘Non-Resident Complaints Policy’, which can be found here.
If you have exhausted English Rural’s complaints process and you remain dissatisfied then you can refer the matter to the Housing Ombudsman Service, more information on the Housing Ombudsman process can be found on their website, Home | Housing Ombudsman Service (housing-ombudsman.org.uk)
Anti-Social Behaviour
We handle concerns about neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour in line with our Anti-Social Behaviour policies and procedures, these cases are handled and monitored by the Regional Housing Managers and are investigated outside of our formal complaints process.
English Rural will not tolerate behaviour from any resident which causes or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress. The Regional Housing Manager may work with other agencies to adopt a combined approach to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour.
Please contact English Rural Customer Services team or your Regional Housing Manager if you have any concerns about Anti-social behaviour. You can find our Anti-Social Behaviour Policy here.
Allocation Appeals
We recognise that there is a high demand for affordable housing and we are committed to allocating properties fairly and in line with our Housing Allocation Policy and Procedure. However, there may be circumstances in which unsuccessful applicants for housing wish to appeal a decision not to offer them a property. Allocation appeals must be submitted within 14 days of the date of the letter advising them they have been unsuccessful.
Once the written appeal has been received, all the paperwork in connection with the appeal will be submitted to the allocations panel to review their decision in consultation with the Customer Services Manager. The Allocations Panel will consider the circumstances of the appeal and provide a written response outlining the panel’s findings within 14 days of receiving the appeal.
If you have applied for a property and have been unsuccessful with your allocation, you have the right to appeal the allocation decision.
An appeal should be submitted in writing within 14 days of receiving confirmation of your unsuccessful allocation.
Further details of the appeal process can be found within our allocation policy under section 4.
Please find below a link to our latest self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code:
Web accessibility statement © English Rural Housing Association. All rights reserved. Web design and development by Nvisage
