How can I make a comment, compliment or complaint about Housing Landlord Services?
Feedback can be shared in a variety of ways:
- Online:
- By telephone 01775 761161
- By post to Housing Feedback, South Holland District Council, Council Offices, Spalding, Lincs PE11 2XE.
Please note, there are some matters that we do not treat as a complaint. These include:
- Reporting housing repairs - call us on 01775 761161. Further information is available on our repairs and maintenance page.
- Reporting anti-social behaviour
- Reporting an issue with pests
- Reporting fly tipping, missed rubbish collections, faulty street lights and more, visit our Report It section
- Challenging the setting of rent or service charges - these are matters for the First Tier Tribunal - Property Chamber (Residential Property)
- Damage to a tenant's belongings caused through storm or flooding - contents insurance is the responsibility of the tenant.
- Appealing a decision on a Housing Register application
- The issue occurred more than 6 months ago - We will not accept a complaint where the event occurred more than 6 months ago except where there are health and safety issues or safeguarding concerns.
- Where a decision has been made in line with our housing policies
- Matters regarding legal cases or insurance claims - these will be investigated as part of the legal/liability case
- Cases already investigated by the Housing Ombudsman.
What happens next?
If you pay us a compliment, we will let the individual or team know about it as well as their manager.
We would like to know if are not happy with the standard of service you have received. The Housing Ombudsman defines a complaint as 'an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents'.
If you make a complaint, we will try to resolve this when you first get in touch. Where a complaint needs investigating, we will follow the process below:
Stage 1 - complaint investigation
If your complaint requires investigation, we will aim to complete this within 10 working days. We will acknowledge and respond to your complaint in writing by letter or email. Our response will include our review of what has happened, our decision about the complaint and details of next steps, including what we will do to put things right. In many cases, the next steps will include commitments to actions which will happen in the period ahead. This could include follow-on repairs, an inspection or a customer meeting, which may require a reasonable amount of time to organise. We will tell you about proposed actions, timescales and responsible people in our complaint response.
Stage 2 - Senior Officer review
If you are not satisfied with our response at stage 1, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed by a senior manager at stage 2 of our process. In most cases, we will agree to review our decision and to consider any additional information provided. In certain cases, we may not be able to do this and, if so, we will explain why. The stage 2 formal complaint review is not a repeat of the full investigation. The actions and decisions taken at stage 1 will be examined to check if they were thorough, reasonable and fair. We aim to give you a decision on the outcome of the review of your complaint within 20 working days. The outcome of the stage 2 formal complaint review represents the end of our internal complaint process. We hope we will have been able to resolve your complaint. We will always explain the options to you at the end of our internal complaint process.
Comments, Compliments, Complaints and Compensation Policy (PDF) [240KB] (opens new window)
You can contact the Housing Ombudsman at any stage for guidance about making a complaint about your landlord.
Where a complaint is justified, an apology will normally be deemed sufficient to correct any inconvenience caused. However, the Council understands that where a complainant has suffered loss or injustice, other remedial action may also need to be considered, including financial compensation. Further information is set out in our Housing Comments, Compliments, Complaints and Compensation Policy.
The Council's Unreasonably Persistent Complaints, Customer Behaviour and Vexatious Requests policy sets out our right to restrict or change access to our services where we consider a customer's actions to be unacceptable.