At the Vale Housing Association we try to provide the best possible service, but we don't always get it right. When this happens we want to know about it. You have every right to complain to us if you are unhappy with our service.
Our definition of a complaint is "An expression of disatisfaction, however made, by one of the Association's customers, about the standard of service, action or lack of action taken by the Association with a perceived unsatisfactory result, whether justified or not. It does not include policy issues or complaints made against Association residents"
You can complain:
Yes, certainly. We do take you seriously. Your complaint helps us to learn from our mistakes and improve our services. Making a complaint will not harm your future relations with the Vale Housing Association and will probably improve them. We promise we will handle your complaint in confidence and do everything in our power to resolve it.
If your complaint turns out to be about something which is not our responsibility we will try to tell you which organisation should deal with it.
We operate a three stage complaint procedure, with deadlines for each stage. Your complaint will be acknowledged with five working days. At each stage, if you are not happy with the response you get, please go on to the next stage within 20 working days. If we don't hear from you within 20 days we will close the complaint.
If you are unhappy with something you must tell us within 12 months of it occuring otherwise we may not be able to investigate it.
Informal Complaint - Contact the section or person who provided the service. You can make your complaint in any way.
Stage 1 - Contact the Managing Director, Steve Russell. He will pass the complaint to the relevant Director who will then investigate and write back to you.
Stage 2 - Let the Managing Director know you are still unhappy and he will review the matter independently, which will include a personal hearing. You are welcome to bring a friend or relative with you to any personal hearing.
The Appeals Committee is made up of members of our Board of Management. A director who has not previously been involved in the complaint will also be present. You should attend to put forward your concerns and you can bring a friend or relative with you.
We will let you know the result within 7 working days of the hearing.
You have the right to refer the matter to the Housing Associations' Ombudsman, the Housing Corporation, your MP or a Citizens Advice Bureau.
Ombudsman Number: 0845 7125 973
Ombudsman web-site: www.ihos.org.uk
Wantage Community Information Centre: (01235) 765348
Abingdon CAB: (01235) 521894
Didcot CAB: (01491) 813632
Witney CAB: (01993)705691
Chipping Norton Community Information Centre: (01608) 641367
They are independent of Housing Associations. They will arrange a full investigation into your complaint and make a decision as to what should be done. You can go to them if you have been through our internal complaints procedure first, and are still dissatisfied. There is no charge for the use of the Ombudsman service. Forms are available at our Area offices or the Citizens Advice Bureau.
You can make comments or complaints about our policies or the level of rent increases to your Tenant Representatives (see newsletter for contact details) or to us. We can explain the reasons for them and will take your complaints into consideration when we review our policies. However the Ombudsman will not deal with complaints over policies.
Every year we review what complaints have been made and what we can learn from them. We may also phone you, or send you a survey, to find out how well you think the process worked.
You can contact the relevant person by phone, letter, by coming into the appropriate office or by using one of our comments forms (available at all our receptions). Alternatively you can make your complaint online using our complaints form. Remember to state who you want to make the complaint to and what stage your complaint is at.