Housing Complaints, Compliments and Comments
We always want to provide you with the best service we can, but sometimes things can go wrong. If you have a complaint about your home or the services we or our contractors provide, please let us know so that we can put things right.
If we have done something well, please let us know too, it’s important we know when we get things right too. You can also suggest new ways of doing things and we’ll use your feedback to learn and to improve our services which will help you and others.
For more information please view the housing complaints, compliments and comments procedure [pdf document].
The Complaints and Information Governance team handles all compliments, comments and complaints across the Council. You can find out details about how they deal with complaints about other areas of the Council at Darlington BC - Complaints compliments and comments
They support our dedicated Housing Complaints Officer who will independently investigate your stage 1 complaint and provide you with a response. They also carry out any stage 2 complaint investigations.
We have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to tell us what you think. You can do this in many ways including using our online contact form.
You can log a complaint with us by
- using our online form Darlington Borough Council - Forms
- emailing [email protected] .
- calling us on 01325 406777.
- visiting us at the Town Hall, Darlington, DL1 5QT.
We always want to try and resolve an issue as soon as we’re aware of it.
Where possible, please talk to the relevant member of staff first, as they may be able to resolve the issue without going through the complaints process.
The complaints process has 2 stages.
When we receive your initial complaint, we’ll reply with an acknowledgement letter within 5 working days and respond to the complaint fully within 10 working days. If more time is needed to resolve the issue, the deadline can be extended but we’ll discuss this with you. This is called a stage 1 complaint.
If you remain dissatisfied from the stage 1 investigation and response you can escalate to a stage 2 complaint which we will acknowledge within 5 working days and respond fully within 20 working days. Stage 2 complaints are independently investigated by the Complaints and Information Governance team or an independent complaints investigator.
Our complaints, compliments and comments procedure Darlington BC - Housing complaints sets out our approach to managing complaints. We also have an agreed Complaints Service Standard which the Tenants Panel agreed which sets out what service you can expect from us Darlington BC - Our Service Standards
· Complaints process stages
o Stage one
§ A thorough investigation of your complaint is carried out by the Housing Complaints Officer.
§ If you’re not happy with the outcome of this investigation, you can request a review of your complaint through the stage 2 process.
§ You should receive a response from us within 10 working days, unless we have extended this to allow us more time to investigate (we will have discussed this with you).
o Stage two
§ A thorough investigation of your complaint and the stage 1 investigation is carried out by the Complaints and Information Governance team, or an independent complaint investigator.
§ Stage 2 complaints should be acknowledged within 5 working days of escalation and a full written response within 20 working days of the acknowledgment.
If you need further help you can contact the Housing Ombudsman at any time. You should do this within 12 months of getting to the end of the complaint’s procedure.
We’ll include details of how to contact the Ombudsman in your complaint response letter, or you can visit their website Housing Ombudsman Service for further information.
There may be times when we don’t accept a complaint, for example:
· The issue(s) being complained about took place over 12 months ago.
· It’s a request for service rather than a complaint (for example the first time you ring to report a fault or request a repair).
· Insurance claims against the Council.
· The issue is part of legal proceedings or where the same issue is part of a case that has been referred to court.
· The issue is about the level of rent or service charge, or the amount of the rent or service charge increase.
· We’ve acted according to regulatory, policy or legislative restrictions.
For full details please see the Housing Complaints, Compliments and Comments Procedure Darlington BC - Housing complaints
Where this applies, we’ll contact you and explain why we’re refusing a complaint.
We comply with the Housing Ombudsman's complaint handling code.
Each year we carry out a self-assessment to evaluate how we are performing when it comes to resolving complaints, the results of which are published here in our self-assessment form at Darlington BC - Housing complaints.
Our Complaints and Information Governance team also produce a performance report each year which is reported through our existing governance structure to Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet. You can find out about our performance annual complaints, compliments and comments annual report at Darlington BC - Housing complaints
We may make a compensation payment to you, where we have not met our service standards. For more information, please read our Housing Management Policy (Darlington BC - Our policies and strategies