We can usually answer most of your enquiries immediately.

We can normally provide the you the information you need straight away or we may advise you to speak to your Neighbourhood Officer. We also may advise you to contact another organisation - for example, Huntingdonshire District Council.

If our Customer Relations Team can’t give you an answer straight away, they will forward your enquiry, as appropriate, to the relevant manager.

We try to acknowledge your enquiry on the day you make it - instantly if you phone or email us. If you wrote to us or spoke to a member of staff in person, we’ll try to contact you by phone or email on the day we hear from you. If we can’t do this, we’ll post you an enquiry acknowledgement letter within 24 hours.

Our Heads of Service will make sure your enquiry is dealt with quickly and effectively. You’ll be contacted by a member of their team within ten working days.

If you’re not happy with our response, you have the option of making a complaint.

Not satisfied with the the standard of our service?

If you’re unhappy with the standard of our service, or the way one of our staff or contractors has acted or not acted, you might want to make a complaint. We will do all we can to find out what’s gone wrong and put things right.

We operate a two-stage complaints process:

Stage 1

When you contact us with your complaint, we will acknowledge it within five working days. We will let you know:

• who is dealing with your complaint
• the reference number for your complaint, and
• when you can expect a reply – we will try to respond within another 21 working days, but if the complaint is complex, we may only provide a partial reply at this stage. We will provide you with regular updates until we can send our full response.
   

Stage 2

If you still aren’t satisfied, please contact us again within 21 days of hearing from us.

You can choose how we review our decision:

Option 1

An Executive Director examines your complaint. We will acknowledge your request within five working days and try to respond within a further 21 working days.

Option 2

We hold a personal hearing at Brook House, during business hours, with the Luminus Complaints Panel and a Board member. We will send you the date and time of the hearing within 10 working days. The hearing will take place within three months of you requesting it. After the hearing, we will send a detailed reply within 10 working days.

Our decision at this stage will be final.

Taking the complaint to a ‘designated person’

If you’re unsatisfied with our final response, you can refer your complaint to an MP, a councillor or a tenants’ panel recognised by us and registered with the Independent Housing Ombudsman. They will either try to resolve the problem between you and us, or refer your complaint in writing direct to the Ombudsman.

Alternatively, if you wait eight weeks, you can refer your complaint directly to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

The Housing Ombudsman Service will review your complaint and respond.

To contact the Ombudsman, write to 81 Aldwych, London WC2B 4HN, phone 0300 111 3000, or email [email protected]

Putting things right

If we agree that our service was poor, we will try to put things right. We may send you a written apology, or offer you compensation. This will not always be money. We might replace items that have been damaged, for example.

Persistent complaints

Please note that we won’t investigate your complaint any further, if:

• it has already been through our process and to the Independent Housing Ombudsman
• you keep complaining about unimportant things
• you act unreasonably by bombarding us with calls, emails, text messages, faxes, office visits or personal approaches.