We know that sometimes things can go wrong. When this happens, we want to know about it so that we can put things right. Our Complaints Policy explains more about how we manage your complaints and what you can expect from us if you do complain.

As part of our Complaints Policy, we have adopted the Housing Ombudsman’s definition of a complaint. We consider a complaint to be:

“an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by Orbit, our own staff, or those acting on our behalf, affecting an individual customer or group of customers.”

There are however some things that we won’t investigate as part of our complaint’s procedure. You can find out more detail on this in our Complaints Policy. Some examples are provided below.

• A first request for a service or information. If you have a question or an issue, please contact us to ask us about it
• The first report of anti-social behaviour. The initial allegation of anti-social behaviour will be investigated in line with our ASB policy
• A first complaint about data protection and GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation). These will be handled in line with our privacy policy
• Initial disputes or queries about service charge budgets or accounts. You can contact us if you have any queries about your service charge
• Anything that is not our responsibility such as bin collections or increase in Council Tax
• Anything that has already been through our internal complaint’s procedure
• Any issues that are subject to legal proceedings, or where there are other appeal bodies established to deal with the issues (e.g. First Tier Tribunal – Property Chamber)
• Anonymous letters. Where possible, we may still investigate, depending on the circumstances

There may be occasions when we don’t accept a complaint in line with our policy. If this happens, we will explain to you’re the reasons for this, and write to you to confirm this. 

If you are an existing customer, the easiest way to make a complaint is through your myAccount portal.

If you are not an existing customer or you do not have an online account with us, then you can get in touch to tell us about your complaint by filling in our complaints form.

Before you raise a complaint about damp or mould it is important that you make a report to us so that we can investigate and agree a way forward. You can do this by completing this form.

If you are unable to submit a complaint online, we also have several alternative options for you to be able to submit a complaint. These are:

Phone

One of our dedicated team will be on hand to process your complaint for you. Where possible, we will try to resolve your complaint as soon as possible and advise a resolution at the earliest opportunity. The contact number is 0800 678 1221. If you have hearing loss or a speech impairment, you can use a textphone to contact us. You may call 18001 0800 678 1221.

Letter

If you would prefer to send us a letter regarding your complaint, please ensure this is addressed to our Customer Relations Department using the below postal address:

Orbit Group,
PO Box 6406
Coventry
CV3 9NB

If you do make a complaint to us, please explain your issue fully. This can include providing any dates or background information and explaining what you would like to happen to resolve your issue.

We also accept complaints if a customer provides us with permission with representatives on your behalf. This could include anyone acting as their representative, third parties, family members and formal representatives such as MP’s, councillors, citizen’s advice bureaus and the community legal service.

When you make a complaint, we will contact you to discuss your complaint within five working days.

When we investigate your complaint, we will:

• Investigate your complaint thoroughly to ensure that we fully understand your complaint and look at all the information that is available to us
• Contact you every 3 -5 working days to keep you informed about our progress in investigating your complaint.
• Aim to respond to your complaint within 10 working days. Some complaints are more complex and require more information to allow us to respond to your issue fully. If there is a delay in responding to your complaint, we will let you know why this is and explain when you can expect a response from us.
• Contact you to discuss the outcome of our investigations. During this, we will fully explain our investigation and any actions we propose to take to resolve your complaint.
• Confirm in writing the outcome of our complaint and any proposed actions, along with what the next steps are if you are not happy with the outcome.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint:

• We ask that you let us know within 20 working days of our response to request a review.
• You’ll need to explain to us why you are unhappy with the initial outcome, and let us know if there is anything we didn’t consider in our initial investigation.
• Your complaint will be reviewed by a Head of Service and forms the final stage of our internal complaint’s procedure

There may be occasions where we refuse to review a complaint in line with our policy. If this happens, we will discuss this with you, and write to you to confirm our reasons for this. 

If you are still unhappy with the outcome of your complaint once you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure, you can refer your complaint to an independent designated person – such as a local MP or Councillor. They will determine whether to contact us on your behalf or refer you to the Housing Ombudsman.

You can also contact the Housing Ombudsman directly. The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at complaints about housing organisations registered with them, including housing associations like ourselves. You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at any point during the complaint process. The assistance provided by them depends on whether you have completed our complaints procedure and when.

To find out more about the service and how it can help, please see the information leaflet and poster.

W: https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/
T: 0300 111 3000
E: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
P: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 152, Liverpool L33 7WQ

The Housing Ombudsman has put in place a Complaint Handling Code, which provides a framework to support the effective handling and prevention of complaints. The purpose of the Code is to enable landlords to resolve complaints raised by their residents quickly and to use the learning from complaints to make service improvements. Compliance with the Code forms part of the membership obligations set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

As landlords, we are encouraged to promote the Code and to share the outcome of our self-assessment with you which has been recently completed by customers and ourselves in our Complaints Engagement group. You can read our current self-assessment here.