Making a complaint, comment or compliment

Customer feedback is important to us. We are committed to providing great service to our customers but recognise that, on occasion, customers may complain about the service they have received. When this happens, the way we manage, resolve, and learn from our mistakes is critical to improving the way we deliver our services to our customers moving forward.

We encourage feedback from our customers, and when things go wrong, we will listen, resolve things quickly and make sure we clearly explain the decision we have made. We welcome your views and opinions on how to improve our services together with praise when colleagues do things well.

Read our Complaints Policy for more information about how we handle complaints.

How to raise a complaint

You can raise a complaint by calling us on 03000 120 120 and speaking to a member of our contact centre.

If you're an Alliance Homes customer, you can raise and monitor your complaint through Connect, our customer portal.

You can also report complaints through the following channels:

  • Email: Contact us at act@alliancehomes.org.uk
  • Online webform: Raise a complaint by completing our 'contact us' online form.
  • Live chat via our website: Available from 8.30 am - 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday
  • Social media: Direct messaging us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram.
  • Post: Alliance Homes, 40 Martingale Way, Portishead, BS20 7AW
  • HIVE: Our online community, find out more here.
  • In person: by visiting our reception at our head office in Portishead or by speaking to any of our colleagues.

We handle all our complaints in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman, you can read more about this at the bottom of the page. 

How we manage complaints

You can find full details of our procedure in our Complaints Handling Process.

We will acknowledge all complaints within five working days in a method of communication that has been agreed with you.

All complaints will be acknowledged, defined and logged within five working days of being received and thereafter processed as quickly as reasonably possible, and within the timescales stated in the Complaints procedure.

We have a two stage complaints procedure to manage matters where customers are dissatisfied with their outcome.

Stage 1

At stage 1 of the complaints policy the complaint will be investigated by a Customer Complaints Investigator. We will communicate with you through your agreed method of communication and if required may arrange to meet you in person to resolve efficiently.

 All complaints will be acknowledged, defined and logged within five working days of being received and thereafter processed as quickly as reasonably possible, and within the timescales stated in the Complaints procedure.

When acknowledging a complaint, Alliance Homes will set out in writing our understanding of the complaint, the outcome you are seeking and set out any aspects of the complaint that Alliance Homes is or is not responsible for. If there is any aspect of the complaint that is unclear a member of the complaints team will ask you for clarification.

You will receive a full response to your stage 1 complaint within 10 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.

The response will be provided to you when the answer is known, not when all outstanding actions are completed.

If a complaint or appeal cannot be resolved within the initial 10-day investigation period, you will be contacted to update you on progress, explain what actions remain to be taken, and agree an extension of no more than 10 additional working days for those actions to be completed. Any further extensions will only be requested if there is a good reason.

If you remain unhappy after Stage 1 of the complaints process, or any agreed actions have not been completed satisfactorily then you may ask us to escalate to a Stage 2, this should be requested within 10 working days where possible

Stage 2

The stage 2 is coordinated by our Customer Complaints Manager. A full investigation will be undertaken and a complete review of the previous response and subsequent actions of stage 1. To provide a quality check of the complaint and the proposed solution, the matter will be reviewed at a case conference, this will include a group of managers and senior managers who look at all complaints to ensure they have been fairly and consistently handled.

The Customer Complaints Investigator who completed the stage 1 investigation will be invited to attend the beginning of the case conference to discuss what actions they have investigated and how they came to their conclusion and will then be asked to leave the meeting, this is to ensure fairness and to remain independent.

Any stage 2 complaints will be acknowledged, defined, and logged within 5 working days of an escalation request.

When escalating a complaint, Alliance Homes will set out in writing our understanding of the complaint, the outcome you are seeking and set out any aspects of the complaint that Alliance Homes is or is not responsible for. If there is any aspect of the complaint that is unclear the Customer Complaints Manager will ask you for clarification. You will not be required to provide reasons for requesting your complaint to be escalated to Stage 2.

A final response will be given after the stage 2 acknowledgement has been given and this will be within a 20-working day period.

If we are unable to resolve the stage 2 complaint within these timescales, you will be contacted to update you on progress, explain what actions remain to be taken and the reason why the extension is needed, and then agree an extension of no more than 20 additional working days for those actions to be completed.

Any further extensions will only be requested if there is a good reason.

The response will be provided to you when the answer is known, not when all outstanding actions are completed.

If a complaint falls outside of any of these timescales, we will agree with you suitable intervals to update you on your complaint.

You will also be given the opportunity to comment on any adverse findings before we determine our final response, this will happen within the 20 working days timescale. We will then further consider any comments made. We will then confirm our response to you.

If you remain unhappy with our response

Stage 2 is Alliance Homes final response to the complaint, if you remain unhappy after this stage the next steps are to escalate to the Housing Ombudsman.

You may also escalate to the Housing Ombudsman at any stage of the complaints process if the extension timescales of a complaint exceed those stated in the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

The role of the Housing Ombudsman is to resolve complaints between landlords and residents. This includes investigating the complaint independently to decide if the landlord or managing agent has acted appropriately, along with making decisions around compensation or other remedies if needed. The Housing Ombudsman support effective landlord and resident dispute resolution.

Customers can contact the Housing Ombudsman regarding enquiries and advice at any point before or during the complaint process.

For advice on raising a complaint with the Housing Ombudsman visit, www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/bring-your-complaint-to-the-housing-ombudsman/ 

Alternatively, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service as follows:

Housing Ombudsman complaints handling code – Our self-assessment

The Alliance Homes complaint process is aligned to the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code which has key areas to help benchmark aspects of complaints. The code helps to set out good practice and allow landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly.

Landlords were asked to self-assess their complaints procedure and publish the results to show they meet the criteria of the code.

We’ve completed our self-assessment, which you can see here.

You can read more on the Housing Ombudsman complaints handling code here.

We have used our findings of our self-assessment to make changes to our policy and processes which will focus on making things easy and resolving your complaints quickly.

We will provide regular updates on the website about complaints including quarterly information on how we’re performing and how we’re using your feedback to improve services.

As part of our annual self-assessment for the Complaint Handling Code please find our Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for 2024-2025.

You can also see our Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for 2023-2024 and our self-assessment for the same period.

Feedback

Once your complaint has been closed, you will receive a questionnaire on how we have handled your complaint. We really welcome and appreciate your feedback, both positive and negative, this helps us shape the Feedback Team and how we handle complaints.

Comments 

There may be times you wish to provide us with feedback about our services or suggestions on how we can improve, this can be raised as comment which will be reviewed by the Service Manager and Feedback Team.

Compliments

We love receiving positive feedback about the service colleagues provide to our customers, especially when they have gone above and beyond. All compliments are feedback to the member of staff or team and their line manager.

Compensation

If we haven't met our service standard, we may offer you a compensation payment. For more information, please read our Compensation Policy.

Unacceptable behaviour

We're committed to delivering an open and fair service for everyone, where customers feel listened to and respected. In some circumstances, when behaviour is deemed unacceptable, we will make necessary adjustments to how its delivered. For more information, please read our Unacceptable Behaviour Policy.

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