Comments, Compliments and Complaints
Watmos Community Homes aims to give an excellent service to our residents.
That’s why it’s important that we know whether we are providing the right services and how we can improve them, or introduce new, more relevant ones.
We invite anyone using our services to:
- Compliment our service if we have done something well
- Comment or make suggestions on how we can improve our services
- Complain about our service or how we’ve communicated with our residents.
Here’s how to go about making a formal complaint.
The Complaints Procedure
The Complaints Procedure is split into 2 stages:
Stage 1
Upon receipt of a formal complaint, we will send our acknowledgement of the complaint - via email or post - within 5 working days.
The complaint will be fully investigated and a explanation of the outcome will be sent within 10 working days of the acknowledgement letter being sent.
Stage 2
If a complainant is unhappy with the outcome from Stage 1, a review of the complaint can be requested.
This review should be made within 28 days of the original response letter. If a request is received after 28 days, we will assess it on a case-by-case basis.
If we are unable to escalate a complaint to Stage 2, we will write to advise the reasons why it will not be escalated and what options are available, including the right to contact the Housing Ombudsman.
Whether the review is accepted or not, an acknowledgement will be sent within 5 working days.
The review will be conducted by someone other than the original investigating officer. They will look at whether the initial investigation followed procedure and whether issues raised were fully addressed.
The final Stage 2 response of the review will be sent to within 20 working days of the acknowledgment letter being sent.
This will conclude Watmos’ complaints procedure.
Next Steps
If a resident / complainant is still not satisfied, the matter can be referred to the Housing Ombudsman Service.
How to contact the Housing Ombudsman
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Online: Housing ombudsman ‘Make a Complaint’
Telephone: 0300 111 3000
By letter: Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 152, Liverpool, L33 7WQ
Unacceptable Behaviour
On occasion, the behaviour or actions of a very small number of service users makes it very difficult for us to deal with their complaint. Their behaviour can become unacceptable because it involves abuse of our staff or our process. When this happens, we have to take action to protect the health and wellbeing of our staff who have a right to do their jobs without fear of being abused or harassed. We may also consider the impact of the behaviour on our ability to do our work and provide a service to others. Please refer to our Unacceptable behaviour Policy and Procedure.
Equality and Diversity
Watmos aims to provide a fair, appropriate and responsive service to all customers, irrespective of background and ensuring we incorporate equality into our core objectives. This means making every effort to eliminate discrimination, create equal opportunities and develop good working relationships between different people.
Customer Satisfaction
We welcome the views of customers from all sections of the community. Inviting feedback and new ideas help us improve and develop our services. If you feel that you have been unfairly treated or that Watmos has not complied with the approach, please let us know.
Make it Right
It matters that you know how to complain to your housing association so the government has launched a complaints awareness campaign on a website which you can view here: Social Housing Complaints - Make It Right You can read our new Redress Policy here >> Watmos Redress Policy.pdf 142KB
Reporting to Tenants
We report to our tenants on how well we and the TMOs deal with compliments, comments and complaints in our Annual Report which can be obtained from our Walsall or London offices or from your local TMO.
Watmos Community Homes Complaint Policy
Watmos Community Homes Complaints Procedure
Reasonable Adjustments for Complaints Handling
We have completed the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code Self-Assessment for Watmos Community Homes and this has been presented to and approved by our Resident Committee 4th June 2024. As an organisation we are compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.
Staff have put in place improved monitoring, complaints management, communication channels, de-brief meetings to learn what went wrong and how we can prevent re-occurrence and up to date policies/procedures. We have also implemented actions in order to be more proactive in terms of resolutions for complaints, including ensuring that we are responding to trends, lessons learned, performance issues and complaints outcomes.
Our self-assessment is located here - Self-Assessment against the Complaint Handling Code
The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code is located here - Complaint Handling Code