Comments and complaints

Hearing from our customers is very important to us. We can learn from customer feedback; what we are doing well, what we may need to improve and when we get things wrong, how
we can put them right.

We want you to tell us when we:

For information on how to make a comment or complaint please download our Customer Feedback leaflet by clicking here (pdf 175kb)

How do I make a complaint?

Please make your complaint in writing. You can use the Customer Feedback leaflet
or write a letter. If there is any reason why you cannot do this please tell us and we will help. We will acknowledge your complaint
within three working days of receiving it. We will aim to sort out your complaint within eight working days. If this is not possible, we will write to explain why, what we are doing to sort out the problem and how long this should take. This is stage one.

We encourage you to contact the person you would normally deal with at BCHF. We will try to sort out the problem informally. If you don’t want to do this or are not satisfied with the outcome you can make a formal complaint using the following procedure which has three stages.

How we will deal with your complaint?

Stage One

Contact the Customer Services Assistant who will record the details of the complaint and make sure that the right person is dealing with it. Please give us as much detail as possible as this helps us to deal with it more quickly. Tell us what happened, when it happened, who was involved and what you want us to do about it.

Stage Two

If the complaint cannot be resolved informally to your satisfaction you will be assisted in completing a complaint form. You should receive a full reply within 5 workings days of receipt of the complaint, setting out what we will do. If your complaint is complicated, it may take longer to deal with. In these cases, we will regularly contact you to let you know how it is progressing, but will aim to respond within a maximum of 28 days.

Stage 3

If you are not happy with our reply you can ask for your complaint to go to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will respond within five working days.

Your can download our Comkplaints Policy by clicking here: Complaints Policy

What if I am not happy with the outcome?

If by the end of stage 3, we cannot sort out your problem to your satisfaction, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman to look at your complaint.

The Ombudsman is an independent 'watchdog' who can investigate for you if our complaints procedure has not put things right. You can contact the Housing Ombudsman at:

Norman House
105-109 Strand
London
WC2 0AA
Phone: 020 7836 3630
Low-rate phone: 0845 7125 973.

Please note that you have a right to lodge complaints of discrimination in the County Court on the grounds of race or gender.

Tenants also have rights under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. There is a six month limit within which complaints must be made.

Further advice may be available from a solicitor or the Citizens Advice Bureau.

What happens if my complaint is upheld?

We will apologise and take steps to put things right and make sure that the situation does not happen again. We will tell you this in our written reply.