About CTH

Service Standards

We want to offer you the best housing services. This section covers our customer charter, service standards and complaints procedure and explains how to complain when we fail to meet our standards. We value complaints and learn from them, and we also appreciate positive feedback when we get things right or offer exceptional service.

Customer charter

Our commitment to you:

We will:

• Treat all customers equally with respect and courtesy at all times.
• Deal with customers in a friendly, welcoming and professional manner.
• Identify ourselves by wearing name badges and/or giving our names and job title.
• Aim to get it right first time by listening carefully and following through on our promises.

We will use our best endeavours to resolve problems amicably:

• We will never raise our voices to residents, and will remain respectful and polite at all times
• We will issue a complaints leaflet where we cannot reach agreement
• We will withdraw politely and calmly and seek the assistance of colleagues should we feel threatened

Your commitment to us

To:

• Treat staff with courtesy and respect at all times, even when things occasionally go wrong.
• Never use intimidating, threatening or abusive behaviour to staff, including shouting, swearing and threats of violence.
• Understand that staff have the right to withdraw from situations where they feel intimidated or threatened.
• Use the complaints procedure when things go wrong and cannot be resolved by agreement.

99% of our customers respect this. Thank you for being one of them

Our service stanards

Please phone 020 83119 8870 or email cth@familymosiac.co.uk for your free Service Standards leaflet for a comprehensive overview of the standards we aim to achieve.

Complaints and positive feedback

We do our best to give you a good service, but sometimes things go wrong. We may not always know when this happens, so please do tell us - then we can try to put things right.

We take all complaints about our service seriously, because they make it clear to us where we need to improve. We do our best to deal with your complaint promptly and fairly. We let you know who is dealing with your problem, and what action we are taking to sort it out. If you make a complaint, it is kept strictly confidential.

To make sure we have all the facts we need to investigate the problem fairly, and we have a set procedure for you to follow. It speeds things up if you follow this procedure.

We also value positive feedback when we do something well and particularly where a member of staff has gone the extra mile in providing services to you.

Who can complain to us?

Anyone who gets a service from us, or who is affected by our work, may make a complaint. This includes tenants, supported residents, shared owners, leaseholders and people we are considering housing.

When should i make a formal complaint?

You should first take up the matter with staff at our office. They are usually in the best position to sort out the problem. We will make every effort to resolve the matter informally.

However, if you are not happy with how they handle it, or if you feel that it isn’t appropriate to take up your problem with them, then you should use this complaints procedure.

What does the complains procedure cover?

Our complaints procedure deals with problems like these:

• If you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service
• If we have failed to follow our own policies or procedures
• If we have failed to do a repair within a reasonable time
• If you believe we have discriminated against you
• If you have had a problem with any of our staff

What doesn’t the complaint procedure deal with?

Your procedure does not normally deal with:

• Appeals against decisions made under our lettings policy,
• Everyday matters such as chasing a repair request (contact our office)
• Complaints by one tenant about another tenant (contact our office for advice on neighbour disputes)
• Claims for compensation
• Insurance claims (once a claim passes to our insurers, we have to close any related complaint pending the insurer’s decision)
• Situations where you are currently taking legal action against us.

More information about what to do in these circumstances is available from the office complaints about a service provided by a managing agent in supported housing. You will need to use the managing agent’s complaints procedure.

How do i make a complaint?

Please call 020 8319 8870 for full details on our complaints procedure.

Independent housing ombudsman

Once you have completed the 3 stage complaints process you may take your problem to the Independent Housing Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman checks that you have taken your complaint through all the stages of our complaints procedure, before he takes it on. If it looks like we have done something wrong, the Ombudsman decides what needs to be done to put things right.

Housing Ombudsman, 105-109 The Strand, London WC2R 0AA, lo-call 0845 7125 973, Email ombudsman@hos.org.uk

Where else can i get help?

Your local MP or councillor may be able to help you. You can also get independent advice from a solicitor, a Citizens’ Advice Bureau, law centre or housing aid and advice centre.