Making a complaint

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to tell us when you feel something’s gone wrong. If you’re not happy with a service we’ve provided, you can make a complaint online. Alternatively, you can get in touch and speak to us over social media, by phone, by post or in person.

You can also contact us if you’d like any of our complaints information in another format or language.

If you're a former Network Homes customer and wish to make a complaint, please email complaints@networkhomes.org.uk or visit their complaints and compliments page to find out more Opens in new window.

Making a complaint

We work hard to do our best for residents and meet our customer commitments:

  • we make it easy
  • we take responsibility
  • we get it done
  • we keep in touch

We aim to deliver quality services to you, and our values (Connect, Deliver, Invent, Own) should underpin everything that we do and the way that we do it.

But we realise that sometimes things can go wrong and that’s when these commitments and values become even more important.

Our complaints policy

Our complaints policy makes sure we take your issues seriously. We’ll make it easy for you to let us know when something’s gone wrong and we’ll work with you to resolve your complaint.

  • We make sure that we understand what’s happened from your point of view and look for a solution that works for you.
  • We’ll try to sort the issue out there and then to put it right. If not, we’ll make sure the right person investigates and resolves your complaint if it’s more complex or specialised.
  • We’ll look at the cause of the issue so we can prevent it from happening again.
  • We’ll keep in touch until everything’s sorted out.
  • If we can’t agree on a solution, we’ll be honest about what we can and can’t do and only close a complaint when we’ve tried everything reasonable to resolve it.

Read our complaints policy.

Logging a complaint

You can log a complaint in lots of ways. For example, by phone, online at My.Sovereign.org.uk, in writing, by email or via an employee. Whichever method’s easiest for you.

We can log complaints from our customers and from external individuals who’ve been affected by one of our services.

What happens next?

Once we receive a complaint, we’ll log it and give you a reference number – which you can quote when you contact us about it.

The first stage of our complaint process will normally be handled by our Complaints team, or an expert within the business if it’s more appropriate.

We’ll agree a timescale with you to resolve your complaint and give you regular updates until everything’s sorted.

If you’re unhappy with the resolution at this point, please get in touch and we’ll see if there’s anything further we can do at this early stage. If not, we can escalate your complaint to a senior manager to review. This will be overseen by a director.

At this stage the manager will review your complaint and any new evidence. They’ll discuss it with you and try to reach a resolution.

If we can’t resolve your complaint at the review stage, or you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you’ll have the option to refer your complaint externally.

You can ask the Housing Ombudsman to review your complaint. You have one year from the date of the Stage 2 response to begin this process. You can also refer to a designated person, such as a councillor or MP, to act on your behalf. Please be assured the complaint will still be handled in line with our policy.

The Housing Ombudsman Service created a new Code in July 2020 that defines best practice for handling complaints – and we’ve completed a self-assessment against the Code. Please see our response to the Housing Ombudsman complaints code Opens in new window for more information.  The new Code took effect from 1 April 2022.

The Ombudsman’s contact details are:

Housing Ombudsman Service

PO Box 152

Liverpool

L33 7WQ

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Phone: 0300 111 3000

If you have purchased a home from us and remain unhappy, you will need to contact the Consumer Code for Home Builders  rather than the Housing Ombudsman:

Consumer Code for Home Builders 

Phone: 0345 608 9797

If you’re a shared owner or a leaseholder and wish to complain about charges, you can also contact:

First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Southern Region

Phone: 01243 779394

Help to complain

If you need help or advice about making a complaint, you can contact your local Citizens Advice or other advice service.

If you have any questions about our complaints procedure, please contact us.

Compensation

In exceptional circumstances you might put in a claim for financial compensation.

For compensation claims, we’ll take into consideration:

  • whether we’ve failed in delivering a service
  • how much you’ve been disrupted
  • how long it’s taken to put right
  • if there’s been significant distress

Read our compensation policy.

Assessing financial claims

When we’re deciding if financial compensation applies and how much to offer, we’ll consider:

  • the disruption our failure’s caused
  • the length of time you’ve suffered, either from not receiving a service or a service not working properly
  • when we were told about the issue
  • how likely it was that we could have predicted the problem
  • the consequences and impact the failure had and the likelihood of it happening again