Complaints

Our aim is to ensure that you receive a high standard of service from us at all times. However, sometimes things do go wrong or we make mistakes, or our services, or the work of our contractors, isn't up to an acceptable standard - and you may wish to make a complaint. 

✔️We really want to hear from you so that we have the opportunity to put things right when they go wrong.

✔️We encourage all feedback, good and bad and will use it to help improve our services.

✔️We have developed our complaints policy to ensure that we deal with any complaints fairly and effectively.  

✔️If you make a complaint, you will not receive any discrimination or a lesser service as a result.

Check out our complaints procedure below and how you can make a complaint. You can also learn more about we use feedback to improve our services. 

How do I make a complaint?

You can make a complaint in a number of ways as listed below – whatever works best for you. 

  • Send us a letter - Connexus, The Gateway, The Auction Yard, Craven Arms, SY7 9BW
  • Email us - hello@connexus-group.co.uk
  • Post via social media - @weareconnexus
  • Call us - 03332 31 32 33
  • In-person, when you see one of our team
  • Use our online form

Please be as specific as possible about what the issue is and who has been involved, as this will help us investigate quickly.

Definitions 

What is a complaint?

An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.

Who is a customer?

A customer is anyone who contacts us to request a service, or is in receipt a service provided by Connexus or any of its subsidiaries. 

Our Promise 

Our promise and aim is to resolve complaints quickly, fairly and effectively. We will:  

  • We will allow complaints in any format through which we communicate with customers about issues that have occurred within the last 6 months
  • Handle complaints submitted via a non-legal third party or representative in the same way as one received directly from the customer, once we have confirmation they are acting on the customers behalf
  • View complaints positively 
  • Aim to put things right quickly for you when they go wrong 
  • Clearly explain the reasons for any decisions we make 
  • Provide opportunities for you to appeal decisions 
  • Seek to learn from any complaints and to improve future service 
  • Ensure that complainants are not discriminated in their future dealings with us as a result of their complaint 
  • Direct the complaint to the appropriate organisation if the complaint relates to matters, not within the responsibility of the Connexus Group 
Our approach 

We hope that in most cases when we get it wrong if you tell us, our colleagues can put it right quickly. Should you remain unhappy, Connexus has a two-stage complaint process, these being:  

  • Complaint 
  • Review 

We will not accept a formal complaint:

  • If the matter occurred more than 6 months ago
  • When the matter is best dealt with under a different policy e.g a complaint about a neighbour (Anti Social Behaviour policy)
  • Where there is a legal or criminal matter which should be dealt with accordingly
  • Where Connexus has already provided a formal complaint response to the issue and what is being reported is the same or a very similar issue to which the response would be the same

We will advise the customer that they have the right to challenge this decision by taking their complaint to the Ombudsman. 

Early intervention

When you contact us, we will try and resolve the issue straight away. We will log your concerns on our database so it is recorded properly.

Complaint - Stage 1 

When you make a complaint, we’ll send you an acknowledgement in writing within 5 working days from receipt.

A manager will investigate the matter and you will receive a full response within 10 working days of the original complaint unless we agree with you to extend this.

The manager will discuss the complaint with you to understand what you feel has gone wrong, investigate the matters raised and confirm the outcome of our investigations with you before we put this in writing.

We’ll keep a record of our contact with you and correspondence about your complaint in our database.

If we conclude our investigation into your complaint and you are not happy with the outcome, you can ask for a review of your complaint.

You can also contact the Housing Ombudsman at any time to help you when making a complaint to us. Their details are in the section below.

Review - Stage 2 

The review is the final stage of our complaints procedure. We will confirm your request to escalate your complaint in writing, within 5 working days of the request.

The Complaints Manager will review all the information gathered, conduct their own investigation into the matter and discuss the complaint with you to understand what you feel has gone wrong.

At this stage, we will invite one of our involved customers to work directly with us to provide an independent view of the issues you have raised. This helps us to ensure that we are fully considering all parties' perspectives. If you would rather that an involved customer did not take part in the review stage, you have the right to decline this.

They will confirm the outcome in writing within 20 working days of receipt of your request, unless we have mutually agreed to extend this timescale – usually by no more than 10 working days unless there is a genuine reason to do so

Before you receive the outcome in writing, the Complaints Manager will discuss their findings with you in order that you have a chance to respond.

If upon conclusion of our investigation into your complaint, you do not feel that Connexus has resolved your complaint satisfactorily, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service (details below) or where applicable to the relevant regulatory authority. We will confirm this in our response.

We’ll keep a record of our contact with you and correspondence about your complaint in our database.

The Housing Ombudsman Service

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman directly by clicking here.

They will encourage you to make a complaint direct to your landlord, but you can contact them at any time as they can help you make your complaint.

If at the end of our complaint process, you feel that we have not resolved your complaint, you can complain to the Housing Ombudsman. This should be within 12 months of reaching the end of our complaints process.

The Housing Ombudsman will investigate how we have handled your complaint and if the Ombudsman feels we’ve done something wrong, they will decide what needs to be done to put things right.

Once the Housing Ombudsman have started their investigation, we will not try to resolve your complaint directly with you, unless the Ombudsman asks us to.

Complaints Policy

Feedback and learning

Your feedback allows us to identify key areas where we need to improve and know what we’re doing well.

As part of the Housing Ombudsman's complaint handling code, all providers of social housing are required to publish a self-assessment annually. The below document explains how Connexus meets the code and gives examples of learning and how customer feedback is used to improve our service.

Complaint self assessment form